Heroes and feats

Grade title: captain. Division: the 154th rifle division (the 1st formation). In 1931 he graduated from the Kiev infantry school and was sent to the city of Yelets, the Oryol region (now the Lipetsk region). He did military service in the Red barracks. In 1933 he got married. In 1937 he was in the Red barracks of the Proletarian division in Moscow. Then he served in the Far East but by the summer of 1940 he was transferred to the city of Inza, the Ulyanovsk region. His family (his wife and two children) were with him. After the German attack the division in which my grandfather served was sent to the front and since then there were not any news from him. Since the 1980s we have received archival documents stating that A. A. Bogatikov, the battalion commander of the 510th rifle regiment, went missing in 1941. The further fate of our grandfather we learn only in Raduzhnoye thanks to the information search by M.N.Buneev. He traced the path of the 154th rifle division which included the 510th rifle regiment where my grandfather served as a battalion commander. In August of 1941 the division fought as part of the Central front. From August 15-17 it was surrounded in the area of Zhlobin, Belarusian SSR. In the documents about prisoners of war transferred to Russia by Germany the name of my grandfather was not listed although the search found that some of my father's countrymen from the places of his birth (the village of Kazaki) were captured. These documents were sent by us to the military commissariat in Yelets. In the books of Memory of the Lipetsk and Ulyanovsk regions my grandfather's name is mentioned as having died in August 1941. Now we know where our grandfather died. This is the territory of Belarus, a district of the city of Zhlobin. In the documents obtained from M. N. Buneev all the way of the infantry division where grandpa started to serve can be traced. It was repeatedly encircled, re-equipped, transformed into the 47th Guards rifle division and reached Germany. My grandfather's life in the war was a moment. And how many of them were dead and captured. We don't know if all the documents received from Germany have been translated. The search continues.

Grade title: sergeant. Unit: the 59th Kramatorsk guards rifle division of the Red Banner and the orders of Suvorov and Bogdan Khmelnitsky. In March 1942 my grandfather was called up by the Goryache–Klyuchevsky military commissariat of the Krasnodar region and sent to the 59th guards rifle division of the 176th guards rifle regiment to do service in a transport troop as a guard soldier and a driver. He liberated Donbass, Zaporozhye, Nikopol, Odessa, Budapest. The Cossacks' love for horses, instilled from childhood, helped my grandfather during the war. As I later learned from archival award-winning military documents my grandfather went through the entire war without parting with horses. His hard work, respect for his elders and friends helped him overcome the difficult years of the war. My grandfather also carried a prayer sewn into his clothes through the whole war (after all, the Cossacks always believed in God and observed all Orthodox holidays), maybe it helped my grandfather go through the whole war without a single wound. It was a joy to return home after the Victory. According to the memoirs of my mother Lyubov Nikolaevna Maksimova (Brova) "My grandfather came home in 1946 but I don't remember whether it was spring or autumn, but it was cold outside. In the evening I was lying on the Russian stove, a lamp was burning next to it, it lit up the whole small room, my mother was making sourdough to bake bread in the morning, because soon her husband would come from the war (she was waiting for him, like all four years of the war), and there was a soft knock on the window and then called. "Mykola," my mother said and we ran to the door to meet my father and husband from the war. On his chest were medals and the order of the Red Star." On the 26th of October, 1943, by Order of the 176th Guards rifle regiment of the 59th Kramatorsk guards rifle division of the Red Banner of the 3rd guards army, Nikolai Kallistratovich, a driver of the transport troop, was awarded the medal "For Military Merits" for treating his work with love and caring for his horse and transport for others. On the 9th of September, 1944, by the Order no. 26 for the 176th guards rifle regiment of the 59th Kramatorsk rifle division of the Red Banner and of the orders of Suvorov and Bogdan Khmelnitsky, Brova Nicholay Kalistratovich, a driver and a guard soldier of the transport troop, was awarded the medal "For Military Merits" for drying fruit: for nine days of work he dryed up half a ton of fruit. On the 12th of May, 1945, by order no. 028/N for the parts of the 59th Kramatorsk guards rifle division of the Red Banner and of the orders of Suvorov and Bogdan Khmelnitsky, on behalf of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, for exemplary performance of fighting tasks of command at the front struggle with German invaders and displaying valor and courage – Brova Nikolai Kalistratovich, a guard sergeant of the transport troop of the 176th Izmail rifle regimen of the Red Banner, was awarded the order of the Red Star. But my mother and grandmother were not happy for long that my grandfather returned from the war. On the 19th of August, 1948, a bullet hit him in the yard of his house. Here is such a bitter irony: to go through the entire war without a single wound and be killed in your native village by a neighbor. My grandfather was buried in the cemetery of the village of Saratovskaya.

Grade title: a Red army soldier. Blokhin Inokenty Pavlovich was born on the 9th of December, 1918, in the village of Kamenka, the Vologda region. He was called up into the army in early 1941 at the age of 22. He served in Lithuania on the border near Belarus. On the 22nd of June, 1941, he was relieved of his post. At around 4 am the outpost was shelled by the German artillery. Our soldiers immediately were engaged in battle with the Germans. They put on everything. My great-grandfather was wearing a helmet that didn't fit. He grabbed the first rifle he saw. After the battle they were forced to retreat. Gradually retreating, he reached almost Leningrad with his unit. In August 1941 he took part in the battles in the vicinity of Staraya Russa (the Novgorod region). He was wounded in those battles. He was surrounded and captured. After being captured by the Germans he was first sent to a concentration camp in Kaunas (Lithuania). Later from Kaunas the great-grandfather was sent to Germany ("Flossenbürg", near Jungfern-Breschan). Twice he miraculously survived. The first time they were led past fields that belonged to local residents. Hungry and exhausted, the prisoners rushed to eat peas from a nearby field. The son of the owner of the field hit my great-grandfather twice on the head with a lead-tipped whip. The scars remain for life. The owner of the field showed mercy to him, he drove away his son and took the whip from him. The second time he was saved from death in the camp by meeting a man who could roll felt boots. The Germans gathered all the masters in the shop, and my great-grandfather also got there. The German looking after them quickly realized that his great-grandfather did not know how to make valenki, but did not give him up for execution and began to use him for auxiliary work until he learned to make valenki. Towards the end of the war my great-grandfather was sent to work in the Ruhr mines. In 1945 when American troops approached the camp where he was the prisoners rose in revolt. They caught the commandant and wanted to lynch him. There were several hundred prisoners, but they were so exhausted that they could not even beat him. After their release the Americans immediately offered the prisoners to emigrate to the United States or Canada. Since in the USSR in those years prisoners released by the Americans were declared traitors. But my great-grandfather and 13 others refused and returned to their homeland. After that he was moved to Magnitogorsk. He worked in the coke-chemical industry. Later he took his family with him. At that time he was already married and had a son of 5 years. After the war a daughter was born. My great-grandfather has awards - medals, the order of the Second World War of the 2nd degree. He died at the age of 81 (on the 23rd of July, 1999). Currently his family consists of two children, four grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren. His name is inscribed in the Book of Memory of participants of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 - residents of the the Chelyabinsk region.

Grade title: a red army soldier. He was called up to the front on the 15th of July, 1941, by the Magnitogorsk regional military commissariat. He was sent to the team no. 2000 of the Chelyabinsk regional military commissariat. He was at the front since the 28th of July, 1942. He fought at the South-Western front as a driver of the car "ZIS-5" of the 565th auto troop of the 82nd guard rifle division. He was wounded in the right leg on the 9th of January, 1943. On the 16th of April, 1943, he was awarded the medal "For Bravery" for a heroic act committed on the 10th of February, 1943, near Belaya Kalitva. On the 18th of February, 1945, Botov Petr Ustinovich, a guard soldier, a driver of the 87th separate transport troop of the 82nd guard rifle division of the order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, was awarded the order of the Red Star for heroic actions in the area of the Polish city of Poznań. Combat path: the 82nd Zaporozhye guard rifle division of the Red Banner and the order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky of the second degree was formed on the 19th of March, 1943, on the basis of parts of the 321st rifle devision (II). The division included (this new unit numbering was assigned to the division on the 11th of April, 1943) the 242nd, 244th, 246th guards rifle regiments and the 185th guards aviation regiment. For success in the liberation of Odessa the devision was awarded the order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky of the second degree. On the 8th of May, 1944, having marched, the division concentrated in the villages of Novo-Alexandrovka, Komarovka and Lazorevka. On the 9th of May the division was placed in reserve in order to concentrate in the gullies to the north-east from the village of Tashlyk and to organize defense along the left bank of the Dniester. The 246th guard rifle regimen of the division crossed the Dniester river and captured the area. The task of the regiment was in cooperation with the 30th rifle devision to rescue from the encirclement the headquarters of the 28th guard rifle corps and the commander general S. I. Morozov himself, who were defending in the forest near the village of Vainovo. The task assigned to the 246th regiment was completed. On the 11th of May the main forces of the division crossed the river and were engaged in fierce fighting on a small area near the village of Vainovo. Heavy fighting continued until early June. On the 2nd of June the division, having surrendered the line to the units of the 32nd guard rifle corps, returned to the eastern bank of the Dniester, to their previous positions. A day later the division was withdrawn to the reserve and at the night marched along the route Temush, Shibka and reached the forest to the south-east of the village of Pavlovka, where it was replenished, rested and conducted scheduled classes until the middle of June 1944. On the 12th of June, 1944, the division was awarded the order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky of the second degree. From the 18th of June, 1944, the division's units were loaded into echelons and unloaded on the 22nd and on the 23rd of June, 1944, at the station of Swarin. Then the devision became part of the 1st Belorussian front, where it was to participate in the operation "Bagration" (the Belarusian offensive operation). Since the 18th of July, 1944, the division being in the second echelon of the 8th guard army participated in the liberation of Belarus. On the 4th of August, 1944, the division came on the river of Svmder and took the defense on its southern bank. On the 12th of August the division's regiments crossed the Vistula river in the Tarnovo area and took up defensive positions near the settlements of Stara, Tselenov, Sukha Volya, Bosinov, and became part of the 4th guard rifle corps. In this area the division with the neighboring 47th guard division repulsed a fierce attack of the enemy. On the 18th of August, 1944, the division again returned to the 29th guard rifle corps and on the 19th of August stroke in the direction of Glovachuva. Suffering heavy losses in manpower and equipment the enemy began to withdraw to the second defensive line near Henricus, Manihi, Emilyw. On the 29th the division captured Glowachow. Having met strong enemy resistance the division moved to a tough defense on the occupied line where it was located until the 9th of September, 1944. On the 10th of September, 1944, having surrendered positions to parts of the 27th guard rifle devision, the division concentrated in the forests to the east from Malen, Trzeben. A day later the division marched through Trzeben, Magnuszew, Wilckovice, Dolne, and Zhelezna Stara to the mouth of the Pilica river. Here the division replaced the 3rd Polish infantry division which was preparing to attack Warsaw. On the 2nd of October, 1944, having transferred their rather heavily fortified section of defense, the division's regiments went to the second echelon of the corps and occupied the defense to the east from Roznishevsky and to the north from Lutsyanov. Almost until the end of November the division was in the second echelon of the corps. Combat training of personnel was widely deployed in the units. On the 25th of November, 1944, the guards went to the first echelon and took up the defense near the settlements of Bogushkov, Grabuv, Zalesny. Until January the devision was improving their defense, preparing for an offensive and collecting intelligence information. On the 11th of January, 1945, the division, reinforced by the 46th mortar brigade, the 1504th light self-propelled artillery regiment and by two batteries of the 351st heavy howitzer artillery regiment, took up the initial position for the offensive. Before the command of the division the task was assigned to break through the enemy’s defenses in the area of Gelenov, Henrykow and, stepping in the direction of Zielonka and Buckthorn, to go with the main forces on the highway near Urbanov, Berna, Shlyahetske, and the advanced troops were to move to the line near Kadlubek, Trambone. On the 14th of January parts of the division started to go on the offensive along the entire line. Having cut the railroad Warka-Radom the devision rapidly went to the line Kadlubek-Nova, Kadlubek, Frantiskuv, Jeziorna. On the 19th of January, pursuing the enemy, the division resumed the offensive and liberated the city of Lodz and advanced to Zgezh. Having captured the cities of Zgierz and Schwarzenec, the guards in the vanguard of the 29th guard rifle corps moved to Poznań. On the 23th of January, 1945, parts of the division encountered stubborn resistance of the Nazis who took up defense in front of the outer defensive perimeter of the fortress city. Within six days the regiments were able to master the line of Janikowo, Globenet, Zieleniec. Since the 1st of February the division began to storm Poznań. The enemy was resisting hard. By the 16th of February, 1945, the division transferred its combat section to the 27th guard rifle devision and completed regrouping to the south-western approaches to the citadel. The enemy "Everest Group" was standing in front of the division's offensive line. On the 18th of February the division again started to attack the fortress, on the 23rd of February Poznan fell. On the 24th of February, after handing over the city to the 2nd assault brigade, the division marched along the route Poznań-Schlechen-Pinne-Kema-Warzbaum-Betsche-Meseritz-Radach and concentrated in the area of the Kustrin fortress. Here the division was put in reserve, replenished and rested. Since the 26th of March, 1945, the 82nd guard devision was fighting to capture Kustrin. On the 29th of March the assault troops broke into the fortress and cleared it of the enemy. Having captured the fortress the division left one battalion there and all other units and divisions concentrated on the zaodersky area. The command post of the division was located to the north-east from the Seelow heights, near Zapiga. Since the 18th of April the division was attacking Berlin at the border of the Guzover forest. After having crossed the Fleece river guards flanking maneuver to the east and the north captured an important strongpoint of the enemy – Ansfelden. From the 19th of April the division was part of the 29th guard rifle corps of the 8th guard army and developed an offensive along the Berlin highway in the direction of Munchenberg. Having captured Munchenberg the division went to the rear of the enemy group which was still resisting to the parts of the 8th guard army at the Seelow heights. On the 23th of April, 1945, parts of the division crossed the Spree river and on the 25th of April they captured Tempelhof. On the 28th of April they crossed the Landwehr canal and continued to fight near the Anhalt and Potsdam railway stations. The fighting here lasted for 4 days and on the 1st of May at 3 p.m. the Berlin garrison capitulated. On the 2nd of May, 1945, for the successful combat operations to capture Berlin the division was awarded the order of the Red Banner. On the 10th of May, 1945, the division as part of the 29th guard rifle corps was withdrawn from Berlin and concentrated in the area of Oschatz-the city of Riza. Commander: major general I. A. Makarenko (- 01.4.1944), lieutenant colonel M. Ya. Karnaukhov (02.4.1944 - 04.5.1944), G. I. Khetagurov (05.5.1944 - 18.4.1945), M. I. Duk (from 19.4.1945 until the end of the war). Military commissar, a deputy political commissar: lieutenant colonel D. N. Travin. Knyazeva Lyudmila, a granddaughter, remembers: “I didn't know much about my grandfather. My grandmother passed away very early. From the stories of my grandmother which I heard as a child only "fragments" remained in my memory. But thanks to them 70 years later I found my grandfather, although deceased, and acquired numerous relatives. I am grateful to all the people who responded to my requests. These are employees of the Magnitogorsk military enlistment office, the Central Archives of the Ministry of Defence of the city of Podolsk, the site " Feat of the people” and namely to Alexander Lukin. He gave me the coordinates of the award documents and when I found them I learned about the exploits of my grandfather; to the program "Wait for me", in particular, to Komarova Marina Pavlovna. With her help and my childhood memories I got to my grandfather's homeland. And special thanks to the teacher, the kindest-hearted person Polyakova Galina Gennadyevna who served as the last link in the search chain and connected the whole chain together. Thanks to her efforts I visited my grandfather's homeland, was able to put flowers on his grave and acquired numerous relatives. Having already personal information about my grandfather and comparing the facts with the chronology of events, I collected material about the division in which he passed his combat path. I learned that after arriving at the front, from the very first day he became a direct participant in the battle of Stalingrad and went all the way to Berlin”. Galina Polyakova recalls: “I was little but I remember him. We kids all loved him, he was very kind and was always joking....he always loved us kids. He was always telling jokes, jokes, and incidents... I remember him always crying at the meetings dedicated to the 9th of May.....not all veterans were crying......but he always-always...

In 1919, on the 2nd of April, comrade Batluk A.V. voluntarily joined the Red Army. He participated in the Civil war. While in the army, he graduated from: in 1920 – courses of Red commanders, in 1926 - the 2nd Moscow infantry school, in 1935 - the higher rifle and tactical courses and in 1946 – the accelerated course of the Higher military Academy. During the Great Patriotic War, as the commander of the 282nd rifle regiment of the 19th rifle division, he participated in the battles near the city of Yelnya, the Smolensk region, where he was seriously wounded on the 25th of July, 1941. From December 1941 till May 1942, as chief of staff of the 34th separate cadet brigade and later commander of this brigade, he participated in the defeat of the Germans near Moscow, operating in the direction of Vysokinichi, Nedelnoye, Detchino, Kontrovo and Yukhnov. In June 1942 he was awarded the order of the Red Banner for skilful command of the brigade and for exemplary performance of the command task. In January 1943, as commander of the 102nd rifle marine brigade, he took part in breaking the siege of Leningrad and in February 1943, as commander of the 142nd separate Marine brigade, he participated in the battles to expand the breakthrough. In March and April 1943 he commanded the 11th separate rifle brigade which was on the defensive on the right bank of the Neva river on the Porogi-Bum combine front. In April 1943 colonel Alexey Vasilyevich Batluk was appointed commander of the 120th rifle division by order of the Minister of Defense of the USSR, which he was instructed to form and prepare for battle. In August 1943, as commander of the division, he took part in the battles of Sinyavino. By order of the commander of the Lenfront troops the 120th rifle division was designated as particularly distinguished. For exemplary performance of the combat mission comrade Batluk A.V. was awarded the order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree in October 1943. In the battles to defeat the Germans near Leningrad in January-February 1944 in cooperation with other divisions the 120th rifle division under the command of comrade Batluk A.V. liberated Taitsy, Gatchina, Mshinsk, Tolmachevo, Luga and a number of other localities. The 120th division, as particularly distinguished themselves during the liberation of Gatchina, was given the name "Gatchina", and for the liberation of the town of Luga the division was awarded the order of the Red Banner, and the division commander A. V. Batluk was awarded the order of Suvorov of the 2nd degree and the order of the Legion of honor of the United States of America – upon the instance of the Soviet command. In the received message it was said as following: "This is to certify that the President of the United States of America in accordance with the order issued by George Washington on the 7th of August, 1782, in Newburgh the state of new York, under the act of Congress, awarded colonel of the Red Army of the USSR Alexei Vasilievich Motluka with the order of the Legion of honor (officer) - for selfless dedication and exceptionally courageous conduct in carrying out important military tasks". In the period from March to August of 1944 the 120th Gatchina rifle division of the Red Banner under the command of A.V. Batuka had a tough battle to retain and expand the Narva Bridgehead and the liberation of the city of Narva. For these battles two regiments of the division were given the name "Narva". Division commander Alexey Vasilyevich Batluk was awarded the military rank of "major general" by the decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the 3rd of June, 1944. For exemplary performance of command assignments at the front and displaying valor and courage, for long and irreproachable service in the Soviet Army, comrade V. A. Batluk was awarded the following orders: Order of Lenin, three orders of the Red Banner, the order of Suvorov of the second degree, the order of the Patriotic War of the first degree and ten medals. Alexey Batluk was the first chief of the Gatchina garrison in January 1944. In recognition of his services in the struggle for the Soviet Motherland and the liberation of the city of Gatchina he was awarded the title "Honorary citizen of the city of Gatchina" by the decision of the session of the Gatchina city Council of workers' deputies in May 1965.

Grade title: a senior sergeant. Branch of service: ground forces, air force (except for naval aviation), the coast guard, troops of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affaires, border guards. Bekuzarov Dzambolat Zakharovich was born on the 25th October, 1920, in the village of Costa of the Alagir region of the North Ossetian ASSR in the family of farmer Zakhhot Bekuzarov and Adoshka Tsogoeva. Subsequently, the family moved to the village of Krasnogor in the Ardon region. Dzambolat was the eldest of the children, in addition to him there three sisters grew up in the family: Maria, Lisa and Tamara. Zakhhot left early from the life and Adoshka had to raise children all alone. She worked in a collective farm as a head of a poultry farm and was a deputy of the village council. Dzambolat graduated from seven-year school in Krasnogorsk, then studied in the village of Nikolaevskaya; he drew well, wrote poems and short stories but did not finish school for he had to help his mother. He was not even fourteen years old when his notes, fairy tales and illustrations were published in the children's magazine "Nogdzau" (a pioneer). Writer Dabe Mamsurov and artist Vladimir Lermontov provided assistance in his young creative life. When the war began Dzambolat was doing his service in the Soviet Army as a cadet at the Grozny military infantry school. As part of the school he was transferred to the front. In December 1941 he took the military oath at the 26th Western rifle brigade and was promoted to the rank of a senior sergeant. In August 1942 in one of the battles of the battle of Stalingrad he was wounded in the leg and after treatment in the hospital he continued his service. In November 1942 he was appointed an assistant commander of the rifle platoon of the 34th rifle training regiment. Then he was appointed commander of an intelligence department of the 357th separate troop of the intelligence forces where he served until November 1945. After the end of the Great Patriotic War Dzambolat received a referral to study at the Leningrad Repin Academy of arts but he had to return home to help his mother - after all, he was the only man in the family. He returned home with his wife Ekaterina, they lived together for a short time but they had a son Vladimir who now lives in Krasnoyarsk has three children: Natalia – a candidate of pedagogical sciences, an associate professor, Sergey and Ekaterina, there are also two grandchildren - Nikita and Nika. Since December 1947 Dzambolat began his career in the newspaper "Rastdzinad" ("Pravda"). At the same time he studied at the evening school of working youth not leaving the dream of higher education and in 1961 Dzambolat graduated from the North Ossetian Agricultural Institute and was qualified as an agronomist, but his life was forever connected with journalism. Then he worked in the Republican Newspapers "Rastdzinad" and "Socialist Ossetia " (today - "North Ossetia"), he was at the origins of the North Ossetian radio and television, actively participated in the public life of the collective and the Republic and in this connection he was awarded the order of "Badge of Honor", the medal "For valiant labor", was repeatedly awarded certificates and commendations, was a member of the Communist party of the Soviet Union and after retirement he worked as a senior editor of the editorial office of agriculture of television and radio, his reports raised topical issues of agriculture, they were both in Russian and in Ossetian at a highly professional level. Dzambolat has always been an example for his younger colleagues and passed on his vast experience to the younger generation of journalists. In ordinary life Dzambolat was an avid hunter, a fishman and a beekeeper, he was fond of photography, was a well-read and erudite person, an interesting conversationalist, he also did not let go of his love for art: he had a huge library of books about painting, artists and drew a lot himself, knew the Nart epic well, honored the customs and traditions of the Ossetian people and instilled the same love and respect for the history of Ossetians in his younger ones. With his wife, Salamova Valentina Nikolaevna, they raised a daughter, Madina, of whom he was very proud. Madina has three children: Irina, Artur and Marat. Unfortunately, they did not recognize their grandfather, but they know about him from the stories of their grandmother Valia, who was a teacher of English and Ossetian languages. In 1997 she was awarded the honorary title of "Honored teacher of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania”. For bravery, fortitude and courage shown in the fight against the Nazi invaders, Dzambolat was awarded: the order of “Patriotic War” of the first degree, the order of “Glory” of the third degree, the medal “For the Victory over Germany", commemorative medals in honor of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. Dzambolat died in 1995. After himself he left a huge mark and a bright memory.

From the memoirs of Brilin Pavel Timofeevich about those distant and heroic exploits on the fronts of the Second World War: “The head patrol carefully moved along the Smolensk highway. Sergeant Brilin was in the lead, carrying a submachine gun and carrying grenades. The task of the scouts is to detect the Nazis and warn the marching column. Suddenly a rocket shot up, illuminating the area with a livid light and a long burst of machine-gun fire rang out. The soldiers lay down on the side of the road. Did they notice? - the sergeant thought but the machine gun was silent. The fascist, apparently, could not stand the suspense, and shot at random. Brilin had time to see a machine-gun point. We will try to bypass the machine gun and destroy the crew", - he whispered to the soldiers. “Two of you are with me, and the rest are here to cover with fire if anything happens. Follow me!”, - he whispered to the soldier lying next to him, and they crawled a little to the left listening to the darkness. A pre-dawn fog was rising from the ground. At this time it is painfully sleepy especially if you lie still. The fascist machine gunner probably dozed off. Brylin noticed a machine-gun trench and crawled on his belly, the soldier was moving around. They paused, preparing to throw, and at the same time jumped into the trench with knives in their hands. There were two machine guns. Two fritzs were squatting on their heels, dozing near the machine guns, their greatcoats turned up. They may have dreamed of victory marches through Europe, of distant fraus waiting for parcels of stolen goods - it is not known, but this was their last dream. Brilin hit the Hitlerite with a bowie knife and he grunted like a hog and fell on his side. The second German managed to look up and his death cry was heard by the scouts. It was all over. “Quickly inform the battalion commander!” - Brylin said to the fighter. "And three more men came here to dig in!" The soldier ran to obey orders, and sergeant Brilin dragged the corpses aside and checked the machine guns. He had a good command of German weapons. But three more soldiers only managed to reach the trench, as a column appeared on the highway from the direction of the fascists, followed by another, a third ... the Krauts, confident that they were being guarded in front, walked as if on parade typing a step. They are 100 meters away. “Well, now I'll spoil your mood”, - Brilin thought angrily and pressed the trigger of the machine gun. Like ants caught unawares by the rain, the enemies rushed about in panic. Deadly jets of lead mowed them down like mushrooms. The second machine gun fired at the rear of the column. Machine-gun fire rang out erratically and bullets whizzed over the intrepid machine-gunners. The tape ended and the machine gun fell silent. ”The tape quickly!” - Brilin shouted to his assistant, opening the lock of the machine gun. The Nazis thought that the crew were killed and rushed to the attack but again a shower of bullets falls on them. Several times the Nazis attacked and rolled back leaving the dead. I ran out of ammo. And the enemies are crawling, clinging to the ground. “Fire grenades!” Brylin shouts, and again the attack failed. There's nothing else to fight back with. Sergeant Brylin wiped his sweat on his sleeve and looked around – the two asisstants were killed. “I won't let you catch me alive, you bastards!’ – he thought and grabbed the machine gun which had a few rounds left in it. Suddenly, a loud "Hurrah!" came from behind. It was help. The enemy was repulsed. Seventy six bodies of fascists were lying in front of the machine gun of sergeant Pavel Timofeevich Brilin. Next day the regimental commander, Colonel Kalinin, personally presented the intrepid scout with the medal "For Bravery" before the formation. This was his first battle award. In a fierce battle for the Brilyovo station, near Rzhev, sergeant Brilin P. T. was slightly wounded in the chest. He was placed in a field hospital, a few kilometers from the front lines. The division headquarters was located next to the hospital. About forty German submachine gunners leaked through the front line. In a firefight they killed the sentries and moved to the hospital. Dozens of injured people were in grave danger. The division headquarters was also under threat. Hearing the shooting, sergeant Brilin rushed to the headquarters, armed with grenades and a machine gun, and met the fascists with accurate fire. He threw grenades. While he was holding back the fascist squad, all the wounded who were able to hold weapons armed themselves with the help of a staff Sergeant from the headquarters and attacked the Krauts. The entire squad of the Nazis were destroyed. For this fight Pavel Timofeevich Brilin received the order of Glory of the third degree. Retreating, the enemy resisted furiously. Every kilometer of the native land had to be taken with a fight, abundantly watered with soldiers' blood. Sergeant Brilin was wounded several times and again, having slightly healed his wounds, he returned to his native unit. Closer and closer is the lair of the fascist beast, more and more fiercely he snarls, he feels his death. Especially persistent battles broke out for the capture of the city of Konigsberg. The battalion in which sergeant Brilin was stationed was assigned the task of capturing the brickworks. Under the cover of darkness the soldiers went on the offensive. The Nazis concentrated here a lot of self-propelled guns, tanks, every meter was shot through with cannon and machine-gun fire. Here they hoped to delay the Soviet troops. The bypass canal became an insurmountable obstacle in the way of the soldiers. It was 35 meters wide, filled with water, and up to 8 meters deep. The Nazis discovered the attackers and opened heavy mortar and artillery fire, it seemed that no force would make the soldiers raise their heads. The commander of the assault group, junior lieutenant Malyshev, shouted: "Communists, follow me!" and he plunged into the foaming water of the canal followed by communist sergeant Brilin and several other soldiers. They swam across on wooden ladders that were found on the bank. At this time some of the German firing points were suppressed by artillery, the rest stopped firing. Only the enemy's machine guns barked viciously, fanned out water fountains, ricocheted, and sowed death. Junior lieutenant Malyshev was wounded and barely got out on the beach. Brilin was the first to cross. The proximity of the hated enemy, the death of his comrades filled his soul with an indelible hatred for the enemy. He threw off his greatcoat, slung the machine gun over his back and crawled to the machine gun with two grenades in his hand. The grenade was thrown and the machine gun stopped. Brilin took a few strides to reach the machine gun. Two Germans were sprawled out by the explosion of grenades, fighting in their death throes. The sergeant took the four grenades from them and made his way to another machine gun. Next to him crawled three fighters who crossed the channel after him. Again, he threw a grenade and the machine gun fell silent. When Brilin and the soldiers ran up to the machine gunner, they saw that his hands were... chained to the handles of the machine gun on chains. Whether it was a Volkssturm soldier or a penal guard, the chains did not save him and he could not escape.When the crew of the third machine gun were killed, the battalion rushed to cross the channel. Sergeant Brilin and his men, who were already seven in number, fired machine guns at the wall of the factory and did not allow the enemy to interfere with the crossing. The solid brick wall of the territory of the brick factory was one and a half meters high. When the soldiers crossed, they gathered about forty people, the officers were wounded. “Listen to my word of command!” - sergeant Brylin said through the chain. “Grenades, fire!” No sooner had the dust from the explosions dissipated than the command again: attack! In a rush the squad overcame the wall and a struggle ensued in the yard of the factory. Short bursts of automatic fire, blows with the butt, shouts and screams - all mixed up. The remaining Polacks, who turned out to be defenders of the plant, rushed to retreat. The combat task was completed – the plant was taken, but if the enemy is running you need to drive him further and could communist sergeant Brilin, who has already shed his blood five times, stop and let the fascists strengthen. No, he couldn't. He sent one soldier with a report to the commander of the regiment and he and his men rushed after the retreating Nazis on the field. There was a small height ahead. Small bushes hid the movement and the defenders of the height apparently took everyone for their own. And only when the trench was a few dozen meters away and the Russian “Hurrah!” swept through the ranks of the attackers, the Germans realized their mistake but it was too late. This fight was fierce. There was no time to shoot in the cramped trench. They stabbed each other with knives, hit with butts, strangled each other by the throat…Thirteen soldiers, along with Brilin, survived, some of them were wounded including the sergeant himself. 9 machine guns were at the height, a lot of grenades, machine guns of the killed fascists. Brilin positioned the men at the machine guns and ordered them to prepare for battle. He knew that the Germans would try to regain the height and destroy his group. Pavel Timofeyevich looked around at the soldiers crouched by the machine guns and said loudly so that everyone could hear. “Soon our people will come, I sent a messenger, and our task, brothers, is to hold the height at all costs – it is the key to the city”. In the faint rays of the sunset Konigsberg was clearly visible – a large enemy lair. Suddenly fountains of rips and dust enveloped the height. A frenzied artillery and mortar barrage began. “Everyone take cover in the trenches," - Brilin ordered and thought: - “Well, now the Hanses will attack”. A group of Germans separated from the outermost houses and scattered in a chain moved to the height. “Don't shoot without a command!” - Brilin said and leveled the machine gun at waist level at the Germans. When they were about a hundred meters away sergeant Brilin pulled the trigger of the machine gun. And immediately the height came to life, 5 machine guns that survived after the shelling brought down a leaden shower on the attackers. As if cut by a scythe, the fascists fell to the ground, never to rise again, and the survivors rushed back, lay down, lay low. And again the fiery whirlwind of explosions raged - enraged by the failure the Nazis sought to mix the defenders of the height with the ground. When a new chain of fascists rushed to the height, in the hope that there is no one alive, they were met by the fire of four machine guns. Sergeant Breelin lost track of time. Already six times the savage enemies rushed to the attack and retreated under machine-gun fire leaving dozens of corpses. There were three survivors – Sergeant Brilin and two soldiers. And six self-propelled guns went to the height, followed by infantry. Again, shell bursts tear the ground and fragments ricochet with a screech. The self-propelled guns stalled and the submachine gunners, having overtaken them, went firing on the move. The machine guns were silent. Sergeant Brylin looked around – were any of his battle friends dead or wounded? And there were no bullets in the tape. He crawled around and collected a few submachine guns and grenades and waited. “I won't give you my life cheap,” – he thought. For a moment he remembered his native faraway Zyryanovsk. Will their relatives and fellow countrymen know how they died on a foreign land defending their Homeland? The Nazis went without hiding or shooting, cheering themselves up with shouts. “Are they drunk?” - Brilin thought and raised the assault rifle. Again the leaden stream scattered the attackers but they retreated and crawled back. A mine exploded and Brylin felt a blow on his right leg. “Wounded”, he thought. His leg wouldn't obey. The sergeant raised his rifle and suddenly his right arm hung limp. A shell fragment hit it. Then Brilin grabbed a grenade with his left hand and threw it down into the crowd of fascists, then another, and a third.... About thirty Germans were lying at the height killed by machine gun fire and grenades. From the loss of blood he began to lose consciousness. Enemy self-propelled guns broke out of the quagmire and rushed to the height firing as they went. But then a firestorm caught up with them and they flared up like torches. The Russian Katyushas' barrage was well-aimed. A loud “Hurrah!" came from behind. “Our people,” Brilin thought and jumped up from the ground but the pain made him faint. Having gained a foothold at the height, the guards division with which Brilin was marching from Moscow broke into Konigsberg and street battles ensued. Sergeant Brillin was taken from the battlefield and sent to the hospital, seriously wounded. This was on the 7th of April, 1945. Pavel Timofeyevich Brilin did not hear the salute of the Victory - he did not regain consciousness for nineteen days. The doctors of the Leningrad hospital fought hard for his life. He was all cut up, shot through the legs and arms, and concussed to boot. And when he opened his eyes and asked for a drink, the doctors thought it was a miracle. Brilin was slowly recovering. His arms and legs were in a cast and he lay motionless. But the heroic body withstood, improved appetite, things were on the mend. In order to avoid a fatal outcome, the professor of the Leningrad hospital categorically forbade, forever, to remove the fragments of mines and shells stuck in the legs and head of Pavel Timofeevich Brilin. They stayed with him for life, until the end!!! One morning the deputy chief of the hospital for political Affairs, a lieutenant colonel, came in. He shows the newspaper: did you read, Sergeant, who is it?” “Pavel Timofeyevich Brilin," - Brilin reads aloud. “What is it?" “Because, dear Pavel Timofeyevich," the lieutenant colonel replied, "by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR you were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. And I am the first here to congratulate you from the bottom of my heart”. This news spread around the hospital and walking patients, hospital employees warmly congratulated Brilin on the high award. In October 1945 guard sergeant Brilin was discharged from the hospital and went to Moscow on a call. The highest awards of the Soviet government - the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star of Hero of the Soviet Union - were presented to him by Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin. And now the road to the native lands is open. The path to them was long and difficult. Pavel Timofeyevich Brilin shed his blood nine times during the war, healed his wounds and again smashed the enemy. His chest was decorated with medals "For the capture of Konigsberg" and "For the victory over Germany". Pavel Timofeyevich again worked in his native shop as a locksmith at the mine named after the XXII Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Hardworking, modest, he enjoyed authority in the team. He was awarded the title of a Communist labor striker.

Grade title: senior lieutenant. Branch of service: artillery. Division: the 162nd rifle division (the 1st formation). My great-grandfather was Valentin Alexandrovich Benediktov (1924-1994). He was born in Tambov in a very educated and intelligent family. He studied at gymnasium no. 7 – now it is one of the oldest in the city. After the 9th grade he went to the Tambov artillery school (although he really wanted to go to flight but did not pass on medical grounds). From school he signed up for the front. He finished fighting at Konigsberg. He received the medal “For the capture of Konigsberg”; the medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Second World War 1941-1945". He was shell-shocked. After the war he remained in the military service, graduated from the military Academy and became an engineer. Went to serve in Belarus, the city of Starye Dorogy. There he met his fate -- the brown-eyed beauty Maria. This was my great – grandmother, Maria Vikentievna. Their first daughter, Tatiana, is my maternal grandmother. After Belarus they served both in Western Ukraine and in the Urals – in the city of Nizhny Tagil. In Tagil my great-grandfather served as chief engineer of the missile division. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. In general, he was a very talented person in engineering, drawing and electrical engineering. At home various mechanisms appeared all the time which were made by grandfather Benedictov himself. For example, a New Year tree with lights that rotates around its axis. He also designed his own office apartment in the Urals – a large four-room apartment with a special layout of rooms of non-standard sizes. And later, by the way, he personally made for my grandmother Tatiana, who was a dentist by profession (the only doctor in our family) a gift – a portable drill – a small suitcase with all necessary tools. By the way, my grandmother treated her own teeth with this drill! But back to my great-grandfather. After the Urals he went to the post of head of the rocket factory in the city of Balashov. He retired there in the rank of a colonel engineer. And after that he lived until the end of his days in the city of Voronezh. In total, he had three children with Maria Vikentievna: Tatiana (my grandmother), Natalia and the youngest and very long–awaited son - Vladimir, who realized his father's dream and became a pilot! Now he is the commander of the Russian military transport aviation - lieutenant general V. V. Benediktov.

Ordered to survive! Nikolay Bichehvost: “Lurked and lost among the steppes of Stalingrad’s vast expanses is my native village Novokiyevka founded a hundred years ago on the lands of a Don general by immigrants from Ukraine. The Ivanyuk family of grain growers, strong and grasping to work, also settled down here! The fate of Ivan Ivanyuk will lead them from the unsightly hut, which is perched at the dam of the pond of childhood, to the difficult path, across Russia, abroad. The barefoot kid will become a professional scout. He will give a quarter of a century to dangerous service in the state security agencies, which not that everyone can do. He was born in 1916 and his childhood and his youth will run here, in Novokiyevka. They were friends, used to drive blue pigeons, went to the same school and spent time with my father, Fyodor Bichehvost, who later also became a military officer and who in the 62nd army defended approaches to Stalingrad. And who also went abroad but not of his own free will. After school Ivan graduated from then prestigious Novoanninsky agricultural technical school and served in the Red Army, in the Belarusian military district. Not knowing that fate would return him to those lands in the hard times of the Great Patriotic War. "Where I was born, that's where I came in handy." And he returned just before the war to his father's land. An agronomist of the Novokievsky machine and tractor station, he used to plow, sow and cultivate the grain in the arid steppes. Here, on the farm, my father also worked as a peasant. The hard-working life in the fields and in the farmstead for a piece of bread forged men persistent, wiry and strong in spirit. Ivan Ivanyuk complained, a little envious, that his friend, the pigeon fancier Fedor Bichevost, oh, how far away, in snow-covered Finland, was fighting on the Finnish frozen front. In the fiery year of 1941 Ivanyuk became an employee of the inter-district department of the NKVD in Mikhailovka under the command of P.S. Tsygankov. Durng the battle of Stalingrad he used to deactivate fascist sabotage groups that were sent to explode the strategic railway Moscow – Stalingrad… On the 13th of August, 1942, a group of saboteurs was parachuted into the Mikhailovsky district with the task of destroying the protection of the railway bridge in Mikhaylovka, blowing up the bridge over the Medveditsa river and the railway track between Rakovka and Mikhaylovka stations. A task unit led by Ivaniuk identified and detained saboteurs with explosives, weapons and radio equipment. Their capture of a valuable saboteur allowed them to conduct a radio game with the enemy’s intelligence. It ended with the failure of an experienced German spy, specially thrown into the Mikhailovsky district to create an extensive residency. About 20 dangerous saboteurs were detained here by our countryman. His friend Fyodor survived the Finnish winter campaign. He managed to finish the Uryupinsk infantry school at an accelerated rate. In the Second World War, he commanded a platoon in the 33rd rifle division of the Stalingrad front. In fierce battles in the open don steppes from Kalach to Kletskaya, he fought off a massive onslaught of the Nazis with his fighters. From the 11th till the 15th of August, 1942, the enemy crushed and surrounded six of our divisions, including the 33rd rifle division, in the bend of the Don. It was not possible to break through to these divisions, break through the front and withdraw them from the encirclement ... The stubborn resistance of these divisions delayed the advance of the German troops for a long time and prevented them from capturing Stalingrad with one blow. Then came the tragedy and the crown of thorns for many thousands of Soviet prisoners of war, including my father. These victims learned in Germany the inhumanity of Nazi concentration camps, while others were burned in the flames of crematoria stoves... Other half-dead were thrown into the camps of Luxembourg. There, in Differdingen, my future father and mother, who had been forcibly removed as a minor from Ukraine, were among the prisoners and met. Tell me, why do I, born after the war, still dream of explosions and train bombings, haggard yellow faces of prisoners of war, skin and bones and other horrors of the Nazi camps that my parents went through? And I, who have been burned for 25 years in the investigative and prosecutorial work, wake up hard at night from these nightmares of war... And Ivan Ivanyuk then served on the 2nd Belorussian front, disappeared in the dense thickets as part of the SMERSH counterintelligence department. In Poland and Germany he was engaged in the liquidation of underground sabotage organizations "Werewolf". In the fighting his colleague in the Mikhailovsky district A. K. Redkin and many comrades will die. Ivanyuk in the post-war ten years acted as a security officer throughout Germany. He neutralized agents of the former German intelligence and secret terrorist groups of the SS, SD, SA, and detected espionage activities. He also participated in the liquidation of an extensive spy network on the territory of the GDR. My father escaped from the Nazi camp with the help of a Luxembourg worker, Dybenih Ivan, when the American troops were advancing, and hid with him until the arrival of the American allies. The Soviet military mission in Paris appointed him as a liaison officer for the repatriation — the return of our prisoners of war and stolen citizens to their homeland. In search of them and collecting them, he and my mother, with the assistance of the Americans and the British, traveled to many cities in Germany and France: Cologne, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Paris... He saw and experienced a lot and we remember his stories from childhood. Both of them, Ivan and Fyodor, two officers, two friends, fellow villagers, served abroad almost side by side, but their paths did not intersect. After passing filtration camps and interrogations of SMERSH employees my parents ended up in Novokiyevka thanks to their repatriation work, not in Soviet labor camps or forced labor camps. A war veteran and a soldier, Fyodor Bichehvost was proud of the order of the Red Star and government awards for participation in the Great Patriotic War. Ivan Ivanyuk when he came home was happy to meet his father. He continued his service in the state security agencies in Moscow and Kaliningrad at the Center of space research. The Space Mission Control Center awarded him a commemorative medal for ensuring the flight of the Soyuz-Apollo spacecraft. In his memoirs of a chekist that were further transferred to the the regional museum of the Novokievsky school he wrote: "Work in the Committee for State Security is not easy, sometimes it is dangerous and involves a risk to life. I have had to look death in the eye more than once..." Even the death could not separate friends… a portrait of a military officer, Fyodor Bichehvost, still looks and looks from the hillock of the village cemetery from the monument to the nearby house of the parents of Ivan Ivanyuk, a chekist who finished his earthly journey in Moscow. And the same rural blond boys run to the same Novokievskaya school past us to the same dam… Life goes on... My story "From Stalingrad to Luxembourg" tells about the military life and the fate of my parents…

Grade title: a captain. Branch of service: ground forces, air force (except for naval aviation), coastal guards, troops of NKVD, border guards. Division: the 81st Krasnograd guard rifle division of the Red Banner and the order of Suvorov. Stepan Belousov was born on the 17th of March, 1918, in the village of Ust-Porozikha (now it is in the Shipunovsky district) of the Altai territory in a peasant family. He graduated from 6 classes of a secondary school in the village of Krasny Yar of the Shipunovsky district. He worked as an accountant at the Shipunovsky grain farm and later as a salesman. He was called up into the army in 1938 by the Shipunovsky district military commissariat. Senior lieutenant S. M. Belousov began fighting in the Stalingrad front as part of the 422nd rifle division which arrived at the front from the Far East. As part of the 57th and then of the 64th army he participated in defensive battles on the southern approaches to Stalingrad and then in the counteroffensive - the strategic offensive operation ‘Uranus” (19.11.1942 - 02.02.1943). On the 19th of December, 1942, he was wounded. For distinction in defensive battles near Stalingrad he was awarded the order of the Red Star. From the award list:"...Commander of the mortar troop of the 1326th rifle regiment of the 422nd rifle division S.M. Belousov showed courage and bravery in the continuous battles to protect the city of Stalingrad from the 22nd of August till the 16th of September, 1942, supporting the defense and then the offensive of rifle units. He inspired his fighters by personal example. The troop under the command of comrade Belousov destroyed and then dispersed up to two battalions of the enemy’s infantry, several machine-gun and firing points, and prevented the enemy’s soldiers from reaching our positions..." For the mass heroism of the division's soldiers in the battle of Stalingrad it was transformed into the 81st guards devision on the 1st of March, 1943. Later of since the 6th of July, 1943, the division as part of the 7th guard army participated in heavy defensive battles on the Voronezh (from the 16th of July – the Steppe front) front on the southern face of the Kursk bulge. The division held the defense close to the eastern outskirts of Belgorod near the villages of Blizhnyaya Igumenka, Belovskoye and Yastrebovo. On the 8th of July the superior forces of the enemy supported by a large number of tanks managed to break through the first line of defense of the army and to capture the village of Blizhnaya Igumenka and to advance several kilometers further. At the same time the 233rd guards rifle regiment was surrounded but managed to break through the enemy’s ring and to join the main forces of the division. On the second line of the defense the enemy that was advancing in the direction of Koroskem was stopped. On the 20th of July, 1943, the 7th guard army launched a counteroffensive and on the 22nd of July pushed back the enemy and returned to the lines it had occupied before the battle began. For distinction in the defensive battles of the battle of Kursk the senior adjutant (chief of staff) of the battalion of the 233rd guard rifle regiment, captain S. M. Belousov, was awarded the second order of the Red Star. From the award list: "... Comrade Belousov along with performing operational work and during the most fierce battles was directly in the units and inspired the soldiers and commanders by his personal example. Comrade Belousov with a rifle platoon remained surrounded by the enemy for the longest period thus covering the withdrawal of other units of the regiment...". From the 3rd to the 23rd of August, 1943, S.M. Belousov took part in the Belgorod-Kharkiv offensive attachk which was the final stage of the battle of Kursk, including the liberation of the city of Kharkiv (Ukraine), then in the Poltava-Kremenchug offensive (the 26th of August – the 30th os September, 1943) to liberate Ukraine including the city of Krasnograd in the Kharkiv region. For a special distinction in this operation he was presented to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Posthumously. From the award list: ".. Comrade Belousov working as the senior adjutant of the battalion in a number of battles on the right bank of the Dnieper proved to be an experienced, skilled staff soldier who can quickly assess the combat situation and give the correct combat order. On the 25th of September, 1943, when crossing the Dnieper river comrade Belousov, being among the combat formations of the battalion, personally organized the crossing, managed to prepare materials for the crossing (boats, rafts) and as a result the whole of the battalion moved to the right bank of the Dnieper in a short time. Comrade Belousov was among the first to cross to the right bank providing the control of the battle. During the 26th and the 27th of September the battalion repulsing repeated attacks of the enemy threw them ten kilometers away from the Dnieper thus causing heavy losses in manpower and equipment to the enemy. On the 17th of October comrade Belousov led the battle in the area of the village of Pogrebnaya Balka and encouraged the soldiers to defeat the enemy by personal example and in this battle he was mortally wounded. For his courage and bravery in performing the task and on the basis of the order of the Chief Commander of the Red Army he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union - posthumously...". The hero's grave is located in the village of Orlik, the Kobelyaksky district of the Poltava region, Ukraine. In memory of the heroic feat of Stepan Belousov a street in the village of Krasny Yar in the Altai territory and a street in Novosibirsk were named after him.

My grandfather - Dmitry Baranov - was born on the 16th of May, 1921, in the village of Toropovskaya, the Ust-Kubensky district of the Vologda region. His father was Alexander Dmitrievich Baranov, mother was Claudia Alexandrovna Baranova. In July 1940 he graduated from the Cherepovets veterinary college. He was called up for service in the Red Army in May 1941. Service in the 8th guard paratrooper brigade began. Together with the 7th and the 214th brigades it became part of the 4th airborne corps. The brigade was formed from the personnel of the 231st rifle division. Manning of the brigades was completed by the 1st of June, 1941, but it was not possible to provide them with sufficient military equipment before the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. The war began. There were bloody battles in the Western direction. The brigade's paratroopers entered the battle in late June when German-fascist tank groups broke through to the east of Minsk and rushed to the Dnieper and Smolensk. The command of the Western front was making every effort to delay the enemy as long as possible at the last favorable line - the Berezina river and to deprive him of the opportunity to break through to the Dnieper on the move. For that purpose the 4th paratroop corps was ordered to move to the area to the south from Borisovo and to take up defense along the Berezina river. Here parts of the corps stopped the formations of the 24th German motorized corps moving in the direction of Berezino and Svisloch and did not allow the enemy to cross the river on the move and delayed the further advance of the enemy’s tanks. For six days the paratroopers repelled massive attacks of tanks of the 24th motorized corps of the Germans. At 3 a.m. on the 15th of July up to a hundred tanks with the enemy’s motorized infantry broke through the front at the junction of the 42nd and the 55th rifle divisions, captured the city of Propoisk and rushed along the highway to the city of Krichev. The commander of the Western front gave orders to detain the enemies and to prevent them from breaking through the Sozh river, thus assigning this task to the commander of the 4th paratroop corps. The front had no other forces here. On the 15th and the 16th of July the paratroopers leading heavy deterrent battles retreated to the Sozh river and by the end of the 16th of July they moved to the defense of the river crossings near the city of Krichev. During the 17th of July the corps successfully repelled the attacks of the enemy’s tanks but the enemy, pulling up reserves, on the night of the 18th of July captured Krichev as a result of regular attacks, crossed the Sozh and captured a bridgehead on the left bank of the river. The fighting for Krichev continued. The enemy sought to build on their success at any cost. The paratroopers holding their positions launched counterattacks. By this time the situation in the western direction was very difficult. The order of the Commander-in-chief in the western direction indicated that the enemy concentrated large forces on the Vitebsk and Mogilev directions and broke through the front in the area of Shklov and Bykhov and went out in mobile groups into the area of Velizh and Gorki thus trying to break through to Smolensk and to surround the Vitebsk-Orsha grouping of the Red Army troops.Later on the enemy’s groups continued to advance to the east in order to cut the main communications and to get into the deep rear of the Soviet troops in this direction. The loss of the water boundary between Sozh and Krichev further aggravated the situation by the beginning of the second half of July. The commander of the 4th paratroop corps, major general A. S. Zhadov, was called to the western command post, where the marshal of the Soviet Union S. K. Timoshenko set up a task for him to restore the situation on the Sozh river and to drive the Germans out of the city of Krichev. On the 18th of July lieutenant general V. F. Gerasimenko arrived in the Krichev area to coordinate the actions of the corps and other units to fulfill the combat mission set by S. K. Timoshenko, the commander of the 13th army. In the morning of the 19th of July the corps’s units moved to their starting positions for the attack onto Krichev. The paratroopers reached the left bank of the river with a decisive rush but they failed to develop success. Without air or artillery support the corps units could not overcome the defenses and cross the river and withdrew to the line of Krasny Bor, Mikheevichi and Velikan, where they began to put themselves in order and prepare for a new counterattack. A second attempt to return Krichev also failed. The 8th brigade was late in reaching the line of attack and was unable to take part in the battle. In the morning of the 21st of July the corps again attacked the enemy in the direction of Krichev. The 7th brigade went to Korenaya and to the forest to the west from it where they were stopped by the enemy’s fire from the side of Mikhevichi. The 8th brigade reached the forest to the east from Pondokhovo and was also stopped by the concentrated fire of artillery and mortars of the enemy. Heavy fighting for Krichev continued for other few days. On the 22nd of and 23th of July the 4th paratroop corps continued to aggressively attack the enemy defending the left bank of the Sozh river near Krichev. However, the attacks were not successful. In the evening of the 29th of July a combined detachment of paratroopers under the command of major V. S. Timchenko, head of the operational department of the corps headquarters, crossed the Sozh river and broke into the city despite the heavy fire of the enemy. All night there was a fierce battle with the Nazis in the area of the railway station near the military enlistment office as well as in the surrounding villages of Voronevo and Zadobrost. Two battalions of the enemy were almost completely destroyed, only some soldiers managed to escape from the city. However, at dawn the Nazis launched a counterattack with significant forces of infantry and tanks. The paratroopers were forced to leave the city. Major V. S. Timchenko was mortally wounded in this battle. Subsequently, the 8th paratroop brigade conducted combat operations as part of the 4th paratroop corps in the area of Unecha, Pogar and Starodub. My grandfather was captured on the 29th of July, 1941, in Krichev. Subsequently, he was held in the following camps for war prisoners: from the moment of capture until the 30th of April, 1942, Stalag IV-B in Muhlberg (Brandenburg, Germany). The prisoner's personal number is 144404. Information about Stalag IV-B camp: Stalag IV-B Muhlberg was one of the largest camps for war prisoners in Germany during the World War II. The camp was located in the forth military district of Germany, 8 km away to the north-east from the city of Mühlberg and about 50 km to the north from the city of Dresden. The camp with an area of about 30 hectares was opened in September 1939 and was international. The first prisoners of war in it were 17,000 Polish soldiers taken prisoners by the Germans during the attack on Poland in September 1939. In May 1940 the first French prisoners of war captured in the battle of France arrived at the camp. In 1941 British and Australian soldiers arrived at the camp after the fall of Greece. In total, soldiers of 33 nations passed through the camp. In 1941 - 1942 the camp was the central reception and distribution center for newly arriving Soviet prisoners of war. The camp was liberated by the Red Army on the 23th of April, 1945. Since the 30th of April, 1942, - Stalag IV- of Oszac (Saxony, Germany). Information about the Stalag IV-G camp: Stalag IV-G was not an ordinary camp, in the usual sense of the word, but a kind of concentration of labor camps scattered throughout the land of Saxony. The administrative management was carried out through the central headquarters located in the city of Oschatz, a small town located between the cities of Leipzig and Dresden. The area around Oschatz was one of the last to be liberated at the end of the war. Upon arrival at the camp Dmitry Baranov was assigned to the work team no. 256 Leipzig-West in Markranstadt (Germany), a small town located 15 km to the south-west of the city of Leipzig. Since the 5th of January, 1945, he was in a working team of Leipzig-OST in Leipzig (Germany). He was released from captivity by American troops (the 273rd regiment of the 69th infantry division of the United States) on the 24th of April, 1945, in Wurzen, Germany. From the memoirs of William Robertson, a US army soldier: "After capturing Leipzig in April 1945 the 69th division continued to move to the east and our 273rd regiment reached the Mulde river on the 20th of April. Every soldier knew that the Russians were advancing in our direction. Fascist Germany was bound to be defeated. I was an intelligence lieutenant and commanded a small platoon. Our regiment was stationed on the Muld directly opposite the town of Wurzen. On the 24th of April the mayor moved to our coast and announced the surrender of the city. We walked into Wurzen. All night long my platoon was engaged in setting up barriers for prisoners of war and surveying the area. By that time the only topic of conversation was a possible meeting with the Red Army. We all were looking forward to meet them. We were eager to see the Russians. What are they doing now? What are they? We knew that they had come here from Moscow and Stalingrad and that they were staunch soldiers. But still, what kind of people are they? How do they behave? Are they friendly? We only knew that they were near, somewhere a little ahead. We understood that it would be a great honor for our 69th division to be the first unit of the Western front to join the Eastern front. Soon after we entered Wurzen we found that there was a prisoner-of-war camp just four miles to the east of the city. There were four thousand of them there and now they were moving from there to the city. Weak and haggard, they were greeting us and their eyes shone with happiness. Now I saw firsthand that the war was really a world war. Some of these men were captured during the African campaign. There were many Russians, Polacks, French, English, Canadians, Indians, Australians and Americans. It's hard to describe their joy. They followed us with their eyes as if they couldn't get enough of us." After his release from captivity my grandfather was filtered on the 8th of May, 1945, at the SMERSH testing and filtration center. After passing the filter he was sent for further service into the 214th army reserve rifle regiment, where he was enlisted by order dated the 10th of May, 1945, as a rifleman, in the rank of a red army soldier. Information about the 214th army reserve rifle regiment: formed on the 12th of September, 1942. It was disbanded on the 20th of January, 1946, on the basis of the order of the commander of the 5th guard army dated the 22nd of November, 1945, no. 0217. The number of personnel on the day of disbandment, i.e. on the 5th of December, 1945, – 3,472 people. Liquidation act on the disbandment of the 214th army reserve rifle regiment was dated the 1st of Fabruary, 1946. The reason for the delay in disbanding the regiment was related to the relocation of the regiment to a new location – to Zoos (Austria) from the Zielona camp (Czechoslovakia). The day the regiment was disbanded was the 5th of December, 1945. Soldiers were sent to the regiment either to continue service after severe injuries or to train and to return to the active army (marching columns). In June 1945 the regiment was in the village of Noj–Grauppa. In July 1945 the regiment was stationed at camp Zelena (Czechoslovakia). According to order no. 115 dated the 15th of May, 1945, for the 214th army reserve rifle regiment the grandfather was sent as part of the marching group no. 483 in the number of 600 people to the 9th guard paratroop division. Here it is worth noting the following nuance: according to the list of names the sergeants and enlisted personnel left to replenish not the 9th guards paratroop division but the 9th guard rifle division. This is also confirmed by an act signed between representatives of the 214th army reserve rifle regiment and the 9th guard rifle division on the reception and inspection of a team of 600 people who arrived to join the 9th guard rifle division. Later on there were no other evidence of the grandfather's location found in the lists of the 9th guard rifle division. Information about the fighting of the 9th guard rifle division in March of 1945: The war diary of actions: the period from the 29th of March till the 8th of May, 1945: the parts were focused: the bend of the Vartaya river, to the east from Bruveri, to the south-west of Pudyki, to the north-west of Perkone. Journal of combat operations for May 1945. Goal: to defeat the German troops in Courland (present day Latvia). Division deployment: the forest to the south-east of Yaunselin, Yaunselin. From 3 p.m. on the 8th of May the German troops in Courland began to capitulate and disarm to our units. Police, "vlasovtsy" and other sabotage groups continued to hide in the woods. Combat order dated the 11th of May, 1945: to look through the forests and settlements and reach the border: by the 11th of May – Wetzlaza-Aiznute, by the 12th of May – Bunty – Stremy - Shibari, by the end of the 13th of May - to reach the Baltic Sea coast. By 6 p.m. on the 14th of May the units reached the Baltic Sea coast where from the14th of May till the 29th of May, 1945, they were engaged in combat training and patrolled at the turn of Pilsbergi. According to the order dated the 29th of May, 1945, the parts of the division concentrated by 11 a.m. on the 30th of May near Tortie, Aizpute, Padure, Kazdangas, Mezhaputny where they started to equip the camp. Information about the 9th guard paratroop division: the 9th guard paratroop division was formed in December 1941 in Lyubertsy, the Moscow region. The division included the 23rd, 26th, 28th guards airborne, and 7th guard artillery regiments. During the Great Patriotic War it conducted combat operations as a rifle unit. In February 1943 it was included in the 1st shock army of the north-western front and on the 12th of March it was the first to enter the battle at the line to the west of Vyazka (38 km to the south from Staraya Russa) to the south-east of Sosnovka. In April of 1943 it was kept in the reserve of the Supreme command, in May it was transferred to the area southwest of Stary Oskol and was included in the 5th guard army (which was fighting to the end of the war) of the Steppe Eastern district (since the 9th of June – the Steppe front). In July and August the division as part of the Voronezh front troops participated in the battle of Kursk. The soldiers of the division fought courageously when repelling the enemy’s strike in the Prokhorovka area. During the transition to the counteroffensive it fought in the Belgorod-Kharkiv operation and in the left-bank Ukraine. On the 22nd and 23th of September, 1943, the division was successfully fighting for Poltava. On the 23th of September, 1943, the division was awarded the honorary title of Poltava for its military distinctions during the liberation of Poltava. At the end of September 1943 in cooperation with other formations of the Steppe (from the 20th of October, 1943, the second Ukrainian) front, the division participated in the liberation of Kremenchug (the 29th of September). Since the second half of October the division was fighting in right-bank Ukraine. They participated in the liberation of the cities of Alexandria (the 6th of December, 1943), Kirovograd (the 8th of January, 1944), Ananyev (the 1st of April, 1944), Grigoriopol (the 12th of April, 1944). The division was particularly successful in the Pervomaisk region of the Mykolaiv region for which it was awarded the order of the Red Banner on the 1st of April, 1943. High resilience and courage were shown by the soldiers of the unit in the Lviv-Sandomierz operation when repelling the enemy's counterattack from the area of melets and in the battles on the Sandomierz bridgehead soldiers of the division acted bravely and skillfully in the final operations of the Great Patriotic War. In the Sandomierz-Silesian offensive o eration after breaking through the enemy's defenses in the area of Stopnica (60 km South-West of the city on the 14th of January, 1945, units of the division crossed the Nida river to the south of Pinchow (40 km south of Kielce), liberated Rosenberg (Olesno) on the 21st of January and crossed the Oder river near Eichenried and Southeast of Brig (Brzeg) on the 24th of January. On the 19th of January, 1945, at 6 p.m. the 9th guard paratroop division crossed the Muhl-Graben river and crossed the state border of Poland with Germany capturing the first German city of Rosenberg. On the 22nd of January, 1945, the division reached the eastern bank of the river Oder and forced it. On the 31st of January, 1945, the division crossed the river Oder in a new direction – village of Minden, bypassing the city of Brig from the west, and contributed to the complete encirclement of the German group in the city of Brig. In February and March 1945 parts of the division were fighting in Silesia. The division's soldiers fought bravely and selflessly during the liberation of Poland for which the division was awarded the order of Suvorov of the second degree on the 19th of February, 1945. In the course of participating in the Berlin offensive the division introduced into the battle from the second echelon of the army immediately crossed the Spree river and in cooperation with other formations stormed the city of Spremberg on the 20th of April. On the 22nd of April the division destroyed the encircled 5-thousandth German group to the west of the city of Spremberg in the Kausche area. On the 1st of May the division held off a counterattack by the German Panzer division "Hermann Goering" at the Schweppnitz - Schoenbach line. On the 8th of May the division's rapid actions in the flank of the Dresden group of Germans contributed to the capture of Dresden. On the 9th of May, the division helped units of the 33rd guard rifle corps and general Rybalko's tanks liberate Prague. At the end of May 1945 the division from Pirna (Germany) was relocated to Czechoslovakia in the area of Rakovnik and then to the area of Vroutek, in Reaper, having equipped the camp and started normal combat and political training. Between the 9th and the 30th of November, 1945, the division made 600 km. march route: Zatec-Bruno-Bratislava-Magyarovar and concentrated in Gyor (Hungary). From the 29th of May till the 3rd of June, 1946, the division was relocated from Hungary to Germany. The route was: Gyor-Bratislava-Malacky-Caslav-Dresden-Juterbog. The length of the march was 498 km. In July 1945 the 9th guard paratroop division was re-formed into the 116th Poltava guard rifle division of the Red Banner and of the orders of Suvorov and Kutuzov (order dated the 19th of June, 1945, in execution of the order of the commander-in-Chief of the central group of troops dated the 17th of June, 1945, about renaming of the 9th guards paratroop division into the 116th guard rifle division). In July 1945 the officers went to the city of Olomouc (Czechoslovakia). In October 1945 the division was located in C. Vroutek (Czechoslovakia) and began to reform into the 14th Poltava guards mechanized division of the Red Banner and the orders of Suvorov and Kutuzov. The re-formation began in the town of Zatec (Czechoslovakia) and ended in Gyor (Hungary). By the 1st of June, 1946, the division was transferred from the 5th guard mechanized army to the 3rd guard mechanized army. In November 1946 the 14th guard mechanized division was reorganized into the 14th guard cadre mechanized regiment. The regiment was manned by personnel born in 1925-27. The rearrangement occured in Juterbog (Germany). Indirect confirmation of the fact that the grandfather was sent to the 9th guard paratroop division was the order of the 10th of July, 1945, for the 9th guard paratroop division on the arrival of soldiers to be demobilized at the location of the 214th army reserve rifle regiment located in the village of Zelena located 35 km to the north-east from Prague. After demobilization on the 22nd of June, 1946, my grandfather returned home and started to work as an assistant veterinarian. In 1950 he entered the Moscow Veterinary Academy for distance learning. He graduated in 1956 with a degree in veterinary medicine. After graduation he continued working in the Ust-Kubensky district of the Vologda region. He got married and had three sons. He died on the 15th of June, 1966. N. B. During my work in the Central Archives of the Ministry of Defence in Podolsk (from the 9th till the 27th of June, 2016) I reviewed 38 cases totaling to 9791 sheets.

Grade of title: a senior sergeant. Branch of service: army, air forces (except for marine aviation), coastal guards, the troops of the NKVD, border troops. After graduating from the Krasnodar pedagogical technical school Bogus Zaurbech Kanovich was called up to the Red Army in 1939. Taking into account his skills in equestrian sports he was selected for the Pskov cavalry training center for junior commanders. He served as the commander of the sabre squad in the 63rd cavalry regiment (Pskov). In January 1940 the regiment was re-formed into the 25th light motorized division which participated in the Soviet-Finnish war. In November 1941 as a regimental scout and part of a motorized rifle unit he got his first combat debut in the Kandalaksha sector of the front. When returning from another raid the group of scouts encountered an enemy patrol. As a result of the battle the patrol was completely destroyed but our troops also suffered losses. Two red army soldiers out of seven were killed and junior sergeant Bogus Z. K. received a number of serious injuries. He was treated and rehabilitated in a military hospital from November 1941 to February 1942 in Siberia (Anzhero-Sudzhensk, the Kemerovo region). After treatment and some rest at home in Kuban he was enlisted in the reserve artillery regiment of the don group of the North Caucasus front. In August and September 1942 the retreating army left for the foothills of the Caucasus. In January - March 1943 Bogus Zaurbech Kanovich as part of the forces of the North Caucasus front (the 9th army) took part in the liberation of Kuban. In September 1943 he took part in the liberation of the Taman Peninsula. In April 1944 he took part in the liberation of Kerch where he received another wound. After the hospital taking into account his state of health he was enlisted in the rear service as the head of the artillery warehouse. He was discharged in November 1946. From 1946 till 1977 Bogus Zaurbech Kanovich, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, worked as a mathematics teacher at the Assokolay secondary school (the Teuchezhsky district of the Krasnodar territory). He made an invaluable contribution to the formation of Assokolai high school for which he is remembered with great warmth by graduates of the school from different years. He raised five children. In April 1985 at the age of 68 Zaurbech Kanovich died from a severe respiratory illness resulting from multiple injuries.

Grade title: a second lieutenant. Branch of service: artillery. It has already been 72 years since the Soviet people won the Victory over Hitler's Germany in the Great Patriotic War. The Victory was won due to the fact that the entire Soviet people contributed to this Victory. One of the participants in the war was my great-grandfather Petr Stepanovich Bulagin whose whole life was devoted to serving the Motherland. My great-grandfather was born on the 14th of June, 1923, in the village of Sosnovka, the Ulyanovsk region, in a peasant family. There were 8 children in the family. He graduated from 8 classes of Ignatovskaya secondary school. In 1940 he entered the Kuibyshev professional technical school. He graduated as a carpenter and worked as a foreman at the Ulyanovsk sawmill for one year. In June 1942 at the age of 19 he was called up into the Red Army. In 1942 and 1943 he participated in the battle of Stalingrad. He was wounded and after recovering in the hospital he entered the first Omsk military infantry school. In 1944 after graduation in the rank of a second lieutenant he left for the front. As a member of the Belarusian front troops he was a platoon commander and then a troop commander. He participated in the battles in East Prussia where he received a second serious wound. After recovery he was in the city of Sverdlovsk in the reserve officer regiment from where in June 1945 he was discharged to the reserve due to injury. After the end of the war he studied at a school of auto mechanics and was sent to the Mari ASSR. There he worked in the police as a senior traffic inspector. In 1950 he got married my great-grandmother Valentina Stepanovna and they lived together until the "Golden" wedding. In 1965 they moved to then developing city of Tolyatti. Great-grandfather got a job as a mechanic at an azotic - fertilizer plant and since the plant needed specialists at that time he was sent as a master of industrial training for technical school no. 52 where he worked until retirement. In retirement Petr Stepanovich worked as an instructor of the DOSSAF (Russian Army, Air Force and Navy Volunteer Society) sports and shooting club until the age of 65. He died in 2003 at the age of 80. For participation in the Great Patriotic War my great-grandfather was awarded the Order of the Red Star, two orders of the Patriotic War and medals (“For Military Merits”, “For the Defense of Stalingrad”, “For the Capture of Konigsberg”, and ”For the Victory over Germany), numerous commemorative medals. And for conscientious and active work on the education of young people he received twenty one certificates and he was awarded the title of Veteran of Labor.

Branch of service: technical troops (chemical troops, railway troops, avia troops, radio-radar troops, road troops, topographic). The name of my mother Lyudmila Sergeevna's father was Sergey Petrovich Bondarev. He was born on the 23th of September, 1918, in the present-day city of Rossosh, the Voronezh region. When the Great Patriotic War began my grandfather was less than 23 years old. The fate brought him to the Transbaical military district where he did his service in the railway troops. Like all participants in military operations my grandfather did not like to talk about the war, he told me sparingly: "I studied, got a second lieutenant… fought in Manchuria..." For grandfather Sergei the Victory came not as for everyone -- on the 9th of May, 1945, but later – after all, the Act of surrender of Japan was signed only on the 2nd of September, 1945, and only then the war in the Far East was over. For his military career Sergey Petrovich was awarded medals: "Victory over Japan", "For the liberation of Korea from Japanese militarists" as well as orders of the Patriotic War of the second degree and of the Red Star. Subsequently my grandfather was awarded the high title of "Veteran of the railway troops". Grandfather Seryozha liked to talk more about peaceful labor - about how railways were built after the war in the Far East, in Russia and the Northern Korea (my mother was born in 1947 in Pyongyang), and then – on the Black Sea coast (stations in Olympic Sochi, Tuapse and other resorts were my grandfather used to build as well). On the long journey from the Far East to the southern outskirts of Russia grandfather Sergei deserved another medal "For development of virgin lands" (while grandpa lived in Kazakhstan with his family) for his achievements in peacetime. S. P. Bondarev got a badge of an Honorary railwayman. When grandfather Sergey "retired" he continued to actively participate in the public life of the city of Rossosh where he returned after long relocations associated with working on the railways. He was a member of the council of railway veterans, raised with his wife Nina Ivanovna two daughters and us, four grandchildren, taught us kindness and intelligence; it's just a pity that he did not live to see his great – grandchildren - Sergey Petrovich died in January 1987… The bright memory of him! I am proud of my grandfather Sergey Petrovich Bondarev and I am infinitely grateful to him for peace on our land!

Grade title: a corporal. Bagulin Nikander Vasilyevich was born in 1905 in the village of Kortinskaya in the Nizovsky village of the Kharovsky district of the Vologda region. He was married to Alexandra Shmakova and had three daughters: Pavla, Maria and Lydia. He worked as a plowman in a collective farm. He sewed well and therefore often received orders for sewing gloves, caps and other products for collective farm workers. On the 6th of July, 1941, he was called up to the front by the Kharovsky regional military commissariat of the Vologda region as a red army soldier. Subsequently he was awarded the rank of a corporal. From the beginning of the war he served in a fighter-anti-tank artillery regiment. He often wrote letters home, the mail service worked smoothly. During his service he was hospitalized twice and also had multiple shrapnel wounds. He went through the entire war and reached Berlin with his detachment imprinting his name on the wall of the Reichstag. During his service he received several awards. Currently only the information on these awards is preserved. From the award list to the medal “For military merits”: “From the 5th of October, 1944, till the 8th of October, 1944, in the battles for the bridgehead on the west bank of the Narev river near the village of Dzerzhenin comrade Bagulin eliminated 8 gusts of lines under heavy machine-gun and artillery fire of the enemy...” From the award list for the medal “For Bravery”: “From the first days on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War comrade Bagulin has 2 injuries. In the offensive battles from the Kustrin bridgehead to Berlin he showed courage and bravery. On the 27th of April, 1945, in the battle for the city of Potsdam, acting as part of the crew of the infecting gun, he provided its rapid work uninterrupted firing from the gun at the enemy, which ensured the fulfillment of the combat task.” He was also awarded the medal “For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945”. He returned to his native village of Kortinskaya in August 1945. According to my grandmother's stories he was the soul of the company in his regiment, always with a positive attitude. He was a lively, cheerful, smiling person and loved to take pictures. He danced very well for which he received the nickname "Kazachok" among his colleagues. After the war he continued to work in the collective farm as a milk truck driver. In 1946 the fourth daughter Valentina was born. During the last year of life the battle wounds constantly reminded of themselves, shrapnel constantly came out. In 1947 Nikander Vasilyevich died leaving his wife with four children, the youngest of whom was just starting to walk. Tatyana Maltseva, a great-granddaughter.