Branch of Service: Army, Air Force (except for Naval Aviation), Coast Guard, NKVD troops, Border Guard. Unit: 372nd Novgorod Red Banner Rifle Division. Vasily Bryuzgin was born in 1896, in the village of Meshanovo, Pskov District, Pskov Province (now Verholino villadge, Pskov District, Pskov Region, more ancient name - Verknnie Oliny) in a peasant family. Before the war, he studied at Verholino Community School. After school, he began to work for a collective farm in the village of Verholino. Married. He had six children: four sons and two daughters. It was a large and close-knit hard-working family. The terrible news of the beginning of the war broke into homes on Sunday, June 22, 1941. My great-great-grandfather Vasily was taken to the front in August 1941, when he was forty five years old. He worried that when left a large family with a baby. However, there was no other choice at that time. It was necessary to defend the Motherland. He and the other men were collected and sent to the station through the village of Verholino. They left their villages to meet the harsh unknown with the short and dry name "front", in groups and singly, still very young men and men in the Prime of life, those who in their youth had not yet had time to meet their first love and fathers from large families. Relatives learned about the departure of Vasily shortly before that. He did not know then that this was the last time he saw his family. He wanted to go up and kiss his children and wife, and got out of line. But he did not have time to approach them. The rough voice of the commander: "Bruzgin, get back in line," stopped him. He saw the tears of his family, but could not do anything. Vasily was a private in the 1238th Rifle Regiment of the 372nd Rifle Division. The winter of 1943-1944 was mild, "rotten". The marshes were covered only with a thin crust of ice, which significantly reduced the maneuverability of the troops, tying them to the roads. The enemy strongholds of Staraya Melnitsa, Bolshoe Lyapino, and Maloe Lyapino, in the Novgorod Region, were defended by garrisons of strength from a reinforced platoon to a company each and were prepared for a circular defense. The commander of the 1st Rifle Battalion of the 1238th Rifle Regiment at 21:00 on January 18, 1943 received the task: in order to quickly reach the enemy's supply routes leading to Novgorod from the West, in 24 hours on January 18, using a weakly fortified area on the enemy's front line, the riverbed of the river Vpryazhka and brush and forest in this area, pass through the last edge secretly, reach the enemy's rear by 7 o'clock on January 19 and destroy it in the stronghold of Staraya Melnitsa. Forbidding the withdrawal of enemy units to the West, hold this strong point until the main forces approach. The 1238th Rifle Regiment reached the Leningrad Region, to the city of Vyborg. There, Vasily was wounded in the leg. In the city of Vyborg, a local resident helped him. She had cured him and Vasily continued to fight on. However, he did not fight for long. When he was delivering shells on a horse, he came across an unexploded mine of the enemy and was killed. He died on July 7 (2), 1944 in the Vyborg District in the town of Vysotsk. Initially, Vasily was buried on the island Ravan-Sari, but the place of perpetuation of his memory is located at the memorial cemetery in the city of Vysotsk, grave #54.