Rank: Sergeant Type of troops: Artillery Unit: 128th Pskov Rifle Red Banner Division When the Great Patriotic War began, my grandfather Mikhail Mikhailovich Kolmykov was 17 years old, so he was called up to the front in August 1942. After completing the course of a young soldier in the city of Pokrov, where he was trained for sergeants, the soldier Kolmykov got to the First Ukrainian Front and was the commander of a machine-gun squad. In Belarus, near Vitebsk, he received his first baptism of fire. In December 1943, my grandfather received his first wound in the shoulder. Fortunately, the bullet went right through, and, having received medical treatment in the hospital, the grandfather again stood in line. In February 1945, Soviet troops were on the outskirts of Berlin. They crossed the Vistula and Oder rivers. But there were bloody battles here. On February 13, 1945, near the German city of Breslau, Sergeant Kolmykov took the last battle in his life, in which he was seriously wounded in both legs. One leg was saved, the left was amputated. Then my grandfather was 21 years old. For that fight, my grandfather was nominated for the medal "For Courage". But then, in the bustle of the post-war time, the medal was lost somewhere, and my grandfather was awarded it only 60 years later, in March 2005. The commissioner of the city of Yegoryevsk came to visit my grandfather and presented him with a well-deserved award. He met the victory in the Yerevan hospital. The grandfather was happy that the war was over, but did not want to return home, since there were 2 young brothers left in the family, and he would only be a burden. I informed my mother about this in a letter. But the mother answered: "Come back, son! Whatever you are, you are our son. We love you and are waiting for you!" And the soldier Kolmykov returned home in August 1945. The whole village greeted him. And 2 girls ran up to him and said: "Mishatka, don't be upset, take a balalaika and go out in the evening for a walk!" Soon one of the girls became his wife, gave birth to a son and a daughter. After the war, my grandfather did not sit idle, worked as assessors, head of a rural hut-reading room, worked at the Yegorievsky state farm. My grandfather, Mikhail Mikhailovich Kolmykov, lived a difficult life. In recent years, I was ill, past wounds affected. But we were always close to him - people dear to him. My grandfather died at the age of 88 on December 13, 2012.