The Great Patriotic War is one of the most terrible trials that befell the Russian people. Its severity and bloodshed left a huge imprint on the minds of people and had dire consequences for the life of an entire generation. Children and war are two incompatible concepts. War breaks and maims the lives of children. But children lived and worked alongside adults, trying to bring victory closer with their feasible work ... The war claimed millions of lives, ruined millions of talents, destroyed millions of human destinies. At the present time, many people, in particular, young people, know little about the history of their country, but witnesses to the events of the Great Patriotic War are becoming less and less every year, and if their memories are not written down now, they will simply disappear along with the people. without leaving a well-deserved trace in history. Ivanova-Utochkina Zinaida Ivanovna born in 1924. In 1941 she was 14 years old. After passing the exams in the first summer of war, she worked from school on a collective farm in the harvest. The teachers left, 6 adults stayed with the children. "The Germans entered in August." Zinaida Ivanovna went on foot to Rostov-on-Don with her teacher Marya Grigorievna and another schoolgirl. The first night was spent under a hay. In the afternoon, on the way, we met two young men 2 years older, they also decided to spend the night under a hay. The next day, Zinaida Ivanovna recalls, they met two Germans. They were traveling in a car, one was in the cab, the other was upstairs. The fellow travelers knew the German language, after the conversation, the Germans put the children in the car and took them to Salsk. There was nowhere to spend the night in the city, they advised me to contact the chairman. At the chairman's house, they were met by an elderly woman who answered that they had to wait for their son. He came in the evening, gave permission to spend the night, gave out four loaves of bread and bacon. In the morning they took me to the Village Council, there were many Jews. They led the column in an unknown direction, left it on the way. In their native Rostov-on-Don, the boys were met by their parents. Here Zinaida Ivanovna learned that a shell had hit the house where she lived on Moskovskaya Street. Only fragments remained, skeletons of iron beds. In the courtyard, a dog named Sizik sat alone. Neighbor aunt Valya Korsakova told about the incident, but did not help. Everything that could be useful has already been removed from the wreckage of the house. I went to spend the night with my aunt Sonya, Manya, my sister, was going to the theater. After living there for a week, she traded in sugar. Then she went to live with her stepmother and half-sister Klava. Klava worked as a messenger for the Germans. Registered. They ate herring, bread, anchovy. They offered to leave for work in Germany. Zinaida Ivanovna, not understanding what was happening, agreed. Fortunately, her path stopped in the village of Stepnoy, where she joined the women from Brest. Came February 23, 1943, Soviet troops lifted the occupation. She worked in the field, knitted sheaves, harvested corn. Trenches were dug up to Tikhoretsk. Later I got a job in the police, it was necessary to visit public places and collect information. A telegram came from my sister, she invited me to come to Ordzhonikidze, 300 rubles were attached to the telegram. But there was nothing to go. After talking at work, she was released, having written off her uniform. Arriving, I got a job on a collective farm. Sister Anna got married. Other sisters, Valentina and Maria, were in the orphanage. Zinaida Ivanovna went to work at a construction site, where a note came, she was invited to study at the railway school as an electrician, the term of study was 10 months. On the day when the diplomas were to be presented, planes circled over the city. We decided that the Germans were attacking again. It was May 9, the war was over! Those born in 1923-1924 were sent to study further at the railway technical school until December. The news came, my father returned wounded. Zinaida Ivanovna returned to Ordzhonikidze, sister Valya was already 18 years old, Maria was taken from the orphanage. They did not have time to get there, my father died. They were buried in Armavir, the old cemetery, grave No. 49. They gave out fabric for the coffin upholstery. I have never been there since. Since December 1945 he has been living in the village of Voskhod. Labor experience of Zinaida Ivanovna is 44 years, only on the collective farm in the village of Voskhod. "Oh, war, what have you done, vile ..." Over the long four years that the Great Patriotic War lasted, children, from toddlers to senior schoolchildren, have fully experienced all its horrors. War every day, every second, every dream, and so on for almost four years. But war is hundreds of times more terrible if you see it through the eyes of children ... And no time can heal wounds from war, especially children. "These years that were once, the bitterness of childhood does not allow to forget ..."