Mikhail Pavlovich Zaika was born in the city of Sergach, Gorkiy Region. Before the war he was director of a railway school. In war time he was recon. In 1941 he was taken war prisoner. The Germans tortured him for a long time, cut out stars on the flesh, gouged out his eyes ... Disfigured body of the hero was found in the basement of a hospitals in Volokolamsk near Moscow in winter, 1941.