Rank: Petty Officer Branch Service: Land Forces, Air Force (except Naval Aviation), Coast Guard, NKVD troops, Border Guards Duty station: 336th Rifle Division (1st formation) Ivan Balakaev worked as a police officer before the war and was released from conscription. He was 34 years old at the time, but he went to the military enlistment office and asked to be sent to the front. He served in the 336th Rifle Division. It was formed in the city of Melekess (now Dimitrovograd) Ulyanovsk Region in August-November 1941. After completing the Army Second Lieutenant Courses, he received the rank a Sergeant. In December 1941, the 336th Rifle Division arrived on the Western front and participated in the battle of Moscow. Conducted defensive battles south and southwest of Belev, covering the Kaluga and Tula areas. It periodically conducted small offensive operations. Ivan Balakaev was appointed a platoon commander in early 1942. He repeatedly personally partisipated in the attacks on enemy positions. A platoon under his command held a stubborn defense of the village of Gornushka in the Belevsky district of the Tula Region in February 1942. For the Germans, the city of Belev was an important strategic object, and the failure to capture Tula and Moscow forced the enemy to urgently create powerful defensive structures in their rear. The order of the German army emphasized the need to delay the Red Army's offensive by the all means available. In order to somehow preserve their group, which was stationed in the area of Belev, the enemy urgently began to create strong nodes of resistance in all localities. In Belev and in the villages around, all brick houses, churches, and bell towers were adapted for defence. Belev was turned into a strong fortified, defensive region, with a well-developed system of barriers, it was saturated with a large number of artillery, mortars and machine guns. In some areas, the approaches to the city were mined. 14 people repelled the attacks of a company of Germans. Bullets whistled over his head. Volleys of guns thundered. The ground was burning with incessant explosions. Despite the numerical superiority of the enemy, the platoon defended the village to the last cartridge, forcing the Nazis to retreat. With shouts of "For the Motherland! For Stalin!" the platoon began to pursue the enemy. Suddenly, the ground shook under the feet of the brave commander, great-grandfather was wounded by a fragment of a mine. Nearby was a nurse who pulled the wounded, unconscious soldier from the battlefield. Then, treatment in the hospital. After medica treatment, Ivan Balakaev again rushed to defend his Homeland. He was wounded a second time by an explosive bullet in the arm and chest while destroying the enemy near the village of Maryevskie Vyselki on April 4, 1942. He did not have a chance to return to the front after another treatment in the hospital, as he was commissioned. Fate kept my great-grandfather: wounded, but alive, he returned home, where his wife and children were waiting for him. For his exploits, Ivan Balakaev was awarded the Medal For Bravery. My great-grandfather fought bravely and honestly, like all Soviet soldiers. The consequences of the wound affected - in September 1945, a bullet fragment stuck in the lung took the life of my grandfather.