Rank: Lieutenant Colonel. Branch of Service: Army, Air Force (except for Naval Aviation), Coast Guard, NKVD troops, Border Guards. My story is about Ibrahim Bigaeva, my mother's grandfather's father. The beginning of the Great Patriotic War found him Secretary of the North Evenk District Party Committee in the Khabarovsk Region. When the 205th Rifle Division was being formed in Kharkov, Ibrahim was appointed a Senior Instructor of the Political Department for propaganda, and he fought from the first to the last day on the Stalingrad Front. Ibrahim took his first fight as a political officer of the 709th Regiment of the 24th Rifle Division. He knew that personal example had a much stronger effect on soldiers than any fiery speeches and conversations. And one day in particularly heavy fighting near Kotluban he went in the attack at the head of the battalion, and when he was wounded in the left arm, hastily bandaging it, he continued the fight. From trench to trench, from one position to another, the intrepid propagandist hurried to cheer up his comrades-in-arms, to convey to them the stingy but very important news of the Sovinformburo. The division in which Ibrahim fought was assigned a combat task: to stop the enemy advancing on important areas at any cost. The order was carried out with honor. In these battles, my grandfather was awarded the Order of the Red Star for his bravery. There are harsh memory of the war on his body: 17 scars from shrapnel and bullet wounds. My great-grandfather was forever registered with his blood on the sacred land of Stalingrad. From the memoirs of Ibrahim: "...Near Stalingrad the detachment of "Katyushas" of our countryman Savlokha Slokhova was positioned. After learning about this, the Nazis decided to destroy it with a sudden air strike. One bomb went off two steps away from me. The ground rose like a black tornado and swallowed me instantly. Now I can't remember how long I lay in the crater, covered with earth. My friends did not find me for a long time, so they sent a sad message to the military enlistment office: I died a brave death. And I survived to the surprise of all, only had hearing ability partly lost …» My grandfather's father finished his military service near Kharkov. In a fierce battle, he was seriously wounded and could not return to the ranks. After demobilization, he was an instructor of the North Ossetian Regional Committee of the CPSU, Secretary of the Darg-Kokhsky District Party Committee, and headed a number of industrial enterprises. According to my mother, he was a man of few words and did not like to talk about the war, about his awards. As long as his health allowed, he went to Volgograd to meet with fellow soldiers. Originally Ibrahim was from the village Zamankul, from a large family. There were seven brothers and one sister. All the brothers fought on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, and five of them returned home. Unfortunately, there is no one left alive. But the memory of them is alive in us - children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.