My great-grandfather, Nikolai Mikhailovich Gushchin, was born in 1911 on the Bogucharovo sovkhoz (state farm) in the Leninsky district. He finished two classes of primary school. In 1933, he was drafted into the army in the 110th artillery regiment as a telephone operator. On August 12, 1933, he was dismissed to the reserve. Title: Senior sergeant. Type of service: - ground forces, - air force (except naval aviation), - the coast guard, troops of the NKVD, - the border guards. He left for the front on June 28, 1941 (at that time he was 30 years old). My great-grandfather was sent to the Leningrad front. From June 1941 to March 1942, he was a Rifleman, and from March 1942 to March 1945 he was a signalman and soon became the head of the telephone exchange and senior Sergeant of the three-hundredth guards rifle regiment of the third battalion. On December 22, 1942, while defending Leningrad, he and his fellow soldiers came under fire, and in order to hide from the enemy, they lay in a swamp for 3 days and ate moss and forest berries. Nikolay Mikhailovich Guschin was awarded: the medal "For defense of Leningrad" because in the battle for Malaya Boudikha village on February,13, 1944, he contributed smooth management of the fight, restoring the connection between the command posts of the regiment and the battalion under heavy mortar and machine-gun fire that - 30.07.1945 (third Baltic front) He was awarded the medal "for bravery" for the fact that in the battle of July 25, 1944 on the outskirts of Voroshilino village, he eliminated nine breakthroughs in the telephone line despite the deadly danger, under heavy enemy fire, and did not allow even 1-minute break in communication between the companies - 16.02.1945 (second Ukrainian front) awarded the "Red Star Order" for his work as the head of the Central telephone exchange in the offensive battle from January 24 to January 28, 1945 on the outskirts of Beuten town in difficult combat conditions, when the enemy had a strong combat impact, my grandfather promptly deployed the connection center and promptly provided telephone lines to the battalions, which led the battle. Despite frequent cuts of the connection line by enemy fire, more than 12 cuts were personally eliminated, which contributed to the successful outcome of the battle. In the battle of February 7, 1945 for Kefendorf town, my grandfather provided continuous telephone connection with the units, which led the battle for 12 hours in open terrain and heavy enemy fire. At the end of the war, Nikolai Mikhaylovich Gushchin received a commendation from Stalin. Only two men of the entire regiment survived. Soldiers of the Soviet army thought that they were deserters and took them prisoner. My grandfather was held captive for three days, then released after realizing that he had saved the guard flag. All his life he worked as a tractor driver. He retired only when he was 82 years old. My great-grandfather went through the war almost without injuries and received many awards. He finished his way in Budapest. I am proud of my great-grandfather and grateful to him for peaceful sky above my head.