In the village of Novikovo, Staro-Yuryevsky district, Tambov region, son Ivan was born in a large family of middle peasant Tikhomirov Ignat Vasilyevich and Anisia Ilyinichna on May 30, 1912. Ivan Tikhomirov was an active person, striving for knowledge. In 1931. in his village he graduated from the School of Peasant Youth (school of peasant youth), joined the Komsomol (All-Union Lenin Communist Youth Union) and honestly served the working people all his life. He continued his education at the industrial pedagogical technical school in the city of Losinoostrovsk, Moscow region, after graduating from which he worked as a mathematics teacher in the village of Borovok, Novo-Derevensky district, Ryazan region. In August 1936 he married, soon children were born - Galya and Volodya (in 1938 and 1940). The young family moved to the Moscow region, Ivan worked as the head of the Krasno-Pahorskiy RONO (regional department of public education), his wife studied at the Moscow IFLI (Institute of History, Philosophy and Literature). The world was already restless, a military threat was brewing. In 1940 he was sent to study at the Military-Political School named after Frunze of the Moscow Military District, in the city of Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod). In April 1941. assignment - to the Northwestern Military District. Military rank - junior political instructor. From the first day of the war until December 1944 Ivan Tikhomirov was in the army. In September 1941 junior political instructor Ivan Tikhomirov was sent to the North-Western Front in the 163rd Infantry Division, appointed commissar of the 1st battery, then deputy commissar of the 1st division, then - party organizer of the 365th artillery regiment. After the war, he corresponded with fellow soldiers, received invitations from the Council of Veterans of the 163 divisions, traveled to Moscow for meetings, brought group photographs of comrades in arms, returned rejuvenated and enlightened. And he was very fond of humming "March of the Gunners". Ivan Ignatievich did not talk about the war, he avoided memories. For many years after the war, he shouted at night: “Forward! For the Motherland! " Rare front-line photographs with his comrades in arms have been preserved. On one of them there is an officer on the breastwork of a trench, on the back there is an inscription: “To the fighting friend Tikhomyrych. Looking at the photo, remember the "fun" days of our "peaceful" life. I hope that after the end of the war we will find an opportunity and conditions for a meeting so that we can remember the past days with a good glass. February 6, 1944 from. Kluki, Kiev region. Signature (illegible) ". In May 1944. Mikhail Kalinin, Chairman of the USSR Supreme Soviet, presented awards to military officers. Major Tikhomirov was awarded the Order of the Red Star. Tikhomirov I.I. in the column "Government and other awards" there are: 1. Medal "For Military Merit". For military distinction 2. Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree. For military distinction. 3. Order of the Red Star. For military distinctions. 4. Order of the Red Star. For military distinctions. 5. Medal "For the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945." 6. Medal "30 Years of the Soviet Army and Navy" 7. Medal "40 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" 8. Medal "20 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941 -1945" 9. Medal "50 years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" In the spring of 1944. after being awarded the order, he received a short vacation, visited his family and gave life to his daughter. His wife wrote to the front: "Vanya, I'm pregnant!" And he replied: “So many people have died! Give birth, Sashko, maybe this is our happiness! " And so it happened - daughter Tatyana was born in February 1945, Ivan was already recalled from the front to study, he was never even wounded. Fate ... To children, Ivan Ignatievich told that once during a bombing, nurse Masha pushed him into a trench, covered him with her body, saved him, and she herself was seriously wounded. He could not find her after the war, and bequeathed to his children to remember about Masha. At the beginning of 1945. Major Tikhomirov became a cadet at the military academy. When the school year ended, he brought his family to Moscow. They did not give a residence permit, which means there are no ration cards either. We lived in the office of some kind boss. The cadet rations were divided into five. Hope for the best. But one day the wife saw a rat on her youngest daughter, who was sleeping for lack of another place in a galvanized trough. The family is more expensive, he filed a report on expulsion from the academy. Transferred to the Saratov military school as a teacher, moved with the whole family. He simultaneously began to study, graduated in 1946 artillery faculty of the Higher All-Army Military-Political Courses in Moscow. My wife worked in the library of the Saratov School. The family was not assembled for long, Ivan received a new assignment - three years of service in East Germany as part of a group of Soviet troops. Without family. And again my wife waited ... In the spring of 1950. already in the rank of lieutenant colonel I.I. Tikhomirov was sent to serve in the north, in the city of Arkhangelsk. This time he is traveling with his family. The work was connected with frequent business trips, traveling, in the room there was always a "emergency case" at the ready in case of an alarm or an emergency call. They lived in a two-story barrack for 18 officer families, a common long corridor, a common kitchen with a huge wood-burning stove. We lived openly and amicably. All went through wars,men- at the front, women - at the rear. Neighbor aunt Dasha survived the Leningrad blockade. In the spring of 1958. there was a sharp reduction in the size of the Army, many front-line soldiers resigned, including Ivan Ignatievich. The military service ended, a new stage of life began. The wives returned to their homeland in the Novo-Derevensky district of the Ryazan region. The new academic year 1958 began at the Al.-Nevskaya secondary school: Ivan was a military teacher, his wife was a teacher of home economics, and later - of history. It was difficult after the city in the village without light, with a kerosene lamp, but gradually we got used to it. They built their own house, rejoiced in the garden and flower garden, friends appeared, they were well received at school. Tikhomirov I.I., a communist with 20 years of experience, began to conduct active public work, was repeatedly awarded with certificates of honor of the district party committee as a propagandist and agitator, he was respected in the team for responsibility, honesty, adherence to principles and exactingness, - the military tempering affected. The war has undermined health. Ivan Ignatievich Tikhomirov died on May 17, 1970. Memories of the daughter of Tatyana.