Title: Senior Paramedic. Branch of Service: Military Medical Staff. Unit: 1st Leningrad Rifle Division of the People's Militia (Kirovsky District). The 1st Leningrad Rifle Division the People's Militia was beeing formed from the first days of the war in Leningrad from volunteers. The 1st Rifle and Artillery Regiments and the Medical Battalion were formed from employees of the Kirov Factory. The first three divisions of the Leningrad people's militia were formed in an exceptionally short time. The 1st Division was composed mainly of workers from the Kirov District. At the largest enterprise of this area — the famous Kirov plant — already in the first days of the war, more than 15 thousand applications were submitted with a request to enroll in the district division of the people's militia. This made it possible to form two rifle regiments from Kirov, as well as an artillery and tank units. However, to do so would be to deprive the plant of many skilled workers necessary for the production of military equipment. Therefore, on the instructions of the City Party Committee, it was decided to limit the recruitment of workers and employees of the Kirov plant to the first rifle and artillery regiments of the division. The second rifle regiment was formed from the staff of the plant named after A. Zhdanov, the third consisted mainly of workers of the Dzerzhinskiy District. Commanders and Commissars of divisions were also selected from employees of enterprises that completed the detachment. On July 5, 1941, units of the division were transferred to the barracks and began combat training. Organizational strengthening of the division was carried out at the same time. The formation of the 1st Division of the People's Militia was completed on July 10. General F. Rodii was appointed division commander, Regimental Commissar Kostrikov was appointed Deputy for Political Affairs, and D. Podrezov was appointed the Chief of the Political Department. The division consisted of three rifle and one artillery regiments, a reconnaissance battalion, and a signal battalion. The formed division was solemnly awarded the battle Red Banner of the Kirov plant. Arriving on July 11 at the Batetskaya station, the 1st Division of the People's Militia took up a defense on one of the sections of the Luzhsky line and soon engaged in bloody battles with superior enemy forces. On the same day, the divisional echelons were bombed by Nazi aircraft and suffered their first losses. Marching regiments of the division arrived at the Luzhsky positions of the Novgorod area and took up the defense. Defending the line that crossed the Novgorod-Luga highway, the militia of the 2nd company of the 1st rifle regiment, formed from the workers of the Kirov factory, showed unprecedented resilience and dedication. Here is what the assistant chief of staff of the regiment, senior Lieutenant Dmitry Zhigunov, wrote about this: "the 2nd company of the 1st battalion was killed. She fought heroically, destroying up to 25 German tanks and up to 1,000 soldiers. She got the worst of it and fulfilled her duty to the Motherland with honor!” Being surrounded by the enemy, parts of the Kirov division of the people's militia with incredible perseverance and courage took fierce battles and broke through to their own, suffering the heaviest human losses. Still, their feat was an important contribution to the defense of Leningrad and the victory in the great Patriotic War. In the first days of the war, German troops, implementing the "Barbarossa" plan, tried to conquer Leningrad as soon as possible. But the path of the enemy was blocked by the Luzhsky defense line. One of the main tasks was performed by the militia of the first Kirov division. The number of personell in the division was over 12 000 people. Persistent bloody battles on the outskirts of Leningrad required constant replenishment of combat personnel. At the Kirov plant, the first to join the ranks of the people's militia was a participant in the civil war – a worker of a turbine shop Yemelyanov. Together with him, his 17 year old son Viktor, a turbine shop turner, and his daughter Antonina became militia members. Heroes of the civil war the master of Eyelets and mechanic Tsilosani headed the combat units formed by the workers of the Kirov factory. The newspaper Leningradskaya Pravda, in those days, pablished an emergency issue under the headline "Kirov Workers Will Fulfill Their Duty to the Motherland". The newspaper published a resolution of the staff of the oldest in the country three times awarded Kirov plant. "Woe - wrote the Kirov workers - who drew arms against us. We will turn the war imposed on us by the fascists into a Patriotic War and defeat the Hitlerites - as we always smashed the enemy!" Before sending the division to the front, the Kirov soldiers and all the militia soldiers were instructed by the oldest production workers of the Kirov plant "Be persistent and brave in a battle! Multiply the glorious traditions of Peters workers - be worthy sons of the city of Lenin! Do not spare your lives in the battles for freedom, for honor, for the Motherland!" The staff of the Kirov plant presented the division with 4 KV tanks and more than 15 guns of the 1927 model. Communists together with veterans of the Kirov factory, residents of Besieged Leningrad and representatives of the public organization "Children of war" came on May 10, 2013 to the Luzhsky District to the site of the monument of partisan heroes and to the village of voronino in the Novgorod Region to once again bow before the Holy feat and courage of the heroes of the Kirov people's militia. They laid wreaths and flowers together with local residents, who tend to memorable places with special trepidation. In the village of Voronino, they were greeted by an 87-year-old woman who witnessed those events. For Communists of the Kirov District and local residents, this has become an annual solemn tradition. The feat of the Kirov soldiers is forever inscribed in the history of the Great Patriotic War and is alive in our hearts to this day. Leningrad will never forget its fallen sons! Thank You for our life and Leningrad! Eternal memory to You - the Kirov workers.