Rank: petty officer. Type of troops: armored and mechanized troops. He began his combat career in September of the forty-first year in the city of Alabino near Moscow, where he mastered a new multi-shot weapon, which was later named "Katyusha". After completing his training, he was sent to the 32nd separate guards mortar division, which was part of the Western front under the command of G. K. Zhukov. My great-grandfather was directly involved in the battles of Vyazma and the battle of Moscow. For this, he was awarded the medal "for the defense of Moscow". In the forty-second year, he took part in the battles on the outskirts of the besieged Leningrad. My grandfather had very bad memories of the defense of Stalingrad, where he was the commander of the intelligence branch. He told how hard it was to find places of shelter for "Katyusha" in the steppe. The soldiers had to make underground shelters, drive the guns there and take them out during the shots, and then put them back underground. The battle of Stalingrad was not over yet, and my grandfather was being sent to study in the Urals. He met the victorious may of the forty-fifth year in the far East as a squad leader of a self-propelled artillery regiment. For participating in the defeat of the Kwantung army, he was awarded the order of the Red Star, which was added to his military awards. Ivan Alekseyevich finished his military career as a Lieutenant in August 1946 in Port Arthur, Japan. Every year, on May 9, my great-grandfather took part in the celebrations that were held in his hometown. In 2000, he was one of the participants in the Victory Parade on Red Square. His name is forever recorded in the Book of Memory of participants of the Great Patriotic War in the Orekhovo-Zuyevsky district of the Moscow region.