My great-grandfather, Nikolai Smagin, was born in 1913 in the village of Kashirino in the Oryol region. Little is known about his youth, but until 1938 he was the chairman of the Tsvetyn village Council, worked as a school teacher, and was a member of the Communist party. In 1938, he was drafted into the red army, on September 13, 1939, as part of the 6th Oryol Red Banner Rifle Division, he was transferred to Belarus, and from September 17 to September 28, 1939, he participated in the Polish campaign as part of the division. From October 4 to October 14, 1939, the division moves 150 km away to the eastern bank of the river Boog on the demarcation line to the places of permanent deployment and stayes on winter apartments in the area of Brest-Litovsk and adjacent areas near the Mukhavets river, taking the garrison service in Brest. In 1940, he was appointed commandant of the regiment's headquarters. According to D. Lozovsky, member of the academic Council of the Brest fortress defense Museum: "At the dawn of the memorable June morning of 1941, the fascist command brought down a huge blow on the fortress city and the forts surrounding it. A barrage of artillery fire from hundreds of guns and mortars, and bomb attacks from dozens of planes shook the ground, wreaking death and destruction. The Howitzer Artillery Regiment (204), in which Nikolai Smagin served, of the Red Banner Rifle Division was located in the barracks of the old fort. They were the first to meet the attackers. The commandant of the headquarters, Lieutenant Smagin, could not leave the empty premises of the headquarters until all the documents were destroyed. He burned plans for the fortress and communications, strategic documents, and anything that might be useful to the enemy. Accompanied by two Red Army men, he once again went around all the rooms, checked if there was anything else of value. They did not have time to report to the commander about the combat mission completion. There was the rapidly increasing noise of a column of motorbikes moving along the highway. Ordering the soldiers to guard the door, he rushed to the phone. It was necessary to report this to the division headquarters, which were in the city. But the connection was no longer working... Throwing back grenades and firing back from the windows, they tried their best to contain the Germans, but they soon realized that only a few people were against them. They cordoned off the headquarters building and opened heavy submachine-gun fire on the windows and doors. The Red Army soldiers guarding the headquarters destroyed more than a dozen fascists, but they were mortally wounded themselves. As a result, the Nazis managed to get into the building and climb to the second floor. After the last grenade, there was a whole clip left in the pistol of Nikolai Smagin. Fighting back to the last bullet, he died in hand-to-hand combat on the first day of the war." The Brest Museum has material and an exhibition about the feat of my grandfather, and there is a burial place on the territory of the fortress.