Title: Red Army soldier Type of troops: Ground Forces, Air Force (except naval aviation), coastal service, NKVD troops, border troops Grigory Matveyevich Yelchev, my great-grandfather, was born on 23.12.1921 in the village. Pushkino, Lada region of the Mordovian ASSR. In November 1940, he was called up for military service in the Red Army in the city of Chisinau, Republic of Moldova (training platoon of the regimental school of a rifle company). The service took place in peacetime, but cadets were actively trained for military operations. From the first hours of the war, Chisinau became a front-line city. At dawn on June 22, 1941, it was bombarded by enemy aircraft, and battles unfolded in the Chisinau direction. The cadets of the school were transferred to the rank and file of the rifle regiment of the 12th Army of the Southwestern Front under the command of Lieutenant General Fyodor Yakovlevich Kostenko. The 12th Army of the 1st formation was formed in the Kiev Special Military District in 1940. In the second half of July 1941, the army as part of the Southern Front (since July 25) fought defensive battles in the Uman direction. After the enemy inflicted deep flank attacks, a significant part of the troops of the 12th Army was surrounded and fought heavy battles for 5 days. 10 August 1941, after leaving the encirclement of the army, its field administration was disbanded, and units and subunits were transferred to staffing others front connections. Only by creating a large numerical advantage, the enemies managed to capture the city on July 16. From July 20 to August 12, 1941, the 12th Army was surrounded and defeated. The 3-year period of the occupation of Chisinau has come - one of the darkest in the history of the city. The invaders declared Chisinau the center of the governorship of Bessarabia they had created, established a regime of terror and military-police arbitrariness, outrage and robbery. Mass executions were carried out on the outskirts of Chisinau. Grigory Matveyevich dropped out of the army - was taken prisoner - 08/08/1941 Soviet soldiers and officers who were captured were of no interest to the German command. The prisoners were placed in camps built on the territory of occupied Ukraine, and were used as labor for logging and other work. In 1942 they began to be exported to Germany, as workers were needed there. From 1942 to 1943, Grigory Matveyevich worked in a mine, mined coal. Working and living conditions were very harsh. When his legs hurt and he was unable to work at the mine, he was transferred to agricultural work for German families. Here Grigory Matveyevich was before the arrival of the Soviet Army. At the end of May 1945, all the prisoners were returned to their homeland. The attitude towards the former prisoners of war was not the same as towards all the soldiers who fought. Only in 1954 Yelchev Grigory Matveyevich, together with other prisoners of war, was rehabilitated and equated to the number of participants in the Second World War. All subsequent years he enjoyed the benefits of a participant in the Second World War and received awards (Order of the Patriotic War, II degree). Grigory Matveevich died on September 25, 1999.