Rank: Sergeant. Type of troops: Armored and mechanized troops. Konstantin Yakovlevich Krutikov was born in 1914 in the village of Kuminovo, Slobodo-torinsky district. He served in the army, was the member of the Finnish war. Before the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he married Darya Filippovna Kaigorodova, who was born in the same village in 1911. They had two sons: Alexander and Anatoly, and two daughters: Galina and Tamara. He volunteered for the service on the frontlines on September 06, 1941, leaving his wife and children at home. The eldest daughter was 6 years old, and the youngest was not even four months old. Daria Filippovna was one of the toilers of the homefront. She worked on a collective farm as a milkmaid and managed to find time to babysit children. My great-grandfather began his military career in the Tver region near the village of Nelidovo. He fought his way to Budapest. In one of the battles near the city of Budapest, he was awarded the medal "For Bravery". The award order describes the feat of my great-grandfather: "The loader of the mortar on the 524th mortar regiment of the 2nd guards’ mechanized corps Sergeant Konstantin Yakovlevich Krutikov on January 06, 1945 in the area of the village of Shoimar, under repeated enemy attacks with artillery and rifle fire, provided accurate and quick work, conducting combat fire and repelling counterattacks, causing significant losses in equipment and manpower to the enemy." The second guards’ mechanized corps gloriously fought its way from the Northern Donets to Kishinev, and then Bucharest, Budapest, Vienna, and the capital of Czechoslovakia – Prague. For the capture of the city of Nikolaev, the corps was awarded the title “Nikolaev”. For performing special tasks of the supreme command office, the mechanized corps was awarded the battle order of the Red Banner, the order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky and Alexander Nevsky. The corps was commanded by Lieutenant General Sviridov, and the corps' artillery was commanded by the Hero of the Soviet Union Guards’ Colonel Samokhin. As part of the 524th mortar guards’ regiment of the 2nd guards mechanized corps, he took part in crossing the rivers of the Northern Donets, Dnieper, and Danube. He participated in the liberation of 16 cities in the Soviet Union, Romania, Hungary, Austria, and Czechoslovakia from the Nazi invaders. My great-grandfather was injured and returned home to his family after undergoing treatment in the hospital. After the end of the war, he lived and worked in the city of Turinsk as a storekeeper at an enterprise. On April 06, 1985, by order of the Minister of Defense of the USSR, he was awarded the order of the Patriotic War of the II degree.