Rank: Senior Lieutenant. Type of Army: Artillery. I would like to introduce my grandfather to you. He's a real hero!!! A hero not only of that time, but also of our time, because those people who gave us life will remain heroes for all of us forever!!! There was a graduation party at the Gotnyansky school on June 21, 1941. There were slow waltz sounds heard, people talked and laughed. Young men and women were on the threshold of independent life. A fleeting cloud of sadness sometimes crossed their smiling faces. It is not easy to leave the walls of the school where they spent ten unforgettable years. The future worried them. The graduates ' dreams were bright, their hopes were endless, and their aspirations were high. They talked excitedly, sang a lot, danced a lot, and did not notice how the morning of June 22 came. The school was empty. Tired and happy, the boys went home. They did not know yet that terrible events had stirred up the whole world: the great Patriotic war had begun… Six days later, on June 28, my grandfather, a seventeen-year-old boy at that time, came to the military enlistment office with a request to send him to the front. It wasn't a youthful romance that drove him, or a reckless desire to show off his courage. No! These were high patriotic feelings and love for the Motherland which forced him to join the ranks together with volunteers like him. After saying goodbye to the girl, he went to the Moscow Red Banner Artillery school, where he did not stay much. The Germans were approaching the capital. Students of the school were thrown to the defense of the city, and a month later, together with the teachers, the youth who had experienced the first baptism of fire returned to classes. The school was now far in the rear. One year had passed. My grandfather was promoted to Lieutenant and was sent to the defense of Volgograd as part of the Guards Mortar Regiment. There was a fierce battle on the Volga. The city was nothing but smoking ruins, the ground burned under their feet, but the courage of the Soviet soldiers, their inexhaustible faith in victory, created a miracle: a huge army under the command of field Marshal Paulus was destroyed. At the same time, in a combat situation, a nineteen-year-old Lieutenant, a division intelligence commander, was accepted into the ranks of the Communist party. ""It was an ordinary day,"" my grandfather told me, "" but the memory of it will remain with me for the rest of my life. I immediately felt taller, stronger, and more serious.» From the banks of the flaming Volga, my grandfather, now the Commander of a Fire Platoon, went to his native place, to the Kursk bulge, where an unheard-of battle unfolded, where every piece of land was drenched in blood. Our units retreated, attacked again with counter-attacks, suffered heavy losses, but did not lose heart. At first slower, but then faster, they began to move forward, liberating towns and villages that had been burned by the Germans. For the courage and bravery shown during the capture of the capital of Ukraine, Kiev, my grandfather received the first award-the Order of the ""Red Star"". Much time have pessed ,and Zhytomyr fell. After this event he got the Order of the ""Patriotic war of 2nd class"". His unit was moving towards Berlin liberating Poland. For the capture of the city of Sandomierz on the Vistula, a young Communist is awarded the Order of the ""Patriotic war of the 1st class"". All the fighters carried the name of Motherland in their hearts as a banner, as a call to victory. When only 50 kilometers to Berlin were left my grandfather was a member of the 3rd Tank Army. It was very difficult for our soldiers to cross the water barriets towards Berlin. The crossing was under continuous enemy fire, but this did not stop the soldiers, and the enemy ran. Later he received the fourth Order of the ""Red Banner"". These are the words about his courage: ""Guard senior Lieutenant Gavrilenko in battles with the German invaders shows courage and heroism. On January 16,1945 Guards Senior Lieutenant Gavrilenko, performing a private combat mission, under machine-gun fire of the enemy took the stronghold and as a result of a timely, accurate salvo, the tanks of the 51st Guards Tank Division occupied the town of Przedbuzh from the move. On February 15,1945 comrade Gavrilenko fired 4 volleys above the center of Naumburg, destroyed 2 wagons with military cargo, an armored train was suppressed, and up to 2 platoons of enemy infantry were destroyed. On February 19, 1945 in the area of Rotwasser he gave 6 volleys, repulsed 2 enemy counterattacks, destroyed a company of enemy infantry, 3 tanks, suppressed an artillery battery, 2 anti-tank guns, destroyed 2 large-caliber machine guns"".He was seriously wounded in April 1945, almost before the end of the war. My grandfather was declared unfit for military service. A former senior Lieutenant, he became an accountant at the same school where he studied before. My grandfather often recalled his comrades in arms, their courage, firmness of spirit, and selflessness. He modestly kept silent about personal merits, but orders and medals speak of courage, of his undying love for life, for the Motherland, for people. He, like all those who have seen the horrors of the war years, spoke with disgust of the inhuman cruelty of the enemy. He did everything to ensure that all children always had a clear sky and the sun shining! Going back to the beginning of my story, I mentioned there about the girl grandfather said good-bye before leaving for the war, I did not say most important, he cut from her head a lock of hair, which he kept through the war, and today it is still in my grandmother's house. They lived the whole life together!"