My great-grandfather, Sergey Ivanovich Bogdanov, was born on February 15, 1924 in the village of Polovinino in the Rzhevsky district of the Kalinin (Tver) region, in a large family. His entire life was spent in Rzhev and the Rzhevsky district. Here he was a Komsomol leader, fought, worked in the city party Committee, editor of the newspaper "Rzhevskaya Pravda". As a seventeen-year-old boy, my great-grandfather left to defend our country from the Nazis. In October 1941, he joined a partisan detachment under the command of M. V. Kornilov (nicknamed "Grandfather"), which operated in the territory occupied by the Nazis. Being in the intelligence service, Sergei Bogdanov personally destroyed two enemy mortars, captured a corporal and delivered a prisoner, a mortar and 12 boxes of mines to the unit on a German cart. Participated in many battles as part of a reconnaissance company, where he always showed courage. When breaking through the enemy encirclement, he carried the banner of the 381st rifle division. At the age of 17, my great-grandfather took up arms and fought on the Rzhev land, liberating Smolensk, Yartsevo, and Velikiye Luki. In one of the operations, he killed a German General-the commander of the corps, obtained important documents. In a terrible battle near Vitebsk in March 1944, he was seriously wounded and disabled. His military career was marked by the orders of the red banner, red Star, world war II degree, many medals, including the medals "for the defense of Moscow" and "Partisan of the great Patriotic war" I degree. After returning from the front, my great-grandfather restored the city, studied and worked. To convey the truth to the living and future generations, he bit by bit collected materials about the Rzhev partisans and the underground youth organization that operated in the occupied Rzhev. He was one of the first to talk not just about the battles for Rzhev, but about the "battle of Rzhev", about The Rzhev-Vyazma bridgehead. Sergey Ivanovich Bogdanov co-authored with the former partisan I. A. Makshinsky in 1960 published the book "It was in Rzhev", in 1963 another book "On the Rzhev land"was published. No matter where he was, he never succumbed to the hardships of life, old age, or serious illness. He was always an example of courage and self-control. Sergey Ivanovich Bogdanov died on February 17, 2000, at the age of 76. His whole life teaches us respect for the history of the small homeland, the Fatherland.