CITY: the village of Mironovka, Perm province DATE OF BIRTH: 01/02/1918 DATE OF DEATH: 11/06/1994 HISTORY: Title: Colonel Type of troops: Artillery. In the world do not die twice ... The poem by Konstantin Simonov "The Son of an Artilleryman" is not as popular today as 30-40 years ago. In Soviet times, it was hardly possible to find a boy or a girl who would not know the famous lines "Nothing in life can knock us out of the saddle" and would not remember the story of Lenka Petrov ... But few people know that the prototype of the main character of the poem was participant of the Great Patriotic War Ivan Loskutov, who after its end served in the Pacific Fleet and lived in Vladivostok. Ivan Alekseevich Loskutov was born on January 2, 1918 in the village of Mironovka, Perm province, into the family of a red artillery commander. After leaving school, Ivan applied to the military registration and enlistment office with a request to send him to study at an artillery school. Cadet Loskutov studied easily and with pleasure. After graduating from college, Lieutenant Loskutov was sent to the reserve artillery regiment near Leningrad, then transferred to the 104th cannon artillery regiment. The regiment was stationed on the coast of the Barents Sea. The commander of the 104th artillery regiment was Major Efim Ryklis. The exploit of the intelligence officers. On June 23, 1941, Ivan Loskutov went to his place of service in the village of Ozerko. And on June 29, hostilities began in the Arctic. On July 3, 1941, there were stubborn battles for the Sredny and Rybachy peninsulas. The Nazis understood that whoever owned Rybachy and Sredniy was in control of the Kola Bay and the entire Murmansk direction. This place was named Death Valley. To detect enemy firing points, the commander of the artillery regiment decided to send intelligent officers to the enemy's location. On July 3, a reconnaissance group under the command of Lieutenant Loskutov went to the front line of the defense in order to move from there to an unnamed hill. The first intelligence data were immediately transferred to the regiment. When the sun glimmered in the east, the combined battery under the command of Senior Lieutenant Skrobov opened fire. The enemy's mortar battery was defeated, many Nazis were destroyed, several machine-gun points were suppressed. On the third day, a thick fog descended on the rocky mountains. The intelligence officers increased their surveillance, but the Nazis managed to approach the outpost. Loskutov's group was behind enemy lines. The lieutenant decided to call fire on himself. Having received the coordinates of the hill, Major Ryklis did not believe it and asked for confirmation over the radio. In response, the message sounded: "We are attacked by the Nazis! Fire! We are surrounded!" Almost no one doubted that the intelligence officers were dead. But they survived and returned to the unit. In October 1941, war correspondent Konstantin Simonov heard a story about a feat performed by Lieutenant Ivan Loskutov. Excited by the story, Simonov wrote the poem "The Son of an Artilleryman" in just 24 hours. Lieutenant Loskutov is shown in the poem under the name of Lenka Petrov. After the end of World War II, he served in the Pacific Fleet and ended his career in 1978 with the rank of colonel. In retirement, he was engaged in social activities. On November 8, 1994, Ivan Alekseevich Loskutov died. The veteran was buried at the Vladivostok Forest Cemetery.