Rank: Lieutenant. Branch of Service: Land Forces, Air Force (except for Naval Aviation), Coast Guard, NKVD troops, Border Guards. Unit: 53rd Friedrich Engels Novoukrainskaya Red Banner Order of Suvorov Rifle Division. On a quiet family evening, my grandmother takes out all that was left of her father and, wiping away her tears, begins her story: "When the war started, I was only four years old. I do not remember how people felt, but I can clearly remember seeing my father off to war. At that time, we lived in a Chapaev Collective Farm, and the military enlistment office was located in the village of Arkhangelskoe, which was fourteen kilometers away. We went there on foot, and my father carried me all the way in his arms, hugging me tightly. I also remember waving goodbye, and tears flowed from his eyes..." Great-grandfather went to army in the first days of war. I received letters, but did not saved them. At first, he trained at the courses, after which he received the rank of Second Lieutenant and went to the front. He commanded a rifle platoon of the 740th Rifle Regiment of the 53rd Rifle Division. He was surrounded together with his comrades-in-arms near the town of Yukhnov in the Smolensk Region at the beginning of 1942. As he later recalled, it was hard to get out of the encirclement: the cold, swampy terrain, feet constantly stuck in the swamp slush… They went without rest, despite the deadly fatigue… It was hard to walk, but they walked, step by step, kilometer by kilometer!.. He led his platoon out of the encirclement! His sister's husband, Ivan Khaustov, walked next to him. According to my grandmother, great-grandfather, only once, with a tremor in his voice, told about it: «Go… I keep looking around – he's there, and then I look back, and he's not there. Gone… I tried to look for him, but I couldn't find him..." Ivan Khaustov is still on the list of missing persons… And my great-grandfather grieved for the rest of his life that he could not save Ivan… My great-grandfather was seriously wounded on February 8, 1942, during the attack on the town of Yukhnov in the Smolensk Region. It was a penetrating wound with damage to the left lung. He spent several months in a hospital in Omsk. He was discharged from the 740th Rifle Regiment with the rank of Second Lieutenant due to a combat wound. He carried the "memory" of this injury in his lung for nineteen years. Surgeons removed the fragment only in 1961. For his exploits, Semyon Borzakov was awarded the Order of the Red Star and the Medal for the Victory over Germany. He was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War 2nd degree in 1985. Great-grandfather did not like to brag about his military exploits, did not like to talk about the war, the memories were too heavy for him. And only a battered military ID can tell sparingly about the hero's feat… But he loved Victory Day so much, attending the festivities to the last. We, his relatives, came to visit him every year on May 9. My great-grandfather died on March 15, 2004. The tradition of visiting him remained after he passed away. Now on Victory Day, the whole family comes to his grave, tie a St. George ribbon on the cross, and pour for him a hundred front-line grams of vodka. For the Victory!