Heroes and feats

Rank: Captain, 1st Rank Branch of Service: Navy and Naval forces of NKVD Border Guard Alexander Balkashin was born on July 30, 1918 in Peterhof, Leningrad Region, graduated in 1941 from the Higher Naval Engineering School named after F. Dzerzhinsky. After graduation with a rank of Lieutenant, he was sent to serve in the Ladoga Military Flotilla, which was formed by order of the People's Commissar of the Navy on June 25, 1941 as part of the Baltic Fleet for the defense of the coast of Lake Ladoga. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, the Ladoga Military Flotilla with fire of its artillery supported the actions of the 2nd Shock, 4th, 7th, 8th, 23rd, 54th and 67th Armies, and conducted the operational and five tactical landings of troops on the flank and rear of the enemy. It had carried out transportation of troops, cargo, evacuated civilians and equipment of the industrial enterprises of Leningrad, defended lake communications, and supported the actions of the army in the Sinyavino operations of 1941 and 1942. The Flotilla protected the "Road of life", participated in breaking the siege of Leningrad in 1943, and in June-August 1944 - in the Vyborg-Petrozavodsk operation, conducted the Tuloksin landing operation, during which a bridgehead 35 km behind the front line was captured, and the railway and highway were cut. The Flotilla repulsed an enemy attempt to land troops on Sukho Island on October 22, 1942. During the battle, the enemy lost 19 of its 23 ships and 12 aircraft. It prevented the German attempt to cut off communications with besieged. In the navigations of 1941 and 1942 (before the break of the Leningrad blockade), the Flotilla together with the river fleet transported moved over 1,414 thousand tons of cargo and about 1,483 thousand people. The Flotilla was disbanded after breaking the siege of Leningrad on November 4, 1944. The ships and boats of the flotilla became a part of the Baltic Fleet., with the rank of Captain of the 1st Rank A. Balkashin after the end of the war was transferred to serve in Pilau. It was renamed Baltiysk after the liberation of Konigsberg and the creation of the Kaliningrad Region. He served there as a divisional mechanic. For further service he was transferred to the Main Headquarters of the Navy in Moscow in 1949, where he served until the age limit and retired. He died in Moscow on September 17, 2005 at the age of 89.

Rank: Second Lieutenant. Branch of Service: Army, Air Force (except for Naval Aviation), Coast Guard, NKVD troops, Border Guard. My grandfather Ilya Borisov was born on August 2, 1910 in the village of Sorokino, Iznosinsky District, Kaluga Province. He served in the Red Army in Leningrad from 1932 to 1935. He guarded the Electrosila plant. He together with his wife Tatiana moved to the Pskov Region in 1936, where he was sent to work as a driver cinema operator after a special course. Their daughter Tamara, my mother, was born in 1937. He left to study at the officers' course in May 1939. After the accelerated completion of the course, my grandfather received the military rank of Second Lieutenant, and he was sent to the Finnish war as a platoon commander in the 7th Army. Once the unit where he served called fire on itself in February 1940. Almost everybody was killed, and he was seriously wounded. He was in a hospital until May 1941. He returned as disabled person. During the war, together with his wife and young daughter, my mother, he lived in the villages of Pesochek and Rossoshnya (now Dedovichsky District, Pskov Region). He had a connection with the partisans, carried them intelligence data, and hid them in his house. He was arrested twice by the Germans during the occupation. Shortly before the liberation of the district, in February 1944, my grandparents’ son Vladimir was born. He later served as a Captain of the 2nd Rank. After the war, they built a house in the village of Dedovichi, Pskov Region. Their second daughter, Tatiana, was born in 1950. Because of a serious injury, he could not work anywhere. He did clock repairs and photography at home, raised bees, and sold honey. Grandfather Ilya died in 1964.

Rank: Second Lieutenant Branch of Service: Land Forces, Air Force (except for Naval Aviation), Coast Guard, NKVD troops, Border Guard Second Lieutenant Shapi Bakriev - Assistant Commander of a fighter platoon of a Separate Special Battalion of the Military Council of the Moscow Military District. Received the medal For Bravery. He died in 1942. He met the war at dawn on June 22, 1941 in Brest. The town was already being bombed, the first dead and wounded appeared. There were roar, dust, smoke, destroyed buildings, the howl of planes. This was how the Great Patriotic War began for Shapi Bakriev. He was from the village of Tsovkra-1, Kulinsky District of the Dagestan ASSR. He was born in 1916. He would have turned 100 years old in 2016. He was just 24 years old in 1941, and had already participated in the war with Finland in 1939-1940. The military unit where Shapi served was transferred to Brest 1940. There he graduated from the regimental intelligence school. The newspaper "Sentries of the Motherland" (Issue #83, April 11, 1940) wrote about him "...Communist Sh. Bakriev has a great reputation in the unit as one of the best shooters fluent in the shooting techniques. He provides a great help to soldiers in shooting training. Cadet Bakriev is clearly aware that the school is preparing a future commander from him...” Shapi was born in a large family of Magomed Bakriev. After graduation from rural school in 1936, he worked as a senior pioneer leader in the village of Tsovkra I. He graduated from the regional propaganda school in Buinaksk in 1938, and then worked as a teacher at an elementary school in the village of Tsovkra I. He was drafted into the Red Army by the Lakskiy District Military Commissariat in 1939. It was very difficult for our troops in the initial period of the war.The enemy was strong, insidious, cruel, and mobile. Our troops retreated with fighting, came out of the encirclements, from the semi-circles, and again entered into battle. This was evident from his letters home, written on random scraps of paper, on wrappers. These letters were preserved.

Rank: Corporal Branch of Service: Army Corps of Engineers Unit: 313th Svir-Petrozavodsk Double Red Banner Order of Suvorov and Kutuzov Rifle Division I am Lydia Golova, granddaughter of Ivan Bezrukov. I want to tell you about my grandfather. Ivan Bezrukov was born in Simbirsk Province (now Ulyanovsk Region) in 1906 in a large family. He lived in the village of Mullovka, in the Melekessky District of the Ulyanovsk Region, and worked as a carpenter for a distillery. At the time when the Great Patriotic war broke out, the grandfather was married and had five children, the eldest daughter was only twelve years old, and the youngest son was not even a year old. On the second day of the war, he was conscripted into the Red Army. The carpenter's profession was useful to him in the war. Ivan was appointed Squad Leader of the 139th Separate Bridge-building Battalion. He fought on the Karelian Front and ended the war in Poland, on the 2nd Belorussian Front. He liberated the Polish cities of Gdansk, Gdynia. He fought on the Karelian Front in 1942. It was necessary to build a bridge over the White Sea-Baltic Canal within four days. In a bad roads conditions the Squad Commander I. Bezrukov together with his unit completed the task in two days. For this, and for his courage in the battles with the Finnish and German invaders, corporal Bezrukov was awarded the medal For Military Merit. The medal For Bravery he received for showing himself in the construction of the crossing under heavy enemy artillery fire, thanks to which the units of the Petrozavodsk Rifle Division quickly crossed to the enemy-occupied shorebank and developed a rapid offensive. My grandfather received the order of Glory, 3rd class in May 1945. This happend on the Belorussian front in the 313th Petrozavodsk Rifle Division. He under heavy enemy fire transported soldiers by boat across the Strait of Divenow. When he moved all the fighters, he transported ammunition, and from there the wounded. In total, he made four flights and personally transported eighteen wounded soldiers and officers. Fortunately, during the entire war, he did not have any contusions or injuries. He was discharged from the Soviet Army in October 1945. He returned to his family and his company, where he worked until his retirement. He died in 1981 due to lung disease. Perhaps it was the hardships of the war that shook his health and did not allow him to live to a ripe old age. He brought up five children, ten grandchildren and even two great-grandchildren with dignity. We, the grandchildren, passed on the memories of our grandfather to our children and grandchildren, and we are all very proud to be part of his family. Every year, on May 9, we, his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, stand in line with him, marching with the Immortal Regiment. On the photo, the grandfather with his family, May 9, 1950 and in the mid-1970th with the youngest grandson and our grandmother. The third photo shows the march of the Immortal Regiment in Dimitrovgrad, Ulyanovsk Region, 2016.

Rank: First lieutenant. Branch of Service: Army, Air Force (except for Naval Aviation), Coast Guard, NKVD troops, Border Guard. Unit: 121st Rylsko-Kiev Red Banner Orders of Suvorov and Bogdan Khmelnitsky Rifle Division. Vasily Baklanov was born in 1923 in the village of Kirpilskaya. He graduated from Kirpilskaya Secondary School in 1941. Here is what Vasily Baklanov himself told: "The school held a graduation party on June 20, 1941. Since this was the first graduation, the evening was very solemn. There were many different performances, parting words and good wishes. The dancing and games lasted well into the night. I returned home at dawn, and at home - a summons for conscription. I went to the military enlistment office on horseback. The foreman of the collective farm gave me a horse. At 6 o'clock in the morning, at the Ust-Labinskaya freight station, I saw that it all was occupied by the military. It was June 21, 1941… I passed the draft board, and was told that I was enrolled in the artillery school and in 3-4 days will be sent there. On the morning of June 22, I went with my school friends to the village of Vostochnaya to see off our classmate Nikolai Korobov, who was leaving for Sevastopol to attend one of the military schools. There I learned that the war had begun. There was a mobilization in the village on June 23. Almost every men left for the army, and many horses and carts were taken from collective farms. The harvest was coming up, and the harvest has been exceptionally good. After all men left for the army, there were not enough workers on the collective farm, and all conscripts born in 1922-1923 were sent to harvest crops. I worked as a coachman, took grains to the Elevator and waited for conscription. They called me to the military enlistment office ten-twelve times. Commission after commission, and on October 19, 1941, I was called up and sent somewhere, but they did not tell where. We moved to the East. Walked. We arrived in Salsk on October 30. From Salsk, our commanders were urgently called to Stalingrad, our documents were sent back to the Ust-Labinsk District Military Commissariat, and we were offered to go back. I was called up for the second time on November 5, 1941 and sent to the Vinnytsia Military Infantry School, which was located in Krasnodar. I took the military oath on January 1, 1942. I became a Lieutenant on May 3, 1942 and was sent to Tambov, in the 107th Rifle Division, the 504th Rifle Regiment, where became a platoon leader. In June, I was transferred to the Army Second Lieutenant Courses and appointed platoon leader. There I was successfully and intensively engaged in tactics, fire training, tank destruction, topography, and everything necessary for the rifle platoon leader at the front. From the end of 1942 — Platoon Leader of the 574th Rifle Regiment of the 121st Rifle Division of the 60th Army. It was commanded by Major General Chernyakhovsky. I was promoted to the rank of First Lieutenant in mid-May 1943. The regiment was on the defensive. We received an order for the offensive on the night of August 28, 1943. It was scheduled to begin at 8 am. The platoon was assigned the task to destroy the pillbox and, moving forward, go to the outskirts of the farm Altukhovka and gain a foothold. The platoon rushed forward, oblivious to the danger, acting as if on a drill. The platoon had to cross the ravine. We were met by the devastating fire of a fascist machine gun. Catching a pause, the platoon dashed forward and silenced the pillbox, but the mines prevented us from moving further forward… After the mines were removed, at about 6 PM we broke into the enemy trenches and occupied the farm. This was my first fight. During the battle for the village of Anatolyevka, a sniper pinned me to the ground, and if not for the shield of the machine gun, I would have died. Our company leader was killed in this battle, and I was appointed to this position. I received my first order of the Red Star for the previous battles and for the liberation of the district center of Smela. Near the village, the enemy was well entrenched and had an organized fire system. The path to the village was blocked by a deep ravine in addition. The battle was hot and raged for four hours. We had a hard time, but at dusk, the enemy fled and we got large warehouses of provisions. We concentrated on the left Bank of the Dnieper River near the village of Svaramye in the evening of September 23, 1943. In the pitch darkness, the boats came up, and we moved to the right Bank. By the end of the night, the entire regiment had crossed, but the artillery and baggage trains remained behind the Dnieper. The next four days we were fighting to expand the bridgehead. We did not receive any food. Only the wounded were transported back, and only ammunition was transported to the bridgehead. The fighting was very heavy, the enemy tried to push us into the Dnieper, but his attacks choked. Both the enemy and we suffered heavy losses in manpower. The enemy never left us alone for a minute, the German artillery and aircraft were working hard. Especially strong was the struggle for the dominant height #120.2. The enemy did not reckon with anything. They tried to take and hold this height by any means possible, as the Germans could see our crossings on the Dnieper from it and smashed them. The height #120.2 changed hands two-three times a day for several days in a row. Finally, we captured it. For skilful command of the company in the battles for this height and holding the bridgehead on the right Bank of the Dnieper, I received the Order of the Patriotic War 2nd degree. In previous and subsequent battles, I was repeatedly wounded and concussed, including in the elbow joint of my right hand, and on December 10, 1943, a shell fragment that hit a tank hit me in the right eye. After the operation in the hospital, I was left without my right eye." However, Baklanov continued to serve in the army until December 10, 1945. Arrived home on December 24. Graduated from Yeisk Agricultural Technical School. He came to Ladogaskaya and worked as a teacher at Ladogaskaya Technical School for 52 years before retiring due to disability. V. Baklanov died in 1996.

Rank: Sergeant Branch of Service: Artillery After finishing school, my great-grandfather Peter Barmenkov went to work for Borovichesky Shaft Construction Company in Leningrad Region. It was the summer of 1941. The radio reported on the morning of July 22, that Hitler's Germany had attacked our country without declaring a war. Thus began the Great Patriotic War. It found my great-grandfather far from home. He, under fire, along with a fellow countryman, had to get home to join the Red Army as quickly as possible and stand up for the Motherland. Unfortunately, his friend got lost on the road, and my great-grandfather came home alone. By the time the war began, he was only seventeen years old. He was called up to the front by the Kirov Regional Military Commissariat on July 23, 1941. My great-grandfather, Peter Barmenkov, served as a Sergeant. He was a squad leader of a company of submachine gunners of the 885th Red Banner Rifle Regiment, the 290th Rifle Division, the 10th Army of the Western Front. At the village of Perenezhi, near Zaitseva mountain, on the night of February 12-13, 1943, my great-grandfather participated in a reconnaissance mission to capture the prisoner. When the group collided with a German patrol, he acted coolly, boldly and decisively, killed three Germans and was himself seriously wounded in the stomach. The group completed the task, took two prisoners, a machine gun, two submachine guns and a rifle. For his military feat, my great-grandfather was awarded the Order of the Red Star. He often thought about the war and told about it to my mother when she was little. It turns out that when my great-grandfather was injured, he fell behind his group and was forgotten in the confusion. Returning to the place of their deployment, the commander by the name of Kolesnikov began to count his soldiers. It turned out that one was missing. The commander had to go back for him. He found my great-grandfather in the snow. He was still alive. The commander carried him to the location of the unit. My great-grandfather often said that he owed his life to his commander. Then the great-grandfather was treated in the hospital for a long time, and after treatment, he returned home to the village of Faiansovaya. My great-grandfather never returned to the front after being seriously wounded. For his military services, he was awarded medals For Bravery, For Military Merit, the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree.

Rank: Specialist. Branch of Service: Army, Air Force (except for Naval Aviation), Coast Guard, NKVD troops, Border Guards. Unit: 373rd Mirgorod Red Banner Order of Suvorov and Bogdan Khmelnitsky Rifle Division. Vakhit Bikmukhametov was born on March 1, 1913. He was born in a well-to-do peasant family in the small village of Kadyrovo in the Belokataysky District of Bashkiria. The family had three boys and two girls. All children were raised by single mother. Their father died when Vahit was four years old. When the Great Patriotic War began, Vakhit already had a wife and two children. He worked in Chelyabinsk at a Kolyshenko Factory of Road Machinery as a turner since April 16, 1932 untill the war. Vakhit volunteered for the Red Army on 08.08.1941. From the factory, he was mobilized and enlisted as a coachman of a battery of 76-mm guns in the 1237th Rifle Regiment of the 373rd Mirgorod Rifle Division. The 373rd Rifle Division was formed in Chebarkul, Chelyabinsk Region, between September and November 15, 1941. The division's personnel consisted mainly of uralians, yesterday's workers, collective farmers and office workers, as well as partially of soldiers who returned from hospitals. During the war, he was wounded twice - 12.11.1941 and 17.03.1944. The war did not end for him in May 1945, he continued to fight with his comrades against the fascist remnants, and returned home only by the winter. After the war, he worked for the Kusinsky Machine Factory, also for Gortorg as a worker. He was married to Fagilya Sultanova, and they gave birth to ten children! All were brought to their feet. They lived together for fifty years. Unfortunately, after the Golden wedding, Fagilya died of cancer before the Victory Day on May 7, 1997. Vahit lived until the age of 93 and died on August 13, 2006. AWARDS AND LETTERS OF THANKS EARNED DURING THE WAR: 1. Liberating the fertile lands of Ukraine, in the town of Yasny, Vakhit showed heroic courage, and seriously wounded in the head, was taken to the hospital. When he recovered, he was awarded the medal For Bravery #720368. 2. For the destruction of enemy personnel and ensuring the transfer of guns to the West Bank of the Oder River, he was awarded the government award of the Order of Glory, 3rd degree #370015. (from the award list of 24. 02. 1945) 3. The uralians endured the heavy fighting when they broke through a heavily fortified German strip West of Sandomierz. The bridgeheads were repeatedly occupied by either our own or the Germans. For this fight of 14.01.1945 Bikmukhametov was awarded a commendation from I. Stalin. 4. Specialist Vakhit Bikmukhametov received a letter of commendation from the Military Council of the Army, signed by Colonel General Korotev, Major General Kabachkin and Colonel Luchko.

Rank: Corporal Branch of Service: Army, Air Force (except for Naval Aviation), Coast Guard, NKVD troops, Border Guards. Grigory Belous was born on February 1, 1921 in the village of Borodayevka, Dnipropetrovsk Region. After finishing school, he was engaged in educational programs. He came to Dneproderzhinsk in 1937, and went to the factory as a Metallurgist. He completed courses on the preparation of replacement bridges at the factory and in 1939 started to work. And when the Great Patriotic War began, Grigory Belous already served on the border – in 1940, he was called up to serve in the army. Who could have known that this service would last for many years! He served in the Novorossiysk Border Guard detachment, and during the liberation of Feodosia and Kerch was sent to the Crimean front where he was wounded for the first time. He participated in the defense of the Caucasus in the Semashkho Region in 1943. Thanks to the courage and heroism of Soviet soldiers in these battles, the Germans were unable to take Tuapse. It allowed to maintain control of the port and railway. He was awarded the medal For the Defense of the Caucasus for this. He was sent to the 32nd Border Guard Detachment in 1944 and was assigned to protect the southern borders. He became a career soldier and served in the border troops until 1966. For excellent service, he was awarded the medal For Distinction in the Protection of the State Border. He was sent to the village of Olginka of the Tuapse District of the Krasnodar Region. Here, in Tuapse District passed his peaceful life. He worked for about 30 years for the Olginka Resort. He was awarded the order of Patriotic War 2nd degrees, medals For Military Merit, For Distinction in Guarding the State Border, For Defense of the Caucasus, For Defense of the Kuban, For Faultless Service, Medal of Zhukov, medal For Victory over Germany. He was awarded a diploma and the title of Honorary resident in 2014. He died on January 16, 2015

Volunteer. Rank: Corporal. Branch of Service: Artillery. Radio Telegraphist. Enlisted on 12.04.1942, in the city of Rostov-on-Don. Barannikova began her service as a Radio Telegraph Operator in April 1942 in Rostov-on-Don, in military unit #26709, the 16th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment of the 11th Air Defense Division, she passed the commander's orders to the troops. The 16th Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment of Air Defense was formed by order of the National Defense Committee (NDC) from June to November 7, 1932 in Zaporozhye, Ukrainian SSR. Originally it was called the 16th Air Defense Regiment (1932). Since May 1941, the regiment was part of the Zaporozhye Air Defense District, defending the city of Zaporozhye. The 3rd and 6th battalions of the 16th Air Defense Regiment on August 18, 1941 fought with enemy aircraft, tanks and submachine guns on the outskirts of Zaporozhye. They shot down 10 planes and destroyed 9 tanks in the battle on August 27. The regiment itself suffered losses. Part of the regiment was sent to Sinelnikovo, part to Krasnoarmeysk on September 29. The regiment defended the crossing in the area of Aksai and Rostov-on-Don since July 14, in connection with the withdrawal of troops. The regiment defended the oil refineries in Grozny in August 1942. In October - early November, anti-aircraft gunners together with the aircraft repelled massive enemy attacks. The city was attacked by an air raid - more than 100 enemy aircraft - on October 20. The 16th Air Defense Regiment and the 383rd Separate Air Defense Detachment which retreated from the Donbass repeled the attack. 6 planes were shot down by fire of the regiment on April 16. The 16th Air Defense Regiment under the command of Major P. Petrush for the air defense of the oil region departed to Ploiesti (Romania), and on April 10, 1945 was relocated to Kosice (Slovakia). P. Barannikova was discharged from combat service on 17.07.1945, returned to Rostov-on-Don and was registered on August 11, 1945. She worked at a bakery. She married F. Kalachev in September 1945, and went with him to Estonia, since he had not yet been demobilized. The family returned to the Gorky Region in January 1946. She had three children: Vladimir (25.08.1946), Vera (1.05.1949), Nina (17.04.1955-28.10.2015). Barannikova was awarded the Medal For the Defense of the Caucasus (1943) for the protection of strategically important objects in Grozny. Awards: Medal For the Defense of the Caucasus (1943), oOrder of the Patriotic War, 2nd degree (1985). Praskovya Barannikova died on January 20, 1996 and was buried next to her husband in the cemetery of Golovinka, Krasnodar Region. There are her children, as well as grandchildren and great-grandchildren, which honor the memory of her as a kind, sympathetic person, one who defended our country during the Great Patriotic War.

Rank: Sergeant. Branch of Service: Army, Air Force (except for Naval Aviation), Coast Guard, NKVD troops, Border Guards. Unit: 342nd Rifle dDivision (2nd formation). The war has affected everyone. Every family has its own dead, wounded, missing, and heroes! And I want to tell you about the heroes of my family. For me, War and Victory in this war have something to do with my fate. I remember with what attention and emotional excitement I listened to the conversations of my grandparents, when they recalled the fighting and working days of that time. My mother's father, Fedor Gorchakov (Baryshev), born in 1913, met the war already being called up to the Red Army, an ordinary soldier, he ended the war with the rank of a Sergeant. He was a simple soldier, such people as he bore the brunt of the war, they were the majority in the ranks of our armed forces, and therefore most of the losses fell on just such ordinary soldiers. My grandfather went through the entire war, starting with the Finnish campaign and ending the war in East Prussia. He served in a mortar platoon and was awarded the Order of the Red Star, the highest order of soldier's valor, for his participation in the crossing of the Dniester River. Their platoon as part of the landing force was transferred to the right bank of the river with orders to hold the bridgehead for the landing of the main forces of our front. The fascists rained fierce fire on the captured patch of the beach, and by the end of the day only my grandfather was left alive from the platoon, and he fired at the enemy from the three mortars which remaining serviceable. These dashes from mortar to mortar, as it turned out later, saved his life. From his stories, I realized that the war was not just a rush to the attack with shouts: "For the Motherland! For Stalin!" or fierce tank battles, all of this, of course, took place, but the main burden of the war was everyday hard work: pulling stuck trucks and guns out of the mud, digging trenches and setting up dugouts, carrying mortars and much, much more, at first glance not at all heroic, everyday, heavy, but it was this work in the war that allowed us to attack and defeat the enemy. I remember how deeply I was shocked by his story, and he told it as something curious, without pathos. It was back in the Finnish campaign. Our troops were advancing on the Finns in the thaw, the sun was warming, and the advancing chains came across a well-fortified defense. With machine-gun fire, the Finns literally pinned our soldiers to the ground, not allowing them to raise their heads. The soldiers spent several hours waiting for reinforcements. My grandfather told me that when he lay on one side, his greatcoat got wet, and he turned over on the other side to dry it! He went through the entire war unharmed. In conclusion, I would like to say a huge thank you to all those who have given us the opportunity to celebrate this great holiday – VICTORY DAY! I would like to hope that the great lesson of the war will teach humanity to be human, to meet the hopes of our ancestors!

Branch of Service: Technical Troops. Unit: 83rd Guards Gorodok Red Banner Order of Suvorov Rifle Division. Trifon Balandin was born on February 14, 1909. In 1936, together with his wife Anna, they came to the construction of a mining town. They lived amicably and happily. But in 1941, the war began. In the autumn, in October of 1941, Trifon volunteered for the front. For the first time, he was returned from the place where the regiment was formed. He was left to work in the rear. But he could not stay there, and already secretly escaped to fight, hiding under mattresses in the back of a truck that was being driven to the battle sites. Their division was formed in Ulan-Ude. Its first Commander (as Trifon himself said) was a Mongol. The battalion in which he fought was best dressed, in warm sheepskin coats that were supplied from Mongolia. He defended Moscow, participated in the Battles on the Kursk Bulge, recaptured the cities of Karachev, Baltiysk (the port of Pilau), and stormed the fortress city of Konigsberg. He Liberated Belarus and Ukraine. He was a very humble man, but his injuries and awards speak of his exploits. Medals For Bravery, For the Capture of Konigsberg, Order of the Red Star. Trifon Balandin was an honorary citizen of the cities of Duminichi and Baltiysk. One of his awards for taking the prisoner ("languages") alone: once during the fighting in Belarus, my grandfather was returning from the hospital to the unit. It was early morning... freezing… He was walking through a field where there were haystacks. He noticed that only one side of the haystack was covered with frost, and understood: there's someone hiding out there. It turned out that there were fascist scouts, there were three of them. Thanks to his ingenuity, strength and courage, he managed to neutralize them and take them prisoners. After tying them up and tying them to a pole, he led the Germans to the nearest unit. As it turned out later, the Nazis mined the crossing of the Berezina River. By neutralizing the enemies, he saved the lives of many people. Trifon received the Order of the Red Star for timely delivery of ammunition. During the bombing, his truck was the only one able to get to the right place and supply the battalion with shells. He went through the entire war from 1941 to 1945. Tryphon and Anna had seven children: three sons and four daughters. Now they – our parents-are telling us about their father. Trifon Balandin died in 1984. His great-grandchildren have not seen him, but they know that their great-grandfather was a true soldier, a good man and a hero of our time. Thanks to people like Trifon, Russia has held on and will continue to hold on.

Rank: Red Army Soldier Branch of service: Army Corps of Engineers He was called up to the Red Army by the Rubezhansky District Military Commissariat of the Voroshilovgrad (Lugansk) Region of the Ukrainian SSR in February 1943, at the age of 17, together with fellow villagers-classmates. In the same month, he took the first battle at the Tomashevsky Bridge over the Seversky Donets River between the cities of Rubezhnoye and Lisichansk. A group of teenagers, who did not even have time to take the oath, and the commandant's platoon of the city of Rubezhnoye, armed with rifles and one Degtyarev machine gun, managed to defend the bridge and prevent the enemy retreating from Stalingrad from entering the city. They held out until the arrival of the main forces of the Red Army. Then there was training in installation of pontoon bridges in the area of starits of the Oskol River near the city of Kupyansk, Kharkov Region. In the first multi-day battle as a pontoon man in the summer of 1943, he was severely concussed, but refused to go to the hospital and remained in the ranks, so as not to lose his unit and not to part with his classmates. With them, he crossed many water barriers of Eastern Europe: the Seversky Donets, the Dnieper, and the Danube Rivers. He finished the war in Prague. By the victorious May of 1945, a third of his class remained alive. After the Great Patriotic War, he continued to serve in the Soviet Army in Romania until 1949. During his service, he became a driver. After return to his native village, he passed the exams for the 10th grade as an external student and entered the Voroshilovgrad Pedagogical Institute, which he graduated with a "Red" diploma. For several years he worked as a teacher of physics and mathematics in the village of Melovatka in the Svatovsky District of Voroshilovgrad Region, then at the evening school in Severodonetsk, taught higher mathematics to students of the evening branch of the Kharkov Polytechnic Institute in Severodonetsk. Then he was invited to work in Severodonetsk Experimental Design Bureau of Automation, where, in addition to automating the production processes of the chemical industry, he was engaged in development of space programs. During this period, he received a second higher education as a computer engineer. He retired at the age of 65. In 1951, while studying at the Pedagogical Institute, he married a student of the same University. He lived a long and happy life with her, more than 50 years. He had children - a son born in 1952 and a daughter born in 1963.

Belov Pavel Alekseevich, Lieutenant General, Commander of 61st Army of Central Front.

My story about a woman - about Faina Borisenkova (Martynova). This Woman was a sniper (I do not write with a capital letter for nothing). In the war she with one shot "laid" enemies! I noticed this woman by accident. She lives near my gymnasium, where I study. Very often, after classes, passing by her house, I see her! She looks out the window, right into my eyes. Our eyes meet, and I feel her following me with her deep, sad eyes. I go and wonder who she is. This question bothered me. I was touched to the depths of my soul by this look, which was already so familiar and has seen a lot. The life path of Faina Borisenkova (Martynova) aroused my great interest. Honoring the memory of our countrymen who took part in the fighting of the Great Patriotic War, it is impossible not to remember those who are still alive and to whom you can turn for valuable information. It just so happens that all our visions of the war are associated with the image of a male soldier. This is understandable. They were mainly representatives of the stronger sex - men who fought. But for some reason, they usually forget to say about women, that they also did a lot to win. However, in the twentieth century, the participation of women in war, not only as medical personnel, but also with weapons in their hands, was becoming a reality. This phenomenon became especially widespread during the Grat Patriotic War. Women who stood up for their homeland made an invaluable contribution to the victory over fascism. In the article "On the Moral Character of Our People" M. Kalinin wrote: "...everything that has gone before pales in front of the great epic of the current war, in front of heroism and sacrifice of Soviet women who show civil valor, endurance in the loss of loved ones and enthusiasm in the fight with such strength and, I would say, majesty, which has never been observed in the past." Side by side with men they went along the terrible paths of war, froze in the trenches, swallowed the bitter dust of military roads, drenched in soldiers' sweat, won victory with them over the enemy. Women performed an immortal feat in the name of the Motherland in the rear of the country. They fought against the German invaders on the ground and in the air, while not inferior in courage to men. Overcoming the greatest difficulties of the war years, sparing no effort, they did everything to provide the front with what was needed to defeat the enemy. Women raised money for the country's Defense Fund, food and clothing for the population affected by the invaders, and became donors .Throughout the war, the women of the home front kept in touch with the Red Army and showed constant care for soldiers and their families. Sending gifts to soldiers, patriotic letters, making trips with delegations to the front, they exerted a moral influence on the defenders of the Motherland and inspired them to new military exploits. Women, as equal members of their homeland, were equal defenders of it during the Great Patriotic War. They were on the front line: medics, pilots, snipers, in air defense units, signal troops, scouts, drivers, topographers, reporters, even tankers, gunners and served in the infantry, flew fighters and bombers. They rammed and destroyed enemy planes and ground targets. For this, like men, they received military ranks, orders, medals, and titles of Heroes of the Soviet Union, sometimes posthumously... Actively participated in the underground fight, in the partisan movement. At that time, the female part of our multi-ethnic people, together with men, children and the elderly, bore all the hardships of the Great War on their shoulders. Women wrote many glorious pages in the annals of the war. Faina Borisenkova (Martynova). I had a conversation with Faina Martynova on February 2, 2015. She was born on May 22, 1924 in the village of Bychki, Novosokolnichesky District. She graduated from school and in 1940 went to Leningrad for further education. She entered technical school and worked for the Druzhnaya Gorka Glass Factory. She also joined the GTO at the plant. She honed her shooting skills and learned how to make glass syringes. The war began and in 1941 the plant was disbanded and evacuated to Tatarstan. And the young workers with the assigned financial worker from the plant were sent to defend Leningrad. They dug trenches and anti-tank ditches. They held the defense of the city, but when the German troops came close, they gathered everyone and took them to Leningrad.There was no such severe famine in the city yet. The financial officer helped to find a job for her. Faina gladly went to work as a nanny or a cleaner in a nursery. In these nurseries there were orphaned children, children without parents. Children of different ages, large and younger. There was often a restless situation when the air attacks started. At the signal, the children were collected and quickly evacuated to the bunker/basement. Some of them walked by themselves, while the very little ones were wrapped in blankets and had to be carried in arms. When shelling stopped, everyone went back upstairs to their rooms. What happened to these children is unknown, according to one version they were taken abroad, because no one visited them, their parents were not there. Children often got sick and were taken to the hospital, and no one picked them up from there. The choice of food was poor. Sometimes jelly, sometimes yeast soup. Sometimes yeast were deluted in water and eaten. But, even after washing the dishes, one could drink the remaining water. They mostly ate after the children. The time passed and the children disappeared. Everyone was assigned somewhere. While Faina worked in a nursery, she lived in a hostel. Six people lived in a small room, but only three survived. There was a high mortality rate and when people died, Faina herself sewed up their bodies in bags and put them in the next unheated room. It was cold there, and people were just skin and bones. There was nothing to decompose and there was no smell. Before leaving Leningrad, Faina and her friend decided to bury the corpses and took them to the cemetery. They hoped to bury these people in a human way, but alas, they had to accept what they were given. Several holes were dug and corpses were lying inside them. No one carefully put them in, they were just thrown into these pits. The only thought in Faina's head was if only she didn't fall into this pit herself. And then they buried them and put a flag that there was a mass grave here. At first, Ladoga Lake did not freeze for a long time. Faina received a boarding ticket for evacuation through Ladoga on February 2, 1942. On the road, they increased the amount of bread and gave then 250 grams a day. They took the train from Finlyandsky Railway Terminal to Ladoga. Then everyone had to provide a ticket and they were put in the truck. They did not take extra people, because it would have overloaded the truck, and it would have gone to the bottom of the lake. Everyone was skinny, people were sorry, but there was nothing else to do. Someone decided to cross Ladoga on foot, but on the way usualy froze and died. There was a strict distance between trucks, and everyone believed in their hearts that they would cross this huge lake. Ladoga was bombed, and the ice broke in some places, they had to go straight through the water.Faina and her partner kept in touch with the plant, so they were very well received when they arrived in Tatarstan. But the young girls had almost no strength. They were given a room for two and a person who looked after their health and took care of them. Faina was very ill, her body was covered with scabs and it took her six months to recover. She was put on allowance. For a day, two people were given a bucket of soup, which the girls of course ate. When Faina recovered, she went to work in her specialty, and joined the GTO again. Despite the fact that she was a blockader, the military enlistment office sent her summons to the front. She was an excellent shoter. She could ski and ride a horse, so she went to study at the Moscow Central Women's School of Sniper Training. Preparation took not 6-7 months, as expected, but 1 year and 2 months. Faina graduated from this school with honors. By this time, they reported that our area was liberated and Faina wr a letter to her parents, saying that she was alive and well and planning to go to the front. The father was disabled (so he could not fight), the mother had 4 children and the family was evacuated. She received a response from her parents quickly; they described events from their lives. And already everyone calmed down, Faina knew that the family was all right and the family knew that Faina was alive. War... Very clearly Faina remembers her first killed enemy. He was a German soldier. The girl remembers how much her hands and the whole body were shaking, this was not yet awareness of what was happening. As Faina says, she vomited after she made her first, inexperienced shot, which, oddly enough, reached the "aim". For many long nights, she shuddered at nightmarish dreams and the image of the German that was clearly etched in her memory.And then there were the second and third... ninth. ... At night, they snuck into the barn. “...The smell of hay stirred memories: my mother in a white handkerchief on the back of her head stands on a high cart, and she and her sisters and brothers fun tumbling in a fragrant hay. The gray autumn dawn crept through the bBoard slits." The memories were gone. Fania clung to the boards, feeling their cold on her cheek. One could see a small Lithuanian village, an enemy trench, as if separated from the whole world. Several minutes of tense silence passed. A fascist climbed out of the trench and stretched sleepily. Fania took aim at him. A shot rang out, but the bullet missed its target. The Nazis opened fire on the barn, and it flared up like a candle. Fania and her partner rushed to the field and under a curtain of smoke, crawled along the wet furrows and managed to get to safety. When they caught their breath from fatigue, her friend laughed: Fanya's hat was missing one earflap.Returning to the company, Fania was upset. The soldier she shot at out of the barn would be a tenth one. Wow, she missed. All the snipers of their company opened the score of the second ten, and Fania, when she was in sniper school, hit all the targets without a miss and received the best mark in shooting - five points, and here… Friends comforted Fania, and the commander said: "A soldier is not supposed to cry, you will have the tenth fascist." A few days later, intelligence reported that the enemy unit was preparing for defense and building a fortification. The commander called Fania Borisenkova and the second sniper-observer and gave the order to approach the enemy's front line. Under cover of night, disguised by branches, the girls went to there. Here Faina found her tenth!The fate of Faina Borisenkova, now an instructor of industrial training in the experimental workshop of the knitting factory, is one of thousands of women's destinies, on whose fragile shoulders the hardships of the war have fallen. Faina knew the sufferings of the Leningrad blockade and the difficult, dangerous front-line everyday life. Six battle medals, one of which says For the Capture of Konigsberg, remind us of these everyday life. Here the military unit in which the young patriot fought finished its victorious march.But fate was preparing a new test of her courage. This is told by yellowed sheets of gratitude from the command, which Faina keeps. One of the Acknowledgements says: "Together with your fellow soldiers, you participated in a heroic campaign through the arid deserts of Mongolia and the mountain passes of the Great Khingan and carried our banner across Manchuria to the sacred for the Russian heart city of Port Arthur. I Express my gratitude to you for your military service to the Motherland…»This is all that this unique woman has told me so far. Faina Borisenkova (Martynova) is still alive, and still follows me with her eyes on the way from school. And I go and think how happy we are that we live without a war, that my mother didn't have to go through all the horrors of war that these women went through. I bow to You Faina and all the women of the war!

Rank: Lieutenant Colonel. Branch of Service: Army, Air Force (except for Naval Aviation), Coast Guard, NKVD troops, Border Guards. My story is about Ibrahim Bigaeva, my mother's grandfather's father. The beginning of the Great Patriotic War found him Secretary of the North Evenk District Party Committee in the Khabarovsk Region. When the 205th Rifle Division was being formed in Kharkov, Ibrahim was appointed a Senior Instructor of the Political Department for propaganda, and he fought from the first to the last day on the Stalingrad Front. Ibrahim took his first fight as a political officer of the 709th Regiment of the 24th Rifle Division. He knew that personal example had a much stronger effect on soldiers than any fiery speeches and conversations. And one day in particularly heavy fighting near Kotluban he went in the attack at the head of the battalion, and when he was wounded in the left arm, hastily bandaging it, he continued the fight. From trench to trench, from one position to another, the intrepid propagandist hurried to cheer up his comrades-in-arms, to convey to them the stingy but very important news of the Sovinformburo. The division in which Ibrahim fought was assigned a combat task: to stop the enemy advancing on important areas at any cost. The order was carried out with honor. In these battles, my grandfather was awarded the Order of the Red Star for his bravery. There are harsh memory of the war on his body: 17 scars from shrapnel and bullet wounds. My great-grandfather was forever registered with his blood on the sacred land of Stalingrad. From the memoirs of Ibrahim: "...Near Stalingrad the detachment of "Katyushas" of our countryman Savlokha Slokhova was positioned. After learning about this, the Nazis decided to destroy it with a sudden air strike. One bomb went off two steps away from me. The ground rose like a black tornado and swallowed me instantly. Now I can't remember how long I lay in the crater, covered with earth. My friends did not find me for a long time, so they sent a sad message to the military enlistment office: I died a brave death. And I survived to the surprise of all, only had hearing ability partly lost …» My grandfather's father finished his military service near Kharkov. In a fierce battle, he was seriously wounded and could not return to the ranks. After demobilization, he was an instructor of the North Ossetian Regional Committee of the CPSU, Secretary of the Darg-Kokhsky District Party Committee, and headed a number of industrial enterprises. According to my mother, he was a man of few words and did not like to talk about the war, about his awards. As long as his health allowed, he went to Volgograd to meet with fellow soldiers. Originally Ibrahim was from the village Zamankul, from a large family. There were seven brothers and one sister. All the brothers fought on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, and five of them returned home. Unfortunately, there is no one left alive. But the memory of them is alive in us - children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.