Rank: Red Army Soldier. My grandmother often told me how her grandfather, Ivan Bleyalkin, died in the war. He was born in 1908 in the village of Syreika, Kinelsky District, Samara Region. Ivan worked for the farm "Lenin's Banner". He married Ekaterina Garanina in 1929. Their first child, Nikolai, was born in 1930, after Anna and Alexander. The couple lived together amicably and happily. Ivan was a tractor driver, and Ekaterina was a stable girl. But there was a terrible time for our country - the Great Patriotic War began. Soon he was called up to the Red Army. From what his wife learned at that time: he fought at Smolensk and died on 27.02.1942. He was fighting for our Country for only 2 months. When the war ended, a fellow villager, returning from the front, came to visit my great-great-grandmother Ekaterina Firsovna and told how her husband died. It was like this. They appointed him a munition man. These were the bravest fighters who were not afraid to supply ammunition during the bombing. They were together with a fellow villager, on that sad day for our family. In the village of Koumiss Smolensk Region began an air raid. All the soldiers began to hide under the carts, and Ivan, grabbing a machine gun and running across the field with hope and faith in the strength of the Soviet army, began to shoot back with a machine gun. At this point, one of the enemy's planes made a low descent over the field and, shooting people who ran for cover or fired back, dropped a bomb on them. After the end of the shelling, the Soviet troops gathered all the dead, among them was my great-great-grandfather. He was buried in a mass grave in the village of Kumys. So he died with hope and faith in our peaceful future. He died on 27.02.1942. Eternal memory to the brave soldiers!