Bykov Nikolai Petrovich, was born on May 3, 1914, in the city of Saratov, in a working class family. He would have been 100 years old in 2014. My great-grandfather, Nikolai Petrovich Bykov, is a career officer with the rank of major. He was in active military service of the USSR Armed Forces until September 8, 1958. From 1930 to 1933 he studied and graduated from the Saratov Industrial Technical School, got a diploma in electrical engineering. Worked as an electrical engineer in the Bakalsk mining administration (Satka district of the Chelyabinsk region) in 1934- 1935. Then he changed the working place to Saratov alkaline battery plant (till February 1936). From February 1936 to October 1937 he was on active military service in 110th Artillery Regiment named after Voroshilov in Saratov. From November 1937 to October 1939 he worked at the Saratov State Plant named after Lenin as an electrical engineer. Since October 1939 to June 23, 1941, he studied at the Saratov Institute of Agricultural Mechanization and finished two courses there. Along with his studies ( October 1940 - June 23, 1941) he worked at the Saratov State Plant named after Lenin, first as a specialist, and then as a shift engineer. But his peaceful studies and work were interrupted by the war. Already on June 23, 1941, my great-grandfather, Nikolai Petrovich Bykov, went to the front as part of the Tarashchansky Regiment of the 45th Rifle Division named after N.Shchors of the 62nd Army. Together with other soldiers, he was fighting from Stalingrad to Berlin, liberating Ukraine, Belarus and Poland as the commander of a Sapper Platoon first, and then as an engineer of a Rifle Regiment until February 1947. When he became a military pensioner in 1958, he took an active part in the creation of the chronicle of the 74th Guards Division, met with veterans, helped to organize corners of military glory, often spoke to young about combat path of his division. That was the reason why he wrote down his memories of his war years and carefully kept photographs of his front-line friends, so we have them now. The young officer Nikolai Petrovich Bykov came on vacation in 1947 to his parents in the city of Saratov, where he met the love of his life, my great-grandmother Zoya Vasilievna Sosnovtseva, and they married on November 26, 1947. They lived a long and happy life together, finally they had four daughters, one of whom (Bykova (Kolesnikova) Galina Nikolaevna) became my grandmother. He was awarded by the Order of the Red Star, Orders of the “Patriotic War of 1st and 2nd classes”, and the medal “For Courage”.