Rank: First Lieutenant Branch of service: Artillery From the memoirs of my brother, Mikhail Shtykov: "...In 1941. Vladimir finished 10 classes, but the war began. He enlisted in a fighter battalion, where they took young guys, Komsomol members, who for one reason or another were not called up to the army. These battalions were used sometimes plug the holes in the defence. These untrained guys, poorly armed, were killed in the first battle, and those who were captured were shot by the Germans. Vladimir was lucky, because an order was issued for the immediate evacuation of young people born in 1923-1924. Those who came to the military enlistment office were taken to the rear and sent, if they had an education, to commander's schools or courses. Vladimir graduated from such a school, received the rank of Lieutenant and in the winter of 1942-1943 participated in the battle of Stalingrad. His service record was associated with the 159th Fortified Region, 93rd Machine Gun and Artillery Battalion. Fortified regions were formed as units that held the defense in secondary areas, thereby freeing the main forces, and allowed the command to concentrate these forces on the main directions. However, the firepower of such a battalion was equal to the power of an entire division. I have a book by the Commander of the 159th Fortified District, in which he mentions the heroic death of captain Belov. But I got a little ahead of myself. During the time that Vladimir was at the front, from Stalingrad until his death on February 23, 1945, he was wounded seven times. According to the letters of his fellow soldiers that I have, he was a very brave officer. According to my reasoning, his subordinates simply betrayed him, shamefully fled, and left their commander alone against the Germans. V. Belov's parents received a letter from the Chief of Staff of the 93rd Separate Machine-gun and Artillery Battalion in March 1945. He who wrote in this letter that Vladimir had died while performing a task, correcting the battery's fire, i.e. performing his direct duties. Then he stopped firing, and they got close to him, they saw that the bullet had hit him in the head. Even when I read this letter out loud, I realized that this is not so. While Vladimir's parents were there, I did not take any steps to establish the truth. Then, after their deaths, I found Vladimir's fellow soldiers, and they all confessed to me that he had shot himself to avoid capture. By order #270 of August 1941, an officer who was captured was declared a traitor, and his family was subject to reprisals. Of course, the Commander of the 159th Fortified Region in his memoirs, describing the events of February 23, 1945, could not say about the loss of vigilance in the subordinate Fortified Region. The loss of vigilance, the lack of combat guards in the Separate Machine-gun and Artillery Battalion, led to a tragedy - the death of officers and soldiers. The was no investigation of this fact..."