Faces of war

Troops: Ground Forces, Air Force (except marine aviation), Coast Guard, NKVD, Border Guard. Sergei Sergeyevich Zolotarev served without injuries and returned with awards. As a grandson, I take this opportunity to tell about my grandfather, a veteran and a participant in this terrible war. I am infinitely grateful to him! He defended his Homeland, protected his children, me and my family. Now we can live under a clean and peaceful sky and this is the merit of those who selflessly fulfilled their duty, who through the Holy Gospel say: "There is no love more, but who will lay down his life for his others" (Gospel of John 15. 13.). I remember my maternal grandfather as a strong and honest man., always caring about human misfortunes and thinking little about himself, taking to heart human pain. He always fought for the truth and thus sometimes caused "fire" on himself. But most people loved him very much, were close people and were friends with him. And he was able to be friends and give people his warmth. Many famous people of that time were his friends: the Honored Artist of the RSFSR V. Serova, the Deputy Minister of Culture of the RSFSR I. Kondakov, actress Lala Chernaya and many others. Of course, they appreciated his talent, beauty of soul, all that God gave him. Although in the beginning his life was very difficult. His parents died early, and after that, the street and the orphanage, where his aunts Alexandra and Raisa Zolotareva found him with difficulties. His grandfather's aunts were from a galaxy of singers who worked in famous Sokolov choirs. These two women were educated and faithful people, who instilled in my grandfather the Christian faith, diligence and, of course, their ability to sing and give people joy. Sergey Sergeyevich Zolotaryov (1920-1980) began his adult life working in the theater. He got there as a very young boy and managed to work there for several years before being drafted on October 13, 1940. His aunt Alexandra saw him off, gave him an instruction so that he would never forget to remember God. As my mother told me, his aunt, seeing off my grandfather, gave him the order: "Be with Christ, and He will save you.” She gave him the Cross, which he never took off. Service in the army began. Probably, Sergey was the only gypsy who met the Nazis with fire in the first minutes of the war. He had the chance to serve on the border as a private, and he remembered for life the barrage of artillery rifts that killed most of his comrades. The 79th Border Guard outpost was located in Moldova, near the famous Izmail. There the guy in a green cap took his first baptism of fire. Gypsy Sergey Zolotarev went through the entire war as infantry. He was awarded medals "For bravery" and "For the defense of Stalingrad. He was fantastically lucky. During breakthroughs, bullets shot down from the tank armor his friends both on the right and on the left - and he got out of various troubles without a scratch. Once he crawled under fire on a neutral strip, where there was only one well (the wounded man needed water), and nose to nose ran into a German, who was also clasping the bowler's shackle with his teeth. The guy was saved from death only by a quick reaction ... When the Third Reich lived its last months, the command paid attention not only to the courage, but also to the talent of a young gypsy. Thus Sergey became a member of the front ensemble and returned home after performances in Germany, Hungary and Poland. His native "Romain" again accepted the mature artist into its troupe. The postwar audience praised his brilliant manner of playing in theater and cinema, and, of course, Zolotaryov was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR.

Zemlyakov Ivan Ivanovich - a native of Stalingrad region, the village of Machekhi of Kikvidzensky area. When the Great Patriotic War began, he barely turned nineteen. By mid-summer 1942, the war reached the Volga coast, and Kikvidza district became the front. July 14, 1942 by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Stalingrad region was declared in martial law. Men aged from eighteen to fifty began to be drafted into the Red Army in the region. By the early autumn of 1942, the Macheshansky District Military Commissariat formed a company of conscripts, where my grandfather got in. At that time, he was twenty years old. The training took very little time, because fierce battles were already taking place in Stalingrad. It was not easy to get from the place of conscription to the front - you had to overcome more than three hundred kilometers. For a month, the conscript battalion walked to the command of the Stalingrad Front. Upon arrival, my grandfather got into one of the rifle divisions of the 64th Army, where he became a machine gunner. The fighting for the city, for every street and house was going on continuously, not stopping for a minute. Despite the extraordinary courage of our soldiers, by November almost the entire city was occupied by the Nazis. But the defenders of Stalingrad were stronger than death, because they were driven by love for their Fatherland, military duty, courage and bravery. In mid-December 1942, in the battle for the city of Stalingrad, my grandfather was caught in the explosion of a grenade, wgich resulted in two serious shrapnel wounds: one to the hand, the other to the head, in the ear area. For his last fight, he was awarded the Medal of Courage (according to his son). After his wound, my grandfather was taken to the military hospital, where doctors removed the shrapnel from his hand. They could not remove the other shrapnel from his head and he lived with it for the rest of his life. After his treatment, he went back to his native village, where he continued to work for the benefit of the front. And despite the fact that my grandfather, Ivan Ivanovich Zemlyakov, took part in the war for just under three months, he contributed to the defeat of the German invaders, to the great victory at Stalingrad. For me my grandfather is a real hero. After all, he showed great courage and bravery, bravely fighting the Nazi-German invaders. He defended his homeland with dignity, though he was very young. After the war came the peaceful time, and my grandfather lived a very interesting and worthy life. He had many hobbies, but especially my grandfather loved horses. Probably, that is why he worked all his life as a foreman at stables. Like many former frontline soldiers, his grandfather was not very fond of talking about the battles. So, when he was asked: "Grandfather, did you kill the Germans?" he answered: "Everyone was shooting, and I was shooting, and they were falling” Usually, grandfather dressed modestly, simply, but on Victory Day, he took his festive suit out of the closet, decorated with his medals for participation in the Great Patriotic War. My grandfather died at the age of seventy-two. At present, thirteen of his great-grandchildren live on earth.

All my childhood I spent in Balakhna on the banks of the Volga. I finished 7 classes of school No. 7 named after Kirov. I was very fond of fishing, swimming and, especially, hunting. When I turned 15, my father bought me a gun "Berdanka", and I often went to the Volga lakes, where at that time there were a lot of game: ducks, chirks. Not every of my friends had a gun at that time, especially at that age. It was not often when I got ducks and chirks, but apart from the pleasure you experience in hunting, you develop a skill, observation, orientation and knowledge of the area. It became very useful later. After playing soccer, we were free to swim across the Volga River in the area of the GGRES settlement, where it is quite wide. True, not everyone dared to do it, but most of my childhood friends were good swimmers. It is true, however, we got angry at by our parents for such a risky event. After graduating from vocational school, I worked at one of the defense plants in the city of Dzerzhinsk. It was August 1942. On the 23rd of August at about 10 p.m. in Dzerzhinsk GVK me and my peers were given summons to arrive to the military committee on August 24 at 9 a.m. to be sent to the army. Of course, we waited for this every day and were morally prepared, it is a pity that we did not have time to go home. Being in the military committee, my friends and I asked to send us to study for tankers. I did not get there. I was told that we had been recruited plenty. Me and some of my comrades were sent to the 4th separate armored training regiment in Vyksa to study for the commanders of armored vehicles. Armored personnel carriers are small cars with a crew of 2 people which served for reconnaissance and communication. They weigh 2.5 tons, armor thickness - 12mm, gun type - tank machine gun,it also had a radio. After graduating from the study on the mechanic-driver I was attached to Sasha Sokolov, who was 2-3 years older than me and had already visited the front. Before the war, he was a chauffeur, so he immediately got to the front, where he drove ammunition and was repeatedly bombed. During one of them he was wounded and was taken to hospital. After the hospital, he was sent to retrain as a mechanic-driver of an armored personnel carrier. Sasha was born in Siberia. He was healthy, not very turntable in appearance. Before the war, as he told me, he also liked to go hunting. Of course, the beast and birds in Siberia are not what we have. We quickly became friends with him. He also told me about the front, where he was a chauffeur transporting ammunition. More than once he was caught in the bombing, during which he was wounded. I kept asking him: 'Have you seen any living Germans? He frankly confessed to me that he had seen, but only prisoners. "But wait," he told me, "we will also see live ones with weapons in their hands. We will see all of them, because it will take a long time to fight!

Zitarov Vasily Stepanovich Zitarov was born in Ishtuganovo village, Yumaguzinsky district, Bashkir ASSR in 1921. The family had four children. Vasily was the eldest. He looked after his younger sisters and brother. In 1932, the family moved to the city of Magnitogorsk. Vasily finished 7 grades of school, then entered the Magnitogorsk Pedagogical College. In technical school he was an active student and a Komsomol member. He was fond of chess, music, played well the balalaika, mandolin and clarinet. He had many friends. The family lived in a barracks. Lived amicably, there were many people in the barracks. They lived as one family. There were a lot of kids around and Vasya gladly studied with them and painted their portraits. After his successful graduation from the technical school, he was assigned to Sukhteli Raion, Chelyabinsk Oblast, to a rural school as a school director. But he did not have to work; in 1938, he was recruited into the Red Army. He was to return home in 1941, but he was sent to Arkhangelsk to the Artillery School (AARS) where junior officers were trained. After graduating from the school with the rank of Lieutenant, he was sent by the Commander of the artillery squad near Leningrad during the Leningrad blockade. During the breakthrough of the blockade of Leningrad in January 1943, his 256th rifle division went on the offensive, on January 12, 1943, in the area between Lipki and Gaitolovo, from the area south of Rabochy settlement No. 8, with the 327th Division on the left and 372nd Division on the right. 14.01.1943 they captured the station Podgornaya and started fighting on the outskirts of Sinyavino, overcoming the ice covered shafts. On 15.01.1943 they seized the Sinyavino station. In February 1943, as a Commander of a sniper company 422nd sniper battalion 256ID was presented to the award: a medal "For Courage". Here is a description of his feat from the award list: "Lieutenant Zitarov led the work on mining the right flank of the BOU. He did not leave the place of work of mining for six nights. Under his leadership, a local system of fences was created. While providing approaches through minefields, the company lost the commander and part of the soldiers. Zitarov with two soldiers in extremely difficult conditions, with their courage and perseverance, ensured timely readiness on the right flank of the passes. Zitarov was wounded by a fascist bullet at the same place of work. "Zitarov was in the field hospital for about a month. In July 1943, during the Mga operation, he stormed a heavily fortified height of the "Forest", the company suffered heavy losses, it was assigned to replenishing and staffing. In August 1943, the division fought for the Porechensky fortified junction. As a result of the Mghinskaya operation, the Soviet troops slightly merged into the enemy's defense. The enemy suffered heavy losses, especially from artillery fire and air strikes. The German troops moved all their reserves and significant forces from other parts of the front to Mghinskoye. The Soviet troops failed to defeat the enemy's Mghinsko-Sinyavinskaya group, free the Kirovskaya railway and provide Leningrad with a strong railway link to the country. However, the main goal of the operation was achieved. The enemy was significantly weakened. Vasily Zitarov died in action on 12.08.1943. He was only 24 years old. Eternal memory to Lieutenant Zitarov Vasily Stepanovich, the defender of the country. He was buried in a common grave. (Leningrad region, Mginsky district, village Mishkino, in the area, the ruins of the village Khandrovo) . There is a memorial Plate at the monument "Back to Front" in the city of Magnitogorsk. ***There are no crosses on mass graves. And there are no widows crying. Someone brings a bouquet of flowers to them and lights up the Eternal Flame. Here previously stood the ground on its rares, and now – only granite slabs. There is no single personal destiny - all destinies are merged into one. And in the Eternal Flame you see a tank burst into flames, burning Russian huts, Burning Smolensk and burning Reichstag, Burning heart of a soldier. There are no widows crying by mass graves - stronger people come here. There are no crosses on mass graves, but is it easier? (V. Vysotsky) Battle Way. Fell, breaking the siege of Leningrad 12.08.1943 in battle, during the Mga operation.

He graduated from high school in 1939 in Krasnodar. From 1938 to 1940, he worked at the M. Gorky Drama Theatre in the city of Krasnodar as an electrician and illuminator. In 1940, he was recruited into the Red Army in 188th Artillery Air Defense Regiment of Minsk (to the regiment's control platoon). From the first days of the Great Patriotic War, he was actively involved in repelling enemy air raids on the city of Minsk. He went through difficult roads of retreat from Minsk to Moscow. He took part in the Battle of Smolensk, in the defense of the crossing of the Dnieper River, as well as the cities of Vyazma, Rzhev, Gzhatsk, Mozhaisk. In autumn 1941, when he took the Oath in Borodino, he defended the capital of our Motherland, Moscow, near Galitsyno-Zvenigorod. He participated in raids on the enemy's rear together with partisan detachments. As a communications officer for the platoon of the Division 216 of the Independent Anti-Aircraft Artillery Division of the Reserve of the Main Command, and then the 11th Guards of the Independent Anti-Aircraft Artillery Division of the Reserve of the Main Command, he always kept and provided telephone communication between the batteries and the headquarters of the 59th Army and the headquarters of the Volkhov front, which ensured uninterrupted fire control of the anti-aircraft and searchlight units. During the battles, he showed courage, endurance and communication skills. In 1943, he was appointed Commander of the Communications Section of the division management platoon, and was promoted to the rank of Guard Sergeant. For exemplary performance of the task, he was repeatedly thanked by the division command. He was awarded the Medal "For Courage", "For the Defense of Moscow" and others. He took part in battles in 1941 on the Western Front, and in 1942 - on the Volkhov Front. In 1943, he was given the badge of the Guards, and was awarded the badge "Excellent Communicationsman". 1944 - Leningrad Front of the Guard Sergeant V.A. Zyunin even after the Victory Day he carried out a combat demining mission in the area of Velikie Luki and Lake Seliger, until the demobilization day in August 1946 (badges, Certificates of the Leningrad Front from Govorov).

Andrey Filippovich Zinin was born on October 15 (new style - 28), 1915 in Zimnenki village nowadays of Veshkaymsky district of Ulyanovsk region in the family of a Russian worker. He graduated from 7th grade and graduated from factory apprenticeship school in Ulyanovsk city. In 1937, Zinin was drafted into the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. He participated in the Polish campaign of the Red Army, was a cadet of the training tank battalion. He participated in the liberation campaign of the Soviet troops in Western Ukraine in 1939, took part in the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-1940. From 1939 he became a member of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (b)/CPSU. Platoon Commander of the 377th Tank Battalion (97th Rifle Division, North-Western Front), Junior Commander Andrei Filippovich Zinin distinguished himself on February 26, 1940 near the village of Kusa (now the village of Klimovo, Vyborg District, Leningrad Oblast). Participating in the attack of the tank platoon in order to block the Zot, Zinin set fire to the Zot with five shots and destroyed three enemy snipers. When a caterpillar flew off on one of the tanks, the brave junior commander, despite the heavy fire, restored the vehicle. Andrei Filippovich helped the crew of the hit tank, saved his commander. By the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 7, 1940 "for the exemplary performance of combat missions of the command at the front of the fight against the Finnish White Guard and demonstrated courage and heroism" Junior Commander Zinin Andrei Filippovich was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star Medal (№ 492). In 1941, the Hero of the "Winter War" graduated from the Ulyanovsk Tank School. Senior Lieutenant A.F. Zinin participated in the Great Patriotic War as a company commander of IS-2 tanks of the 57th separate heavy tank regiment. After the war he continued his service in the Soviet Army. He took part in the Victory Parade. In 1954 he graduated from the officer training course, was a battalion commander, deputy regimental commander. In 1961, with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel Zinin was dismissed from the reserve. He lived in Novotroitsk, Orenburg region, where he died on April 7, 1983. Honorary Citizen of Novotroitsk, which has a street named after him. He was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of Alexander Nevsky, two Orders of the Red Star, and a number of medals.

Polikakhin Ilya Ivanovich, born in 1922, in 1944 - a common soldier, intelligence officer of the 953rd Rifle Regiment of the 257th Rifle Division of the 51st Army of the 4th Ukrainian front. Hero of the Soviet Union (1945).

Poluyanov Grigory Pavlovich Preobrazhensky Georgy Nikolaevich, born in 1897, in 1944 - Colonel, commander of the 227th Rifle Division of Independent Coastal Army. Hero of the Soviet Union (1944).

Preobrazhensky Georgy Nikolaevich Preobrazhensky Georgy Nikolaevich, born in 1897, in 1944 - Colonel, commander of the 227th Rifle Division of of Independent Coastal Army. Hero of the Soviet Union (1944).

Protchev Viktor Ivanovich, Protchev Viktor Ivanovich, born in 1922, in 1944 - Senior Lieutenant of the guard, deputy squadron commander of the 76th Guards Assault Aviation Regiment of the 1st Guards Assault Aviation Division of the 8th Air Army of the 4th Ukrainian Front. Hero of the Soviet Union (1945).

Prokhorov Evgeny Petrovich, Evgeny Petrovich Prokhorov, born in 1919, in 1944 - Senior Lieutenant, squadron commander of the 210th Assault Aviation Regiment of the 230th Assault Aviation Division of the 8th Air Army of the 4th Ukrainian Front. Hero of the Soviet Union (1945).

Pyanzin Ivan Semenovich (1919-1942), 1941-1942 - Senior Lieutenant, commander of the 365th Antiaircraft Artillery Battery of the 110th Antiaircraft Artillery Regiment of the Air Defense of the Black Sea Fleet. Hero of the Soviet Union (1942, posthumously). Pylaev Evgeny Alekseevich, born in 1919, in 1944 - Captain of the Guard, Assistant in Airborne Service to the commander of the 159th Guards Fighter Regiment of the 229th Fighter Aviation Division of the 8th Air Army of the 4th Ukrainian Front. Hero of the Soviet Union (1944).

Pyrkov Yuri Ivanovi Pyrkov Yuri Ivanovich, born in 1923, in 1944 - Guards Lieutenant, pilot of the 134th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment of the 6th Guards Bomber Aviation Division of the 8th Air Army of the 4th Ukrainian Front. Hero of the Soviet Union (1945).

Pyanzin Ivan Semyonovich Pyanzin Ivan Semenovich (1919-1942), in 1941-1942 - Senior Lieutenant, commander of the 365th Antiaircraft Artillery Battery of the 110th Antiaircraft Artillery Regiment of the Air Defense of the Black Sea Fleet. Hero of the Soviet Union (1942, posthumously).

Raspopova Nina Maksimovn Raspopova Nina Maksimovna, born in 1913, in 1944 - Senior Lieutenant of the Guards, flight commander of the 46th Guards Night Bombers of the 2nd Guards Night Bombers of the Air Division of the 8th Air Army of the 4th Ukrainian Front. Hero of the Soviet Union (1946).