Faces of war

Mikhail Ivanov was drafted into the Red Army in September 1940. He served in the tank forces as a driver and mechanic. During the war, he was also an artilleryman. He met the end of the war in the Baltic States. He continued to serve in the Red Army until 1947, preparing tank crews. Awarded: Order of Glory 3rd degree Order of the Red Star Order of the Patriotic War 2nd degree Medal For the Defense of Moscow Medal For Bravery Medal for Military Merit Medal for the Victory over Germany Zhukov Medal

Type of troops: Armored and mechanized troops Everyone knew my grandfather in the village of Kargashino. Yes, and how could it be otherwise, if the veteran of war and labor Sergei Grigorievich Kupriyanov for 43 years worked as a blacksmith on a local collective farm? And even earlier, drafted into the army in 1939, he went through the entire war. Only these two entries were in his work book. Kupriyanov Sergei Grigorievich was born on September 4, 1919 in the village of Kargashino, Zubovo-Polyansky district of the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The childhood and youth of Sergei Grigorievich fell on the difficult twenties and thirties. A large peasant family could hardly make ends meet. Therefore, he did not have to study much: he barely finished four classes - he began to help his father, worked in the field. This is how his life went until he was drafted into the Army in 1939. He first served in Belarus, in the then forming 25th Tank Brigade. Here I received the profession of a tank driver and the rank of sergeant. When the war began, my grandfather, along with other driver-mechanics, was sent to Kharkov, to the factory for new tanks. But it so happened that they did not have time to receive the tanks - the plant had to be urgently evacuated to the rear. And the tankers who came for them were sent to Kazan, to a tank school, to study domestic and foreign combat vehicles, including German ones. After completing their training, they were sent to Baku, where the formation of the 25th tank brigade continued. Sergei Grigorievich received his first baptism of fire in the North Caucasus. By that time, new T-34s came to the brigade and our troops went on the offensive. Sergei Grigorievich remembered well the cities that they liberated: Armavir, Kropotkin, Tikhoretsk, Krasnodar ... Then they went to Novorossiysk. 1943 The battles for this one were fierce. In this battle Sergei Grigorievich, in addition to being burned, was also wounded. He was sent to the hospital. Having recovered, he fought again, this time as part of a rifle division. Was at Stalingrad, then at Rzhev. He fought in neighboring Finland, liberated our Arctic, Murmansk, and reached Norway, where he celebrated on November 7, 1944. At the beginning of 1945, our powerful offensive began - and here it is, the German border. They advanced along the coast of the Baltic Sea and reached the Oder. Here, near the Oder, the soldiers from Kargashin met the Victory Day. Many men in the village, including Sergei Grigorievich's father, died at the front, mostly women worked on the collective farm. Then my grandfather went to talk to the chairman of the collective farm and decide where to start. It turned out that the village most of all needed building materials, especially brick, which was nowhere to be found at that time, so he and his friend Fyodor Yakurin decided to set up their own production of bricks on the collective farm. And they did it! The brick was excellent! In 1950, the farm, which is called desperately, needed a blacksmith. Kupriyanov took up this position and worked there until the end of his career. Sergei Grigorievich was buried in the village of Kargashino on 09.12.1993. In 2014, the military commissariat of the Zubovo-Polyansky district erected a monument to Sergei Grigorievich Kupriyanov as a veteran of the Great Patriotic War.

Izotov Vasily Fedorovich, private. Born in 1919 in the village of Ryazantsevo, Belevsky District, Tula Region. He died in January 1943.

Gulidov Sergei Semenovich, sergeant. Born in 1916 in the village of Taratukhino, Belevsky District, Tula Region. He disappeared without a trace in May 1943.

Vasilkov Nikolai Prokofievich, senior lieutenant. Was born in 1925 in the Rostov region. Called up by the Belevsky RVC. At the front since April 1944. Awarded with medals: "For military service", "For the liberation of Warsaw", "For the capture of Berlin", "For the victory over Germany."

Title: Red Army soldier I remember how dad went to the front. (Memories of Verstakova's daughter Anna Sergeevna). Our memory is arranged in an interesting way. I am 80 years old, I can not remember what happened two days ago, but I remember the day when my father went to war to the smallest detail. I was 7 years old. That day changed my whole life. Dad did not return from the war and I still miss him. War is the most terrible human sorrow. We lived in the village. Sabanakovo, Kilemarsky district of the Mari ASSR. My dad, Sergey Andreevich Kartunov, worked as the head of the forest area. The place is very beautiful. Near the river Kokshaga. The forest and the river were our breadwinners. They lived poorly, but happily because love reigned in the house. Our parents loved us very much and treated each other with great love. Mom did not call dad any other than Serezhenka, but he called her - Arisha. Their love has been tested. In their youth, they lived in the Gorky region. On that terrible day in early August 1941, my mother went into the forest in the morning for raspberries and by noon she came with a full bucket of sweet berries. We surrounded the bucket in a merry crowd and began to feast on raspberries. And dad was sitting by the window sad. Mom asked: - "Seryozhenka, what happened?" He replied that he had been handed a summons to the front and tomorrow at 8 am he should be on the Red Bridge. People are being gathered there to be sent to the front. ... In the evening my mother put us to bed. I couldn't sleep at night. Mom cried all night. In the morning, mom asked dad if it was necessary to wake up the children to say goodbye. He said: “Don't, Arisha, let them sleep. Take care of them. The war will end soon, I'll be back in two or three months. I heard everything through a dream, but I did not get up to say goodbye, I did not understand yet, because of my age, everything that had fallen on us. In the evening, mom comes barefoot and covered in dust. She hugged us and cried. And she began to tell how she saw off her father. They began to wait for news from dad. The first triangle of the letter comes, where he says that he is fighting in the battles for Moscow. Letters were rare. Every time we were glad that dad was alive. And one day a postcard came from the hospital. He wrote that he was wounded in the shoulder. Dad was cured and sent back into battle. For a long time there was nothing and again a postcard from the hospital, where dad wrote that he was wounded in both legs and left shoulder, it was not dangerous, that when he recovered, he would write. Recently my daughter found information about her father on the Internet on the Memorial website. It lists all of his wounds, which were fatal. They brought us a funeral, where it is written that dad died of wounds on 12.1142, cremated, buried near the walls of the Kremlin. At that time, they probably wrote to everyone like that. The battles were terrible for Moscow, many of our soldiers died. We also found the exact address of the burial of the ashes on the Memorial website. My generation went through a terrible war, rebuilding a destroyed country. Yes, we were left without fathers, there was no support. I had to rely only on myself. My husband's father, too, died from front-line wounds. From the age of 12, my husband plowed the land on bulls (all the horses were sent to the front) on the collective farm. He was the eldest in the family. It was necessary to raise 5 brothers and sisters. We started our lives with one suitcase and a pillow. They wandered in rented apartments and barracks, and received a separate apartment when the children were already big. Well, we have such a fate. There is no need to regret it. There was youth, there were many happy moments. We achieved everything ourselves, raised wonderful children. I only regret one thing that I did not say goodbye to my dad then, on that terrible day in August 1941.

CITY: Melandovo village, Yemetsky district DATE OF BIRTH: 07/27/1907 DATE OF DEATH: 07/16/1943 HISTORY: My great-grandfather Ivan Ivanovich Lokhov was born on 07/28/1907 in the village of Melandovo, Yemetsky area in a large large family. He was the eldest son. In 1935, my grandfather came to work for Bakaritsa at the fourth sawmill, where he met my great-grandmother Natalya Isakovna Podosenova. In 1935 they got married, and in May of the same year they came to the village of Mechkostroy to build a pulp and paper mill. They were the very first inhabitants of our city and started the construction of the plant! Grandfather Vanya was very skilled, he was valued as a worker, the brigade of the Stakhanovite Lokhov Ivan Ivanovich was among the foremost. At the age of 35, in the winter of 1942, Ivan Ivanovich was called up to war. By that time, grandparents already had 2 daughters, Galya and Vera, and grandmother Natasha was pregnant with the third child, a boy named Vitya, whom the grandfather never saw. Hard times came for both grandfather and grandmother. For some time after being drafted into the war, grandfather's unit lodged on Lesnaya Rechka, he came home several times from there on foot. His daughter (my grandmother) Galya remembers her dad sitting in front of them, all overgrown, tearing up an overcoat - "Mom will sew you something ... ..". They were not destined to see each other again ... ... then there were only letters ... ... ... In letters, grandfather writes about his worries about the family, about the house that could not be completed, about goats that need to prepare food, about firewood, about beloved children, about how they grow. In his letters, there was always a belief in a bright, happy future. He was very worried in letters that the children did not write to him. And they were very young and could not write. Then grandmother Natasha wrote letters on their behalf herself, and in response dad wrote a letter to everyone. In letters, my grandmother addressed him only as "my dear Vanyushka", and he wrote to her "dear Talya." Grandfather's unit was transferred to the Leningrad / Volkhov front, he fought as a private, died - blown up by a mine on July 16, 1943 , in the same forest he was buried. During the war, grandfather always carried two photographs with him: little Viti and his wife and daughters. These photos were returned to the grandmother by fellow soldiers after the death of the grandfather. Grandpa Vanya died, but his memory is still alive. Before the war, great-grandfather Vanya managed to start building a house in a village within the boundaries of our city of Novodvinsk; after the war, my great-grandmother Natalya Isakovna finished the construction. Now the house is looked after and taken care by the children and grandchildren of Ivan Ivanovich. The house, as a memory of ancestors, and today with love is already receiving the fifth generation of the family.

CITY: D. Wisla DATE OF BIRTH: 01/01/1924 DATE OF DEATH: 09/14/1943 HISTORY: Title: Red Army. My husband's grandfather is Sergey Filippovich Lapshin, born in 1924. When the Great Patriotic War began, he lived in the village of Gasino. His father - Lapshin Philip Matveyevich was sent to the front in 1941, then Sergei was still 17 years old. He stayed at home, where his mother, three little brothers and two older sisters went through the war with him. A year later, the funeral came - my father died, went missing. As it turned out later, he was blown up by a mine in a field when the Germans were advancing. So trouble came to their house. In the summer of 1942, and he goes to war. While the training and preparation of young guys - future soldiers - was underway, he was in the Vistula village, not far from Kotelnich. There was hunger, they were fed very poorly, they ate frozen cabbage. Then his mother - Lapshina Anna Nikolaevna - collected the parcel. Everything that was edible in the house was decided to be sent to Sergei. In winter, his mother and fiancee set off in sandals for three hundred kilometers on foot, carrying a roll of food on a sled. The path was long and dangerous, I had to stop in the nearest villages for the night. But, fortunately, no one offended them, and they were able to deliver the package to Sergei and meet him. This was their last meeting. Soon he was sent to the front. He did not have to serve for long ... Red Army soldier Lapshin Sergei Filippovich died heroically. On September 14, 1943, on the battlefield, he carried his wounded comrade and himself received a severe wound from which he died. His friend survived. When the second death notice came to the house, his mother, who experienced severe mental pain, burned all the letters, even the death notice was thrown into the oven .. The exact place of his burial is unknown, we know he was just buried on the river bank. But which one? - now it is already unknown ... He was only 18 years old. There was nothing left but tiny photographs with their images and eternal memory and gratitude to them for their heroic deed and death for our future

CITY: Tambov region Pichaevsky district with. Kutli DATE OF BIRTH: 03/26/1916 DATE OF DEATH: 07/23/1996 HISTORY: Title: Red Army. Branch of the service: Ground Forces, Air Force (except naval aviation), coastal service, NKVD troops, border troops. Subdivision: 1st Separate Motorized Rifle Order of Lenin Red Banner Special Purpose Division. F.E.Dzerzhinsky. A direct participant in the hostilities of the Second World War was Lukin Ivan Ivanovich, a native of the village Kutli Pichaevsky district of the Tambov region. He was born in the family of the baker Lukin Ivan Yakovlevich and housewife Lukina Pelageya Fedorovna on March 26, 1916. After finishing 7 classes, Ivan Ivanovich went to work in Moscow where he worked from October 1933 to March 1934 as a mechanic at a gas plant. Nature rewarded Ivan Ivanovich with a high growth (190 cm) and a strong physique, which allowed him to perform the most difficult work. In those days, working conditions were very difficult, but Ivan Ivanovich was very efficient and hardworking, which allowed him to become a leader in production, and in the same year he was invited to work as a miner at the bridge construction trust. This trust built a metro in Moscow, in connection with which Ivan Ivanovich Lukin can be safely called a full-fledged metro builder. On May 26, 1937, Ivan Ivanovich Lukin completed his driving courses and successfully passed the exams for the right to drive trucks, continuing his career in Moscow but already as a driver of the road trust of the Kievsky district of Moscow. In August 1937, Ivan Ivanovich was drafted into the Soviet Red Army, to a military unit called "730 air base". The service took place in the town of Voroshilov, Primorsky Territory. In July 1940, Ivan Ivanovich Lukin, for his conscientious attitude towards his official duties, was appointed commander of the 730 squadron of the Red Army air base. It was in this call that Ivan Ivanovich had to find his first war, as historians call it, the clash on Lake Khasan, and in 1939 the battle on Khankhin Gol on the border of Mongolia and Manchukuo. After demobilization in August 1940, Ivan Ivanovich did not work for a long time as a driver in the 31st automobile-building trust in Moscow, and on June 22, 1941, he was mobilized by the Khimchensky Regional Military Commissariat of Moscow into the active red army in the 1st regiment of the Order of Lenin OMSDON of the NKVD troops. The most important event of the first year of the war for all Soviet people was the battle of Moscow, which lasted almost seven months - from September 30, 1941 to April 20, 1942. By the beginning of the "Battle of Moscow" the situation on the Soviet-German front was extremely difficult. Having seized a significant part of the European territory of Russia, blocking Leningrad, the enemy rushed to Moscow. The enemy troops occupied a favorable operational-strategic position and, as before, had superiority in manpower and equipment. The Soviet command was forced to keep significant forces on the border with Turkey and Japan, Germany's allies. The Nazi command linked the fate of the entire war against the USSR with the capture of Moscow. Unable to immediately capture Moscow, the Wehrmacht command prepared an operation codenamed Typhoon, which provided for the dismemberment of the defense of our troops by three powerful strikes of tank groups from the regions of Dukhovshchina, Roslavl and Shostka in the eastern and northeastern directions, the encirclement and destruction of the troops of the Western and Reserve fronts. In order to raise the morale of the Red Army as well as the entire Soviet people, on November 7, 1941, a parade of Soviet troops was held in Moscow, from where the servicemen went immediately to the front. Subsequently, the Wehrmacht's plans to capture Moscow were destroyed, and the Soviet troops threw the enemy back in different directions up to two hundred kilometers from Moscow. Participated in the protection and defense of Moscow, for which he was awarded the medal "For the Defense of Moscow". Lukin Ivan Ivanovich finished the Great Patriotic War in Germany. After finishing the hostilities, the echelon with the soldiers was heading home, as Ivan Ivanovich thought, but he was wrong, the echelon headed past the house to the far east, where the war with Japan flared up. As a result, Ivan Ivanovich was demobilized only in 1946. After the war years, he began his career in 1948 as a driver of the Competition artel, where he worked until May 1952, and from May 1952 began working as a driver in the Interdistrict Department of Selhozsnab. For success in work and outstanding organizational talent, in January 1953 Ivan Ivanovich Lukin became the head of the Interdistrict Department "Selhozsnab", and in May 1961 he became the head of the section of the RO "Selkhoztekhnika" pesticides and agricultural machines. In Morshansk "Selkhoztekhnika" Ivan Ivanovich worked in various positions until 1984, from where he retired on a well-deserved pension. Lukin Ivan Ivanovich was a very sociable, kind and sympathetic person, unfortunately he did not survive to this day, but left behind a memory of his good deeds and deeds.

Rank: Political Officer. Corps: Armored and mechanized troops. Lebedev Matvey Stepanovich was born in 1905 in a peasant family. Place of birth: the village of Doenkino, Makaryevsky district, Kostroma province (now Semenovsky district, Nizhny Novgorod region). His father worked as a rural paramedic, his mother was a peasant. From 1917 to 1920, he was engaged in the farm. From July 1920 to February 1921, he served in the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army as a walker of the 202nd Rifle Regiment in Belebey, Ufa province. From January 1923 to February 1925, he worked in a horticultural and livestock farm at the Kudma station, Nizhny Novgorod province. In 1924, he joined the Komsomol, from February 1925 until calling up to the Red Army he worked as a shepherd in the village of Gorevo, Varnavinsky district, Nizhny Novgorod province. From September 1927 to December 1929, Lebedev Matvey Stepanovich was a Red Army soldier, a private of the 5th Company, 1st Regiment of the Convoy Guard, then transferred to the 48th Rifle Division in Tver, where the future Marshal of the Soviet Union and outstanding military chief A. M. Vasilevsky served. On October 3, 1929, while serving in the Red Army, Lebedev was accepted into the party by the Party Commission of the 48th Rifle Division and became a member of the AUCP. From 1930 to 1931, he was a Chairman of the Settlement Association in the village of Ilino-Zaborskoe, Nizhny Novgorod province, an active participant in the formation of Soviet power in the village. Since January 1931, he was a cadet of the Regional Soviet Party School in Vyatka, (Kirov ) Nizhny Novgorod region. Since November 1931, he was a Chairman of the Seminsky village Council, Koverninsky district, Gorky region. Since August 1933, Matvey worked as a Chairman of the Naumovsky collective farm. From August 1934 he was an appointed head of the special unit of the District Executive Committee in the village of Kovernino, Nizhny Novgorod region. On June 22, 1941 the enemy treacherously attacked our Soviet Homeland. In 1942, Lebedev Matvey Stepanovich goes as a volunteer to the front of the Great Patriotic war, leaving his family at home: his wife, daughter and four sons. In September 1942, according to the Directive of the People’s Commissariat in the Gorky region, the 45th mechanized brigade was formed in the Balakhninsky district. M. S. Lebedev, is enlisted in this brigade as the political officer of the 2nd Motorized Rifle Battalion. The fate of my grandfather is inextricably linked with the 45th mechanized brigade. As part of the 45th Mechanized Brigade, political officer M. S. Lebedev passed his combat path from the Surovikino station, Stalingrad region, to Tatsinskaya station, Rostov region. On January 9, 1943 in a battle with German tanks, while repelling an enemy counterattack in the area of Krylov farm and Bobovnya farm, Rostov region, political officer of the 2nd Mechanized Battalion, 45th Mechanized Brigade, 5th Mechanized Corps, 5th Tank Army, South-Western front, Lebedev Matvey Stepanovich, died a heroic death. He was buried in a mass grave in Krylov farm, Tatsinsky district, Rostov region.

PLACE OF BIRTH: Krasny village, Ladozhskiy district, Krasnodar territory. DATE OF BIRTH: 01.01.1904. DATE of DEATH: 22.10.1941 HISTORY: Rank: Lieutenant. Corps: Ground Forces, Air Forces (except naval aviation), the coast guard, troops of the NKVD, the border guards. Division: 353rd Dneprodzerzhinsk Rifle Red Banner Division. "On Wednesday, October 22, 1941, in the morning, after a short but powerful artillery preparation, the enemy launched an offensive on the front of the 353rd rifle division and tried to capture Crimea village. The report of the division's political Department noted that " despite massive mortar fire, all enemy attacks were repulsed with heavy losses for them." Small groups of motorized infantry and tanks operated in other areas. All attacks by the 13th Panzer division and the SS brigade “Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler” were repulsed. But the Soviet troops also suffered losses. In two days, they lost three 45-mm, five 76-mm anti-aircraft guns and two 120-mm mortars. Before nightfall, the enemy fired heavy artillery and mortar fire at the battle formations of the 68th Cavalry, 353rd and 343rd Rifle Divisions. The units moved out of the reserve for the counterattack (the 1155th Regiment, the 3rd Battalion of the 1149th Regiment, and the 81st Separate Tank Battalion), they managed to take up their initial position for the offensive only in the afternoon. At 3 p.m the infantry and tanks launched a counterattack and three hours later drove the enemy to the heights 78.8 and 102.4. Heavy enemy fire and darkness stopped their further movement, not allowing them to fully complete the task" (from the book "FROM DANUBE TO MIUS: A JOURNEY OF THREE AND A HALF MONTHS"). In this battle, Lieutenant Levchenko Alexey, who led his unit in one of the attacks, was killed by a sniper's bullet (from the story of a survivor who handed over his belongings and commander's watch to his wife, Olga Andreevna). "On the night of October 22-23, the command of the 56th Separate Army, after analyzing the situation, decided to regroup forces and withdraw them to a new defensive line. This made it possible to consolidate the battle formations in the Western direction. By morning, three lines of defense of Rostov-On-Don were created: 1) from Shakhov hamlet to Khapry station; 2) on the North-Western and Western outskirts of the city and in the city itself; 3) along the southern bank of the Don river. On October 23, the enemy made several more attempts to break through the defense of the 56th Separate Army in the 343rd and 353rd Rifle Divisions with a Tank Battalion and 2-3 Motorized Infantry Battalion. All these attempts were repulsed by artillery, mortar, and machine-gun fire of Soviet troops. Having met stubborn resistance from the Soviet troops, the enemy suspended its offensive, losing up to 50 tanks as a result of the fighting on October 20-23, 1941. Parts of the 56th Separate Army also suffered significant losses in manpower and weapons during the three days of fighting. The 343rd Rifle Division lost 183 commanding officers and 3,109 red army soldiers (30 percent of the staff). The 353rd Rifle Division lost 55 commanders and political workers and 1,076 red army soldiers (10% of the staff). The 68th Cavalry Division lost 7 commanders and 48 soldiers in the last decade of October, while the 7th Armored Train Division lost 4 commanders and 34 soldiers. Thus, the total losses of only three divisions and crews of armored trains exceeded 4,500 people. "THE FATE OF THE "FIRST STRIKE" ARMY: HISTORY AND MEMORY": "The first year of the war was a difficult time for the Red Army. The personnel army that was supposed to serve as a reliable shield for the Soviet state and which was assigned the task of "defeating the enemy with little blood on its territory"suffered huge and seemingly irreparable losses. But the enemy triumphed early. According to the famous American historian D. M. Glantz, " the Red Army rose like a Phoenix from the ashes, and managed to inflict unprecedented defeats on the vaunted Wehrmacht." This required significant changes not only in the war, but also in the organization of the armed forces of the USSR, which were expressed, in particular, in the creation of new military associations and formations of the operational-strategic level. One of them was the 56th army, which began its combat path near Rostov-on-don in 1941. Like other new armies, it had to master military skills in practice, directly during the battles. Combat training became really combat, the war took a long time, and the overall victory was still very far away."

PLACE OF BIRTH: Nizhny Baskunchak village, Astrakhan region. DATE OF BIRTH: 01.01.1922. DATE OF DEATH: 17.01.1942 HISTORY: Rank: Sergeant. Essay by the great-grandson of Alexey Andreevich's sister: I want to tell you about my great-grandfather, my mother's grandfather, Alexey Lysenko. He was born in 1922, in the village of Nizhny Baskunchak. When the war began, he was 18 years old and in June 1945 he was called up to the army. Her parents and two younger sisters, Maria, who had just finished school, and Praskovya, who was in the eighth grade, stayed at home. Once at the front, my great-grandfather fought in the village of Myasnoy Bor near Veliky Novgorod, in the 2nd shock army. Myasnoy Bor is a tragic page of our Fatherland and the history of the great Patriotic war. From the very beginning, as soon as Leningrad was under siege, steps were taken to liberate the city on the Neva river from the enemy's siege. In January 1942, the troops of the Volkhov front launched an offensive operation. The 2nd shock army was the most successful. On January 17, it broke through the defenses in the area of Myasny Bor. At the time of the attack, the forces were unequal. Every meter was given at the cost of huge losses. The enemy pulled 6 fresh divisions to the Luban-Chudovo railway. The attacks of our troops were repelled by a hurricane of enemy fire, the artillery was unable to suppress it. On January 17, 1942, trouble knocked on my great-grandfather's house. His parents and sisters were informed that Alexey was missing in action. Until the end of the war, they still had hope that he was still alive. But many years passed, and the war ended, and there was no news from him. The sisters, Maria and Praskovya sent requests to the archive of the military enlistment office, where he was sent to serve. Only in the 90s they got the answer. Volunteers who conducted excavations in forests and swamps, in those areas where fierce battles took place, found many medallions. Many of the dead were reburied in a brotherly burial place of the Meat Bora. Some of them were with documents, which was reported to relatives. Among them Alexey was. Great-grandmothers, having learned about it, went to the place of his burial. More than 15 years have passed since the great-grandmothers are no longer alive. But every May 9, we go to the Victory square and lay flowers at the monument where the name of my great-grandfather and many others who died in this terrible war are carved.

Rank: Lieutenant. Corps: Artillery. My grandfather – Bishoposov Gurgen Matveyevich, was born on January 15, 1922 in the village of Kushchi in the Khanlar district of the Azerbaijan SSR. Nationality: Armenian. He graduated from the ten-year secondary school in Tbilisi in 1938. After school, he came to Moscow to enter the University. In Moscow he met my future grandmother. In 1940, on November 25, their son, my father, was born. After the beginning of the war in July 1941, he was drafted into the Red Army and sent to the artillery school. He began to fight in March 1942 after an accelerated graduation from school as a commander of a fire platoon with the rank of Lieutenant. He fought on the front line all through the war. He was wounded and concussed, but after being cured in hospitals, he returned to the ranks. He passed the battle path from Moscow to Germany. For courage and heroism in the battles with the Nazis, skilful leadership of his units-a battery of 76-mm guns, the destroying of enemy personnel and equipment, he was awarded of government awards: - the Order of Alexander Nevsky, - the Order of the Red Star, - the medal "For the Capture of Konigsberg". Fighting since November 1944 as part of the 1st Belorussian front, and since March 1945 as part of the 2nd Belorussian front, he was awarded of commendations by order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Stalin: - 27.01.1945 for personal participation in the breakthrough of a powerful long-term defense in the area of the Masurian lakes; - 07.03.1945 for excellent combat actions to capture of Stargrad; - 12.03.1945 for excellent combat actions to capture of Tchev. Remembering the days of fighting, my grandfather told my father, and he told me, one episode from his combat life: "Fighting on the base-area of the Curonian spit in the area of East Prussia, my foreman I. Arkhipov and I found ourselves in a critical situation: during the battle, almost all my soldiers were killed and almost all the guns were broken. German tanks were moving towards us. The panorama was broken on the remaining main gun. I ordered Arkhipov (he was an unusually strong man physically) to take hold of the gun frame and turn the guns left and right. I aimed the gun through the barrel. During the battle, we knocked out several tanks. We would, of course, be in trouble, but then our infantry and tanks arrived. The German tanks turned back." For this fight, my grandfather was awarded of the order of Alexander Nevsky. He was awarded of the medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic war of 1941-1945". He finished the war in Eastern Pomerania with the rank of Captain and the position of Deputy chief of staff of an artillery regiment. He was discharged in 1947. In 1950, he graduated from the VZYUSH (higher correspondence law school) of the Ministry of justice of the RSFSR with honors. He was sent to work in the Prosecutor's office of the Moscow region. In 1953, he was repressed under the infamous article 58. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison camps. In 1955, he was released from prison. His case was reviewed and dismissed for the absence of elements of a crime in his actions. In 1996, he was rehabilitated by the Presidium of the Supreme court of the USSR. After his release, he worked as a senior laboratory assistant in the Department of flaw detection at the Research Institute of Automotive Industry, and as a record keeper in the Podolsk archive of the USSR Ministry of Defense. Working in the archive, my grandfather found award documents about awarding him of the order of the Patriotic war 2nd Class. For unknown reasons, the award did not take place. Being a modest person, my grandfather did not inform the archive management about the award. He retired in 1982. Old wounds and contusions caught up with the warrior and on January 18, 1988, the grandfather passed away. He was buried on the territory of the old crematorium (Donskoy monastery) in Moscow. The family keeps all the award documents of the grandfather.

Rank: Red Army Soldier. Corps: Technical troops. Vasily Yefimov was born in 1898 in Yuriev-Polsky district, Ivanovo region. He worked as a blacksmith. He took part in the Civil war in 1918-1922. He was 43 years old when he was drafted for participation in the great Patriotic war of 1941-1945. Efimov was called up for service by the Yuriev-Polsky regional military commissariat. Summary of Yefimov's personal combat feat or merit: V. G. Yefimov, working all the time as a blacksmith, perfectly performed his duties, for which he was awarded of the Badge "Excellent road worker" and had a number of commendations from the command. Comrade Efimov V. G. provided the company with all blacksmithing work. He especially distinguished himself on December 4, 1944, when he was given the task of providing a transport for the transport of timber for the construction of the bridge. Comrade Efimov, working around the clock on 03.12 and 04.12 1944, perfectly prepared all the transport and horses for work, so that his combat mission was completed with honor. He was awarded of the medal "For Combat service". He served as a part of the 105th Rifle Batalion. Place of call up: Yuryev-Polsky regional military commissariat, Ivanovo region, Yuryev-Polsky district - 12.11.1941 He served in 105th Rifle Batalion from 01.09.1943 to 01.09.1943; from 02.01.1945 to 02.01.1945; from 29.01.1945 to 31.01.1945; from 04.02.1945 to 08.02.1945; Vasiliy Efimov was awarded of the medal "For Combat service" when he served in the105th Rifle Batalion from 03.12.1944 to 04.12.1944 As part of the 1st guards army, he took part in such combat operations as: the battle of Stalingrad; - defense of the Soviet troops 12.07-18.11.1942; - defeat of the Italian-German troops on the Don river 16.12-30.12.1942; January and February offensive operations 01.01-22.02.1943; defensive battle of the left wing of the Voronezh front and the right wing of the South-Western front in the Kharkiv direction 22.02-23.03.1943; offensive operation in the Izyum-Barvenkov direction 17.07-27.07.1943; defensive operation in the Kiev direction 13.11-23.12.1943 Zhytomyr-Berdichev offensive operation 24.12.1943-15.01.1944; 2nd strike defeat in Right-Bank Ukraine, February-March 1944 (01.02-31.03.1944); Proskurov-Zhmerinsky offensive operation (Operation of the 2nd strike) 04.03-17.04.1944; Lviv-Sandomierz offensive operation (operation of the 6th strike) 13.07-30.08.1944; Carpathian ( Uzhgorod) offensive operation (operation of the 9th strike) 09.09-28.11.1944; 9th strike, defeat of German-Hungarian troops in Hungary, October-December 1944 (01.10-31.12.1944); defeat of the Germans in Poland, January-February 1945. (01.01-28.02.1945); Western Carpathian offensive operation 15.01-18.02.1945.; Moravian-Ostrava offensive operation 15.04-06.05.1945; Prague offensive operation 06.05-11.05.1945. Vasily Yefimov went through the war and returned to his beloved family and children in the summer of 1945. He had no injuries or contusions. After the war, he lived and worked as a blacksmith in the Yuriev-Polsky district of the Ivanovo region. He died after a long illness. He had 7 children.

Fyodor Ivanovich came to Asbest in 1933. He got a job as a foundry worker at the mechanical plant of the Soyuzasbest trust. After finishing a collage in 1935 with foundry-molder profession, he was appointed to master of the foundry, then he was appointed to be the head in 1935. A month before the war, he finished the foundry faculty's advanced training course "Modern technological processes in foundry production". The evacuated plant urgently needed equipment. New railcars were quickly built, the shop was expanded and orders from evacuated defense enterprises were fulfilled, and then the task was received to cast armored antitank shell casings. There were only women and girls in the shop. They worked as befits on the frontline. During all years of the war, workers at the plant worked 12-16 hours without days off nor vacations. The standards were met by 150-200 percent. The people's Commissariat of building materials industry of the USSR in 1942 awarded distinguished workers and technical officers "high achiever of socialist competition Parkostroyeniya of the USSR" for the successful fulfillment of special tasks on production of defence products and preaperation of spaces for placement of special-purpose products, active participation in socialist competition. Four Of 18 factory workers were from the foundry, including the head of the iron foundry, Fyodor Ivanovich Gorbunov. In 1943, Bessemer steel was first produced at the mechanical plant. The plant was awarded the Banner of the State Defense Committee for producing of products for the front. It is left for eternal storage in the collective of "Southcrest". After the end of the war, the restoration of destroyed cities and villages began. The trust "Southcrest" took part in it as well. The asbestos industry quickly began to develop. The country needed technically competent people. In 1952, Fyodor Ivanovich was seconded to the Asbestos mining technical school to study. In March 1954, the mining technician was accepted as the shift Manager of the crushing and sorting complex of factory No. 5. In 1955, the factory produced its first products. In 1955 Fedor Ivanovich Gorbunov was awarded by the sign of "excellent person of socialist competition of the Ministry of construction materials” for the successful completion of tasks on construction enterprises of the asbestos industry of the trust "Southcrest"". In 1956, he retrired, but he was in touch with the plant, being a member of the party, and actively participated in public life of the Veterans ' Council.