My great-great-grandfather's name was Alexander Alekseyevich Tikhomirov. He went to the front in the first days of the war in June 1941, and in December 1942 he was listed as a missing person. My great-grandmother Claudia died 20 years ago, but in our family we remember her story about the great-great-grandfather and proud of him. Alexander Tikhomirov was born in 1915 in the village of Novoye Uglicheskoye of Yaroslavl province (now Bolsheselsky district of Yaroslavl region). His father was a clergyman, and his mother was a simple peasant. He had two brothers, Nikolai and Alexey. In Novoye Selo, Alexander Tikhomirov studied, worked, and then married Klavdia Limonova. In 1937, their daughter Valentina was born. In 1938, Alexander fought in Finland, then in Poland. On June 22, 1941, the Great Patriotic War began, but according to documents, Alexander's great-great-grandfather was called up to the front as a soldier on June 21, 1941. Although his great-great-grandmother said that he was a political instructor, he wrote to his wife that some of them were located in the area of the city of Kingisepp. There were fierce battles against the Nazis. The Germans were furiously rushing to Leningrad, and our troops heroically held the defense. There was a war. Great-great-grandmother Klava lived in the village with her four-year-old daughter Valentina and was waiting for the birth of her second child. They lived in poverty. While her mother was working in the fields, little Valya went around the village with a decanter and asked the neighbors for some milk, because their cow had to be slaughtered. Letters to my great-great-grandmother from her husband did not come. One day a neighbor came running to Klava and told her to run to Novoye village, because there is a guy in the tea shop who wants to tell her something about her husband Alexander. Klava grabbed her little daughter and, happy, ran through the forest for five kilometers. In the tea shop, she saw a guy she knew from their village. He was on leave for an injury. This guy said that he fought with Alexander Tikhomirov in the same unit. In the area of Staraya Russa, they had a heavy battle, they were attacked by Nazi tanks, and they had nothing to defend themselves with, since there was only one rifle for ten people. Our troops were retreating. The guy said that when he ran across the field, he saw Sasha, wounded in the leg. "Sasha asked me for help and said: "Take me, we're from the same village." But I did not take hin, because there was an order: "do not take the wounded!" This field was occupied by the Germans. And the next day, our soldiers came to help and our people occupied this area. I ran through the place where Sasha was staying, looking for him, but I didn't find him. The whole field was covered with shells. There was mud, blood, and dead soldiers everywhere. It is unlikely that he survived there." After listening to the story, great-great-grandmother Klava no longer ran back through the forest with her daughter, but barely went home, heartbroken. All the way she was crying, feeling sorry for Sasha. She imagined how he suffered there, and did not know how to live with her little daughter and the baby who was about to be born.