Rank: Sergeant. Branch of Service: Army, Air Force (except for Naval Aviation), Coast Guard, NKVD troops, Border Guards. Unit: 342nd Rifle dDivision (2nd formation). The war has affected everyone. Every family has its own dead, wounded, missing, and heroes! And I want to tell you about the heroes of my family. For me, War and Victory in this war have something to do with my fate. I remember with what attention and emotional excitement I listened to the conversations of my grandparents, when they recalled the fighting and working days of that time. My mother's father, Fedor Gorchakov (Baryshev), born in 1913, met the war already being called up to the Red Army, an ordinary soldier, he ended the war with the rank of a Sergeant. He was a simple soldier, such people as he bore the brunt of the war, they were the majority in the ranks of our armed forces, and therefore most of the losses fell on just such ordinary soldiers. My grandfather went through the entire war, starting with the Finnish campaign and ending the war in East Prussia. He served in a mortar platoon and was awarded the Order of the Red Star, the highest order of soldier's valor, for his participation in the crossing of the Dniester River. Their platoon as part of the landing force was transferred to the right bank of the river with orders to hold the bridgehead for the landing of the main forces of our front. The fascists rained fierce fire on the captured patch of the beach, and by the end of the day only my grandfather was left alive from the platoon, and he fired at the enemy from the three mortars which remaining serviceable. These dashes from mortar to mortar, as it turned out later, saved his life. From his stories, I realized that the war was not just a rush to the attack with shouts: "For the Motherland! For Stalin!" or fierce tank battles, all of this, of course, took place, but the main burden of the war was everyday hard work: pulling stuck trucks and guns out of the mud, digging trenches and setting up dugouts, carrying mortars and much, much more, at first glance not at all heroic, everyday, heavy, but it was this work in the war that allowed us to attack and defeat the enemy. I remember how deeply I was shocked by his story, and he told it as something curious, without pathos. It was back in the Finnish campaign. Our troops were advancing on the Finns in the thaw, the sun was warming, and the advancing chains came across a well-fortified defense. With machine-gun fire, the Finns literally pinned our soldiers to the ground, not allowing them to raise their heads. The soldiers spent several hours waiting for reinforcements. My grandfather told me that when he lay on one side, his greatcoat got wet, and he turned over on the other side to dry it! He went through the entire war unharmed. In conclusion, I would like to say a huge thank you to all those who have given us the opportunity to celebrate this great holiday – VICTORY DAY! I would like to hope that the great lesson of the war will teach humanity to be human, to meet the hopes of our ancestors!