Rank: Petty Officer Troops: Artillery. I was Born in a Cossack village. Great-grandfather was a dashing ataman And he was able to be proud of the power, Faithfully served Russia. T.I.Degtyareva Great Patriotic War… These words still cause pain in the hearts of my family and friends, that’s why the theme of war and Victory, and not only an anniversary, is constant and sacred for us. A lot of water has flowed away after those terrible years, but our family remembers those bitter four years that became a military fate for my great-grandfather Dmitry Illarionovich Kohanenko. He is one of those common soldiers who were given the order to win or die. He was born in the village of Bogoslovskoe (now the village Balakhonovskoe) Kochubeyevsky district. In 1942, on the eve of the entry of the German-fascist invaders to the lands of Stavropol, he barely managed to finish 8 grades of the Barsukov secondary school. At the end of May, he graduated, and on August 3, a rumor went around the village of Barsukovskaya that Stavropol was burning, the Germans were nearby. The local government was hastily evacuated. Dmitry Illarionovich, at the age of 17, was sent to the village of Velikoknyazheskoe, now Olginsky, the former district center, where the military enlistment office still operated, where he wanted to join the active army. But he, as a minor, was not called up for the army, and he went to the village of Prokhladniy hoping that our troops would meet him there and he would be accepted into one of the retreating units. He took a dog cart, left on the market, loaded it with his belongings, and went after the troops. That's how Dmitry Illarionovich got into the training battalion, then into the artillery battalion of 45 mm guns, designed to destroy tanks. It so happened that after his illness, he had to serve as a scout to adjust and clarify the objectives of the special artillery reconnaissance unit, and helped the artillery gunners to fire the 145 mm guns. On January 1, 1942, the Germans, who had occupied the Caucasus, began to retreat. The German troops who were in the area where our units were located, after celebrating the New year, left their trenches without a fight and left. Our units pursued them, drove them out of villages, cities and villages of Stavropol and Kuban. Then the detachment went through a mountain pass and came to the village Ubinskoe where our troops pursued the retreating enemy. The Germans retreated to the village of Krymskaya and took up defensive positions there. Our reconnaissance team secured itself near the village and corrected artillery fire from there. Only in October, the Germans left their positions and retreated to the Crimea. Pursuing the enemy in the area of the village of Starotitorovskaya, the unit in which Dmitry Illarionovich fought, landed troops at the height of "Mayak". Not far away, on the outskirts of Kerch, another landing force landed, capturing half of the territory of the plant named after Voykov. Here, in one of the battles, Dmitry Illarionovich received many shrapnel wounds, which did not allow him to return to the ranks after prolonged treatment. In 1945, he returned to Bogoslovskoe and was appointed head of the Bogoslovskoe communications Department of the Kochubeyevsky office. In 1963, he was appointed head of the Novoaleksandrovskaya communications office, where he worked for almost a quarter of a century until 1986 with a total experience of more than 41 years. Dmitry Illarionovich was a member of the Cossack squad, the Kuban Cossack army. Great-grandfather has many awards, but, unfortunately, some of them have not been preserved. But those that were saved by my grandmother Ekaterina Morgunova, became our family shrine and priceless memory. Dmitry Illarionovich Kohanenko's military and peaceful work was were marked with the Order of the Great Patriotic War of the first degree and medals: "For the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War", "For valor and bravery in the Great Patriotic War", "Medal of Zhukov", "Veteran of the separate Coastal Army". He was recognized four times as the winner of the socialist competition in his field of activity. He was also an active participant in all the affairs of the district organization of the Communist party, and the veterans of the district elected him Chairman of the control and audit Commission of their veteran organization. An essay about Dmitry Illarionovichand his combat career was published in our regional newspaper "Znamya Truda". I am proud that my great-grandfather is known and remembered in the Novoaleksandrovsky district. It's about people like him that the lines were written: May the Salt of the Earth - a wise strong Cossack - live and not only in the tales! The memory of him, a dear man, as well as of his every battle, of every day of the past war - in my heart forever! And I would like very much to address my peers and all people of different generations with an appeal: "Remember! And let the genetic memory that exalts you, never give you peace!"