Heroes and feats

Branch of service: army, air force (except marine aviation), the coast guard, the troops of the NKVD border troops. My father Ivan Kasyanov was born on May 9, 1924 in Krolevets, Sumy region. He was called up for the war while he was in his 2nd year of study at the Veterinary Institute of Frunze, in 1942 by the Issyk-Kul regional military Commissariat of the Kyrgyz SSR. Ivan Semyonovich Kasyanov fought at Stalingrad in a Special Mountain-Expeditional Topographic Detachment. He was wounded twice and suffered a concussion. I remember his awards: the medal For the Defense of Stalingrad, the medal For the Victory over Germany, the order of the Great Patriotic War of the 2nd degree. After the war, he graduated from the Veterinary Institute, the Veterinary Academy. Timiryazev was a student of Professor Scriabin, graduated from graduate school. He was a Candidate of Biological Sciences. All his life he worked at the Institute of Radiology as a senior researcher. He attained many author's certificates on medicines, was awarded the VDNH medals. He was one of the co-authors of the X-ray contrast agent, which is now widely used. Unfortunately, I have not heard much about the war from my father, as we were 3 girls in our family. But I will remember one episode from my childhood for the rest of my life. As a child, I was ill a lot, and my parents, before I started school, i.e. I was 7 years old, took me on a trip on the ship "Denis Davydov" on the Volga for 17 days on the route Moscow-Astrakhan. We sailed at night and went on excursions during the day. I remember being in the most magnificent Kremlin in the world that had blue domes and stars in Uglich, in Ulyanovsk, in the Lenin House-Museum,in Nizhny Novgorod, in the Gorky House-Museum. But most of all, I remember visiting the hero city of Volgograd. I remember how my father showed us the Pavlov's house - only a brick skeleton remained of it. Then we went to Mamayev Kurgan - it was in 1962, and there was still neither the complex, nor the monument “Motherland”. But there was something you could not forget. At that time, Mamayev Kurgan was a large mound of rubble and earth. We were walking along this embankment and I suddenly noticed that my father was collecting the soil into his handkerchief, there were tears in his eyes, and he was barely holding back sobs. My mother and I went up to him and saw that the earth he was collecting was rusty and mixed with the remains of bullets and shells. My father said, "Remember, daughter, this is a Holy place, and this Land is HOLY. It is soaked with the blood of my comrades and my blood." We took the land that he had collected with us to Moscow, and he kept it all his life as his most precious possession. My father died on February 28, 1991 in Moscow. He was buried at the Nikolo-Arkhangelsk cemetery.

Vasily Alexandrovich Bystrov was called to the front on August 20, 1941 immediately after the end of the seven-year period by the Chebsar RVC. He began serving in the 21st motorized rifle division of the NKVD, as part of the 2nd Shock Army. He went through the entire war, starting from the cadet rank and becoming a commander of a mortar platoon, was a scout. He fought on the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts. In the Lyuban offensive on January 25, 1942, the division where Vasily fought broke through the enemy's defenses at Myasnoy Bor near Leningrad but found itself isolated in a narrow frontline. The soldiers were left without provision, the ability to establish communication, to fight further. They starved, boiled leather belts in pots. Frozen bread was dropped to them from planes. This was all they ate... Their regiment managed to break through the German forces a few weeks later, and the soldiers from the neighboring unit were all captured. Among those captives was the famous poet Musa Jalil... The isolation of the 21st division lasted until February 12, 1942. Then the 111th rifle division together with the 22nd rifle brigade expanded the front line to 13 km and improved the condition of the unit that was trapped. Thus, the task of the combat operation of the 21st division of the NKVD was completed, the defense at Myasnoy Bor was broken, but the soldiers themselves were in a tough half-starved state for several weeks. In 1943, Vasily Bystrov was awarded the medal "For the Defense of Leningrad". The 21st motorized rifle division of the NKVD, in July-August 1942 renamed into the 109th Red Banner rifle 602 regiment, where Vasily fought, bore the proud title of "The Red Banner Rifle Regiment of the Order of Alexander Nevsky". In the summer of 1942, the division, along with the 85th rifle brigade, led the enemy out of the heavily fortified point of Staro-Panovo. They advanced into the outskirts of the city of Uritsk. For several days there was relentless fighting, as a result of which the Germans suffered significant losses. Vasily Alexandrovich Bystrov was awarded the order of the Red Star in 1944 for the feat performed in the battle on March 8 near the town of Metsavakht near Narva in Estonia. Vasily commanded a mortar squad. He was seriously wounded, but continued to fight, replaced a disabled platoon commander. From the award list entry: "...Despising death, he single-handedly corrected the fire of his mortars under enemy fire. Repelling enemy attacks... destroyed three firing points and more than 20 Hitlerite soldiers. Being wounded, he continued to command the platoon until his strength left him. He is worthy of the government award, the order of the Red Star. Signed: Colonel Putyatin." In this battle, Vasily Bystrov was seriously wounded in the head; he continued to fight the enemy until he lost consciousness. He celebrated the victory in Estonia. After the war he was frequently called up for military training in Kusubu. He worked for many years at the Vologda machine-building plant in various positions: as a carpenter, then as a dispatcher in the PDO. He had been awarded the badge "25 years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War", in 1971 he was awarded the title of captain of the reserve. With his wife Faina, he raised three children. Now, the memory of my grandfather is kept by 4 grandchildren, 9 great-grandchildren, 1 great-great-granddaughter. Vasily Aleksandrovich Bystrov was admitted to a hospital of the Leningrad region from 26.02.1942 to 22.04.1942 near Parakhino. He was admitted to hospitals in Leningrad: Evacuation Hospital No. 1250 from 18.09.1943 to 05.12.1943; hospital No. 1360 from 08.03.1944 to 05.06.1944. For the rest of his life, he had splinters in his cheek and under his shoulder blade, they could even be felt right under his skin.

Rank: Petty officer of the 2 class. Military branch: the Soviet Navy and Naval forces of the NKVD border troops. Krasikov Nikolai Alexandrovich, guard foreman of the second degree, has gone through the entire war on the guards’ cruiser "RED CAUCASUS "(served as a machinist in the engine room). On April 22, 1939, by the Vozhegodsky District Military Enlistment Office of the Vologda region he was called up for active service in the BLACK SEA FLEET. On December 15, 1939 he was enlisted in the list of personnel of the guards’ cruiser "Red Caucasus". On it, he met the beginning of the war, went (or sailed, to be precise,) through the entire war and only on December 8, 1946 was demobilized. For almost eight long years, his family did not see their son, worrying about him, and looking forward to his return. He participated in many military operations. He liberated Kerch, Sevastopol, Novorossiysk, Feodosia, and Odessa. Participated in naval battles in the defense of the Caucasus. In one of these operations, he was injured and concussed, and had to learn to walk and speak anew. And after the hospital, he went back to the ship and back to battle! But the bullet lodged in the humerus of his left arm would bother him for many years to come. Only 4 years before his death - he died in September 1986 - the surgeon removed this enemy bullet. He did not like to talk to his relatives about the terrible days of the war, but he was often invited to school to host Memory Lessons, where students listened with great interest to his stories about these years. In sea battles, their cruiser, "RED CAUCASUS", repeatedly received serious damage from the attacks of enemy aircraft and enemy artillery. But the base was quickly repaired – and was back - advancing on the enemy! The most memorable battle for him - was the descent in Feodosia on the night of December 29, 1941. According to his memory of it, an icy wind was blowing, water waves were rolling on the decks, visibility was getting worse by the minute, the ship was beginning to prepare for artillery. Soon the command to open fire on the Feodosian port, which was occupied by the enemy, was given. The sea air shuddered, and flames leaped from the RED CAUCASUS's gun muzzles. At this moment, another ship, the RED CRIMEA, was also striking the port. The first waves of paratroopers broke the organized resistance of the enemy directly at the docks. When they were approaching Feodosia, the wind increased, changed direction - this made it difficult to moor, soon the ship "Red Caucasus" began to drift in the direction of the minefield, arranged by the enemy very close to the pier, where the ship was headed. That was the moment when the engine room sailors had to work through blood, sweat, and tears. Commands from the bridge poured in - one after the other - and above them was a wall of fire... the battle was getting worse. With great difficulty, the cruiser managed to moor, and when the light of the missiles showed the enemy that the "Red Caucasus" was in front of them, a huge number of enemy firing points entered the battle. And then, an explosion! The sailors that survived the explosion put out the fire, which burst out on the signal bridge. The German tanks that approached the shore opened fire, and then they were hit by shells of the main caliber raining from the ship and literally destroying Hitler’s tanks, the ammunition depot was blown up as well. The Germans suffered enormous damage. But not the cruiser "Red Caucasus" was not left without losses, either. The ship itself received a lot of damage. But still, under a wall of fire, at the cost of human lives, the unstoppable paratroopers were able to land ashore. And when the sailors of the engine room heard the command " Full speed ahead!", the cruiser was once again brought to sea. For the unprecedented boldness of the operation he received awards. There were many similar operations. Sometimes one had to wonder how it was possible to pass such trying tests of the war and remain such a kind soul. This is still said by everyone who once knew Nikolai Alexandrovich. He loved life very much, loved us: his wife Alevtina Alekseyevna, his four daughters, doted on his grandchildren! Dad's total work experience on railway transport was 48 years. He worked as a locomotive driver, and a depot attendant. VOZHEGA (during retirement worked as a stoker of a locomotive-heated railway houses). While he was working, for a long time he was an unreleased chairman of the Trade Union Committee of the Depot station Vozhega.

In 1937, Ivan Mikhailovich was drafted into the Armed forces. He was sent to Saratov to the Red Banner collective tank school. In early June 1941, he graduated from the school and was sent for further service to the city of Vilnius in Lithuania. He arrived at the unit on June 18, and on June 20, their tank unit was already standing on the Western border and waiting for something. There was already talk that there would be a war. On June 22, 1941, at 4 o'clock in the morning, shooting began, German reconnaissance planes circled in the air. At this moment, they knew that they would fight the Germans. The Western troops were surrounded, many soldiers were captured. Ivan Mikhailovich was contused, but he was not taken to the hospital, as there was simply no hospital. Only at the end of August 1941, they managed to fight their way out of the encirclement around Bryansk. There he was received an order to go to Voronezh, and from there, to Stalingrad. His regiment participated in the defense of Stalingrad, for which all the participants were awarded the medal "For the Defense of Stalingrad" and a commemorative badge. The battle of Stalingrad taught many of its participants courage and bravery. After the defeat of the Germans, the regiment was sent to the city of Kurgan to train tank crews for the frontlines. Ivan Mikhailovich fought on the BT-7 tank and trained young specialists to operate it. The war was going on, the equipment was changing, and T-34 tanks were being produced. To teach people, you had to retrain yourself. In 1944, he was sent to Leningrad to the panzer school, from which he graduated in May 1945. There he got the joyful news of the long-awaited victory. Few people survived the war and returned without injuries. Ivan Mikhailovich burned twice in the tank and suffered a concussion. After the war, he served in Germany, Belarus, and Ukraine, and was discharged with the rank of major. He returned home, worked as a Chairman of the Village Council in Baldat, then the district committee sent him to Gubden as the director of forestry. In 1962, he transferred to the Kizner military unit and worked as a security chief. There, he, finally, went on his well-deserved retirement. Ivan Mikhailovich lived a long and heroic life, together with his wife they raised and supported four daughters. He died on January 28, 2002 at the age of 85. He was awarded with medals: "For bravery", "For Military Merit", "For the Defense of Stalingrad", "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945"," Order of the Red Star"," Order of Lenin"," Order of the Red Banner", "Order of the Patriotic War of the II degree".

Rank: guard corporal. Branch of service: Artillery. 26 guards’ cannon and artillery brigade of the reserve of the main command of the 8th cannon and artillery division of the 1st Baltic front. Extract from the article of the Besson newspaper "Nasha Gazeta" dated June 21, 1995: "Called up to the army by the Besson District Military Commissariat in 1939, he began his service in an artillery regiment in the Far East. As he already had experience in working with equipment (in Bessonovka, he worked as a tractor driver), he was enrolled in an artillery workshop. Served and worked easily and productively: the repair of artillery systems was interesting in itself. But suddenly the war broke out. The unit in which Komissarov served was urgently transferred to the frontline. They entered into battle near Vyazma. The Nazis, at that time, were incessantly climbing forward, regardless of any losses they endured. And the "gunners" had to operate under difficult and tough conditions, often changing firing positions, making marches on bad country roads and, therefore, the artillery masters had enough work on their hands. In addition to repairing guns, ordinary Komissarov had to perform guard duty, deliver shells and various military equipment to firing positions. And quiet often these trips were made under the bombing of planes or under the fire of guns. But in the summer of 1943, their place in the workshop was taken by young people who had not yet experienced war, and he and Nikolai Pokusaev were sent to an reconnaissance platoon, to one of the batteries of their home unit. Komissarov himself did not notice how he fell in love with his new profession, was proud of his soldier's work, his duties. In February 1944, Soviet troops were preparing to attack the city of Vitebsk. The artillery scouts had a lot of work to do. In the most difficult conditions, almost in an open, bare place, in the fierce crackling colds, in a hastily equipped trench, Komissarov continued his inconspicuous, but dangerous and heroic work, conducted careful surveillance of the enemy, detected its targets and sent data needed for conducting artillery fire. Vasily Vasilyevich's knee was shattered by fragments of a projectile; the heated metal sank into his arm and shoulder. Despite his injuries, he returned from the war alive and lived to be 79 years old. By order of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR on February 6, 1944, he was awarded the medal "For Bravery" (dates of the feat: December 11, 1943, December 24, 1943). On April 6, 1985, the Minister of Defense of the USSR awarded him with the order of the Patriotic War of the I degree.

My grandfather Vasily Nikitovich Kochedykov took part in the Great Patriotic War. He was born on March 31, 1912 in a family of peasants in the village of Puzyrev, Zavivalovsky district, Penza region. My grandfather studied to become a livestock specialist, completing two years of the Omsk Agricultural Institute. In 1942, he graduated from the commander's course at the Frunze Military and Political School. From June 1942 to April 1945, he participated in the battles against the Nazi invaders. He finished the war as a deputy division commander of the political department of the 7th guards’ airborne artillery regiment of the 9th guards airborne Poltava Red Banner order of Suvorov division with the rank of guard captain. During the war, my grandfather received commendations from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Marshal of the Soviet Union I. V. Stalin for his excellent combat against the German-fascist troops: 1. for the elimination of the summer offensive in the Belgorod direction; 2. for the capture of the city of Belgorod; 3.for the capture of the city of Kharkiv; 4. for the capture of the city of Poltava; 5. for the capture of the city of Kremenchug. My grandfather participated in one of the big and important battles on the Kursk bulge, directly participated in the largest tank battle in the whole war at the Prokhorovka station in the Kursk region. In this battle, under the leadership of my grandfather, seven enemy tanks were destroyed, for which he received the order of the Red Star. I remember the battle on the Kursk Bulge from my grandfather's stories; he told me about it several times. He said that the soldiers had a very difficult time, talked about how they died. How they saved him by digging a hole in the ground. I did not find out about how he, himself, shot down two tanks with direct fire until many years later. He took part in the battles to cross the Oder, Dniester, and Vistula rivers. During the war, my grandfather was also awarded orders for military services: of the Patriotic War of I and II degrees, the order of the Red Star, the military order of the Red Banner, the medal "For the Victory over Germany", and other medals. My grandfather ended his service in the war on March 16, 1945, as he was seriously wounded in the right Shin on the 1st Ukrainian front near the Neisse river, just 60 km from Berlin. Afterwards, came a hospital in the city of Lviv, a commission and dismissal from the army. It was there that Vasily Nikitovich met Budyonniy, who was then in charge of the horse breeding industry in the country. The marshal approved the appointment of yesterday's officer as director of the state stable in Lviv. Afterwards, my grandfather worked in the Rivne state procurement stable. He was director of the state stable, chairman of the collective farm "Progress" of the Nolinsky (Molotov) district of the Kirov region, created the Nolinsky poultry farm from the ground up. My grandfather was personally acquainted with Marshal Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonniy, fellow Nolinchanite Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov - both acquaintances seriously affected the economy of the district at one time or another. For the sake of the common cause, Vasily Nikitovich went to Moscow to seek an appointment with Molotov. And he got it! After their meeting, a power plant, a car, and a sawmill were delivered to the address of the “Progress” collective farm.

He was born on June 3, 1876 in the village of Kamenka, Nizhnelomovsky district of Penza province in a poor family. He studied at Kamensk primary school. In 1904, at the height of the Russian-Japanese war (1904-1905), he volunteered for a medical team, and, under fire, carried out the wounded from the battlefield. He participated in the suppression of outbreaks of typhus, smallpox, scarlet fever. In 1906, the medical faculty of the University of Yuriev (Tartu) awarded Burdenko the diploma of "Doctor with Honors". Like many students, Burdenko shared the revolutionary mood of the time, participated in gatherings and demonstrations. In 1909, he defended his dissertation and in 1910 held the position of assistant professor of the Department of Surgery at his university. Since 1917, Burdenko has been an ordinary professor at the faculty surgical clinic. At the beginning of the First World War, he worked as a consultant surgeon for various fronts of the active army, participated in the creation of field hospitals and dressing and evacuation centers, and operated on the wounded. Burdenko drew up the first Provision on the Military Health Service of the Red Army; he took care of the necessary medicines and equipment for military doctors. In 1924, he became the superintendent of the surgical clinic of Moscow State University, and in 1929 - the superintendent of the neurosurgical clinic at the X-Ray Institute, on the basis of which the Central Neurosurgical Institute (now the Burdenko Institute of neurosurgery in Moscow) was established in 1934. In the first days of the Great Patriotic War, Burdenko was appointed chief surgeon of the Red Army and personally inspected hospitals. The collected material formed the basis of his teaching on battle wounds. Being at the head of the team of doctors, he tested and introduced new drugs for wide use in frontline hospitals: streptocide, sulfidine, penicillin. In 1939, Burdenko became an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1941, when crossing the Neva river, Burdenko was bombed and suffered a concussion. After returning from the war, he continued to work, but as a result of his concussion, he suffered two consecutive brain hemorrhages, and in the summer of 1946, a third. He died on November 11, 1946 in Moscow.

Rank: Sergeant. Branch of service: Artillery. Anatoly Maksimovich Karsaev came from an ordinary peasant family. He was born on January 04, 1924, in the village of Mokrovka, Saratov region. He had three brothers and a younger sister, and when they moved to the village of Borono-Mikhaylovka during the hungry year of 1933, his father married into a family with three more children. Thus, they lived: as a large family, indulged in labor and worries. To help the household, my grandfather added an extra year to his age to get a job. He started with the simplest work: collected sacks for sowing, then became a tractor refueller, and in the spring of 1941 my grandfather finished the tractor driver's course and mastered the "iron horse". In the spring of 1942, the Red Army soldier Karseev took up arms. He took up just one line in the red army book: "called up by the Makarov District Military Commissariat on April 28, 1942". My grandfather was sent from Balashov to Borisoglebsk, where the field school of sergeants was established. "About 400 guys were chosen - those who were younger. We lived in tents in the woods. We were trained to be commanders of machine-gun crews. Every day, from morning to evening, classes following a crash course." And again, he was in Balashov, from here on August 26, 1942, the newly minted machine-gun sergeants were sent to Stalingrad. We went on foot, at night time, and even carrying a machine gun on our backs – that was almost 70 kilograms of weight: the machine gun rack was 32 kg., the barrel was 26 kg., a box with bullets was 9 kg. My grandfather recalled: "On September 8, we were on the outskirts of Stalingrad. We did not even have time to get to the starting line when we were bombed. It was hell for us, eighteen-year-olds, who haven't been under fire. It made our hair stand on end." Anatoly Karseev, a sergeant in an independent machine-gun battalion of the Red Banner 99th guards’ division of the 66th army, fought as part of the Don frontline troops commanded by General Konstantin Rokossovsky. The frontline occupied a defensive line along the Don river to Yerzovka on the Volga. "When we entered Stalingrad at the end of January 1943, it was nothing but ruins." My grandfather survived these battles, having received only two scratches from bullets. But he was not as lucky in the summer of 1943, when a new offensive began: "The "Messer" spotted our servicing division and slammed us with shrapnel shells. The commander - a guy from the Zhytomyr region – died. Both my legs were broken. One of them was saved by medics. And the other was cut off. Afterwards, it was amputated knee-deep in a field hospital. " In the spring of 1944, Guard Sergeant Anatoly Karseev, with two military orders - of the Patriotic War and the Red Star - on his tunic, returned to his dear Borono-Mikhailovka. In May, he already got a job at the state farm as a driver on a powerplant. Here he met his soulmate, my grandmother, Valentina. At the time, she was 17 years old. A week before her birthday in July 1944, they got married. They lived together for 60 years, lived to see their “diamond” wedding. They created a big strong family: raised 5 children. There were twice as many grandchildren: 10. And 18 great-grandchildren! Despite the fact that my grandfather lost a leg during the war, he worked all his life both on the collective farm, and at home, where they had a large farm with cows, goats, sheep, chickens, geese, ducks. He had to swing a scythe, dig a vegetable garden, and there were many things to do in the yard as well. My grandfather had a very cheerful character, he was a master storyteller, played the balalaika. He was very fond of fishing. My grandfather died shortly before the 60th anniversary of the Great Victory. He died at the age of 81 in March 2005.

Alexey Gerasimovich Borovskikh was born on February 18, 1918 in a family of village workers. They lived in the town of Stalinsk, Trinity district in the village Gornovoe. His father Gerasim Danilovich Borovskikh was born in 1889 and was engaged on his own farm, bekeeping. In 1917, he fought as a soldier during the October Revolution in St. Petersburg. After the establishment of Soviet Power, he was sent as a blacksmith to restore the village Horovoe. During World War II, he worked in a mine. He brought to life 14 children and raised them to be hard workers. He lived to be 95 years. His mother Agafya Matveevna Borovskikh (Kostyakova), born in 1893, was a Russian housewife. A simple hard-working woman who raised 14 children. Based on the Red Army book, as well as stories told by his children, we recount the following about the life of Alexey Gerasimovich Borovsky. In August 1940, a year before the war, Alexey Gerasimovich started pilot school as a cadet. At this school, they were taught to fly AIR-model airplanes. This knowledge would help him in the future, in the Second World War. In the first wave of volunteers, together with his friends, Alexey Gerasimovich went to the frontlines. However, for unknown reasons, he missed the train. Later it turned out that all his friends who left on that train had died. In July 1941, at the age of 23, Junior Sergeant Alexey left for the war as part of unit No. 187, as a squad commander. Alexey Gerasimovich’s main task was to conduct aerial reconnaissance of the locations of the fascists. Before the start of the battles, or even during them, he had to fly his aircraft very close to the fortifications of the Germans and note the location of soldiers, military fortifications, and military equipment. This was associated with a huge risk, since the plane had to be flown very close to the ground and close to the front. In May 1942, Alexey Gerasimovich was transferred to No. 803 separate reconnaissance artillery division and was promoted to the rank of sergeant. In this division, Alexey Gerasimovich served throughougt the entire war until May 1945. Alexey Gerasimovich Borovsky was awarded the order of the Patriotic War of the 2nd degree for bravery, fortitude and courage shown in the fight against the Nazi invaders. There were many other awards, which unfortunately have not reached our time. Immediately after the war with the German invaders, Alexey Gerasimovich continued to defend his homeland as part of unit No. 215 of the independent machine gun and artillery battalion in the rank of senior sergeant. This unit was urgently transferred to the Eastern front for the war with Japan. Troops of the 1st Far Eastern front under the command of Marshal MERETSKOV of the Soviet Union crossed the Ussuri river, broke through Gutowski, Michonski, Pogranichniki, and Daninsky fortified areas of the Japanese, went through remote mountain taiga terrain, advanced 500 miles, and captured cities like Mishan, Jilin, Yanji, Harbin. For exceeding combat, senior Sergeant Alexey Borovskikh Gerasimovich was awarded a COMMENDATION by order of the Supreme Commander of the Generalissimo of the Soviet Union, comrade Stalin (from comrade Stalin's order No. 372 of August 23, 1945). A month later, on September 30, 1945, Alexey Gerasimovich was awarded the medal for the victory over Japan. In November 1945, Alexey Gerasimovich was transferred to the 241 independent reconnaissance artillery division as a field commander, where he served until 1947. After returning from the war, Alexey Gerasimovich got a job as an electric in the city of Stalinsk. In 1948, he met his life partner Maria Matveevna Vasilyeva. The Second World War started on the day of Maria Matveevna’s 18th birthday, since her birthday was on June 22, 1922. Throughout the war, she worked for the good of her homeland for which she was awarded the medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945". During their life together, they had three children: two sons and one daughter. Alexey Gerasimovich lived to be 74 years (05.01.1993) surrounded by loving children and grandchildren. I am proud of my grandfather, thanks to whom I was born and can tell about his heroism.

Siberians are truly heroic Soviet warriors, great patriots of our homeland, loyal to their country. In the places where Siberians worked, I could always be sure that they would perform the task assigned to them with honor and military valor. So it was, throughout the great Patriotic War. Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov - what do you think these words mean? You must have imagined a soldier in bloodstained clothes, with a machine gun in his hands. But what about those who worked away from the action making weapons necessary to attack the enemy? What about the young girls who treated the wounded, who saw blood for the first time in their lives? What about the little boys who worked tirelessly in factories? The war came to every home, stole thousands of lives, sparing no one ... Yes, from every home a son, a father, a husband went to war... I want to tell you how the war came to our home. In 1941, my great-great-grandfather, Pavel Fedorovich Zolotukhin, left the village of Shcherbak in the Tyumen region for the frontlines. The whole family was grieving. But my great-grandmother, Olga Pavlovna Kozlova (Zolotukhina), strong-willed. This seventeen-year-old girl decided to help her homeland and be closer to her father. She decided and did so! At the age of 18, she went to Tyumen to medical school. In 1942, she graduated and became a nurse. There is always a need for nurses during war because the number of victims was huge! The doctors were not enough. She was sent to a hospital in Omsk. The young girl's heart was ripped to pieces by the suffering and pain of other people, but despite this, she continued to fulfill her duty to her motherland. My great-grandmother served in the hospital for two years, saving the wounded. In 1944, she was called up for service in the Far East, where there was a war with Japan. My great-grandmother was 21 years old. The 2nd division consisted mostly of military aviation. My great-grandmother was an ordinary soldier. Together with other fragile girls, she carried heavy ammunition and shells, and hung bombs onto military planes. My great-grandmother would recount: "The climate in the Far East is very harsh, there was not enough warm clothes. The food was poor: soup made on water and a piece of bread. In winter, our hands would freeze to the iron ammunition. Sometimes we were able to sleep only 3 hours a day… Despite this, no one complained… Everyone did everything they could to not just survive but win!" At the frontlines, my great-grandmother, a real Siberian, met my great-grandfather soldier Ivan Illarionovich Kozlov. In 1945, when the war ended, they returned from the front as one family. My great-grandmother devoted many more years of her life to medicine, helping people. For her fearlessness and selflessness, for her courage and bravery, my great-grandmother has the following awards: the medals "For the Victory over Germany" and "For the Victory over Japan". Unfortunately, my great-grandmother died in 2010, at the age of 87. We miss her. Heroes could be very different. In our family – the hero was a young, but very brave, selfless girl - Olga. How many soldiers did she save?.. I am proud that my family contributed to the Victory, to the history of my country!

Rank: Lieutenant Branch of the army: Land forces, Air force (except naval aviation), coast service, the troops of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, border guard, a MAN WITH A BIG HEART The name Kudaev comes from a slightly modified Avar word Kudiyav, which means "Big". This is how children, grandchildren, relatives, and friends remember Tagir Magomedovich Kudaev: a man with a big heart. Tagir Magomedovich was born in a family of rural workers. His childhood and youth were the same as those of most Dagestani children of that time: a little hungry, a little cold, but having great faith in the future. Since his school years, Tagir was distinguished by his hard work and accuracy: he graduated with honors from a boarding school in the village of Tlyarosh in 1941 and was immediately appointed editor of the district newspaper. The Great Patriotic War began, and Tagir Magomedovich, along with hundreds of thousands of his peers, went to the frontlines as a volunteer. It was the most difficult year for our country: the enemy was approaching Moscow; heavy fighting was going on in the Caucasus. As part of the internal troops of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, in 1942, soldier T. M. Kudaev fought on the Crimean front, was a part of the communist party of the Soviet Union. When crossing the Kerch strait, he was seriously wounded and was taken to the hospital. After recovering, Tagir Magomedovich was sent to study at the border school in the city of Ordzhenikidze. Due to the difficult situation at the frontlines, the training course were accelerated, and young border guard lieutenants were sent to fight saboteurs and runaways in the Elbrus region. After the successful elimination of the enemy in the Caucasus, T. M. Kudaeva was sent to serve on the Western front. In Ukraine at this time there was a difficult situation due to the fact that there were many fascists and their henchmen leftover in the territories liberated from the enemy. Kudaev is sent to work in the People's Commissariat of State Security of the Voroshilovograd region. It was a difficult and dangerous job, but Tagir Magomedovich was among the best at it. During one of the operations to eliminate the enemy, T. M. Kudaev was wounded and again sent to the hospital in Makhachkala. This was the visible end of Tagir Magomedovich’s service in the war. The Soviet Government highly appreciated the selfless services of the Dagestani, awarding him two orders of "the Patriotic War", order "For Bravery", medal "For Military Merit", "For Defense of Caucasus", and many others. After recovery, the heads of the People's Commissariat of State Security transferred T. M. Kudaev to work in the Republic of Dagestan. At the age of 23, Senior Lieutenant Tagir Magomedovich Kudaev was appointed head of the Regional Department of the State Security Committee of one of the major districts of Dagestan, Gergebelsky. It was dear to the memory of the older generation of the Geherbelskavites and Gunibzi. Working in such a "scary" organization, Tagir Magomedovich remained a fair security officer with a "clear head and clean hands", and his colleagues treated him with deep respect until the last days of his life. Honored security officer of the USSR, member of the Union of Writers of the USSR. Buba Sfiev Sfi in his works "The Broken Shell", "Beyond the Shadow Line" transfers the heroic image of the young security officer T.M.Kydaev onto his characters. The frontline injuries had taken their toll, and in 1955 Tagir Magomedovich transferred from the establishments of the Committee of State Security to work in the Dagestan book publishing house as the chief editor of fiction. This job shown light Kudaev’s writing talent: he wrote seven books, was the first to translate the story of Leo Tolstoy "Hadji Murad", Chingiz Aitmatov’s "Jamil"," My Dear Poplar in a Red Kerchief", "Mola-Nasrutdin", and several theater plays into Avar, was elected a member of the Union of Writers and the Union of Journalists of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics. While working in a publishing house, Tagir Magomedovich also managed to graduate from the history department of the Dagestan State Pedagogical Institute, and then, in 1970, defend his PhD thesis on the labor feat of the workers of Dagestan during the Great Patriotic War. Since 1970, Kudaev Tagir Magomedovich was an assistant, and then a docent of the department of history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and of political economy of the Dagestan State Medical Institute, the senior dean of work with foreign students. His teaching job brought Tagir Magomedovich true pleasure, and his students reciprocated it, repeatedly choosing him as the "Best Teacher" of the year. He shared his life experience in all its diversity with students, delved into their problems, and tirelessly helped them with everything. The government highly appreciated the achievements of T. M. Kudaev, twice awarding him the Certificate of Honor from the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Tagir Magomedovich, together with his wife Gindi Magomedovna, raised great children: their eldest daughter, Patimat Tagirovna, doctor of the highest degree, works in the medical unit of the Federal Security Service. Burliyat Tagirovna, leading specialist of the Republican National Library of R. G. Gamzatov, is an honored worker of culture of the Republic of Dagestan. Their Son, Magomed Tagirovich, an honored doctor of the Republic of Dagestan, professor, is the head of the department of therapy of FPC and PPS of the Dagestan State Medical Academy. Their grandsons are Kudaev Sadulla Magomedovich, candidate of economic Sciences, Kudaeva Fatima Magomedovna, candidate of medical sciences, Kudaev Tagir Magomedovich, head of the financial department, Kudaev Jamaluddin Magomedovich, assistant professor in the Department of Dentistry of the Dagmedakademy, deputy of the City Council.

Dmitry Vasilievich Bekin was born on November 8, 1921 in the village of Lykoshino, Sorokinsky district, Tyumen region. He was the eleventh child in the family. From an early age, Dmitry Vasilyevich helped his parents maintain the farm: grazed geese, helped with mowing by carrying the piles of hay to the haystack on a horse. Like his fellow peers, he worked on a collective farm: harrowing, plowing, helping with the harvest, herding the calves. By 1935, he finished four years, leaving the rural school, and continued working on the collective farm. In 1940, he graduated from tractor driving courses at Sorokinskaya MTS. After graduation, he worked as a tractor driver. On June 22, 1941, he got news that the war broke out. On June twenty-fifth, 1941, almost all the men, including his brother Prokhor, were called up from the village where Dmitry Vasilyevich lived. On February 2, 1942, he received a summons calling him to the military enlistment office for conscription into the Red Army. He was enlisted in the construction troops. Dmitry Vasilyevich was sent to the city of Novosibirsk to build a military plant focused on shell and mine production. He served in the construction forces until January 1, 1944, when he was sent to study in a tank school. He received the military specialty "loader" and the rank of sergeant. He was enlisted in a tank regiment formed in the city of Sverdlovsk. After receiving the self-propelled guns, the regiment was sent to the city of Zagorsk, where, after being reformed, it received an ordinal number and was named the 1024th self-propelled artillery regiment. In June 1944, the regiment was sent to the 1st Ukrainian front. Upon arrival in the Kiev region, the 1024th self-propelled artillery regiment joined in the battles for the liberation of Western Ukraine from the Nazis (including the cities of Lviv, Drohobych, Ternopil) and fought their way to the Vistula river. Dmitry Vasilyevich Bekin was awarded the medal "For Bravery" for his courage and heroism during the liberation of Poland. This was his first battle award. In October 1944, the regiment was sent to the Carpathians, to liberate the land of Carpathian Ukraine. The offensive of the 1st Ukrainian front was scheduled to be on November 1, 1944. In this offensive, Dmitry Vasilyevich was wounded, contused, and sent to the hospital in the city of Sandomierz. On January 25, 1945, after finishing treatment, he was sent to the reserve regiment of the 1st Ukrainian front. In February 1945, Dmitry Vasilyevich participated, yet again, in the attack on the German city of Lauban (now the city of Luban in Poland), in April 1945, in the attack on Berlin. He was shot in the head. He was discharged in 1946. He was awarded the order of the Red Star, medals "For Bravery", "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945", "For the Capture of Berlin", "For the Liberation of Prague", and jubilee medals. In 1985, in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Victory, he was awarded the order of the Patriotic War of II degree. He died on October 20, 1922.

Rank: Petty officer of the 2 class. Military branch: aviation. Division: 5th mixed aviation division. Brothers Vyacheslav and Sergey graduated from high school in the late thirties of the last century. They were born in Moscow, but in their school years the family moved to Crimea. They fell in love with this amazing area and learnt all about it. At first, they went on trips on a cart drawn by a bityug horse with their teacher and other students. The teacher was not young but took every opportunity to show the children something novel and interesting. Later, as they grew older, they rode bicycles around the Peninsula along with their friends. They rode to Nikolaevka to swim in the sea, rode out for overnight trips near rivers and waterfalls, mountains and prairies. In 1937, Vyacheslav graduated school and entered the Kherson Agricultural Institute. The world was in a restless state: there was a war with Finland; despite the pacts, Germany was still a threat. After finishing the second year of the institute, Vyacheslav was drafted into the army. He studied at the Kirovobad aviation school. At the aviation school, together with other cadets, he studied the structure of aircrafts, learned to fly Yak fighter planes and Ilah attack planes. He met the Crimean, Ruslan there. He became friends with the Belarusian, Dmitry, and the Yakut, Vasily. Dad recalled that there the cadets saw for the first time the blooming, with a unique subtle aroma, and then fruit-bearing, tangerine gardens. Persimmons and pomegranates grew there as well. And never again in their lives did they eat so many and such delicious tangerines and other fruits. Once they even found a canister of alcohol on the railway tracks; they tried it, but not everyone liked it. In the aviation school, many cadets, including Vyacheslav, got small tattoos on their shoulders with outstretched wings, which demonstrated that they belonged to aviation. After graduating from aviation school, Vyacheslav served in the 61st independent engineering and airfield battalion of the 5th air army of the Transcaucasian front with the rank of sergeant and was a battalion commander. The terrible, merciless war began. From airfields that were built and restored by the battalion, combat fighters and attack aircrafts took off, pilots destroyed the invaders in Crimea as well as other regions, where parents, friends and girlfriends remained: the peninsula was already occupied by the Germans and Romanians. After the occupation of Crimea by the Nazis, my grandmother had to burn all the letters from her sons, as it was dangerous to leave frontline letters in the house. At the front in 1942, Vyacheslav joined the communist party. As part of the 1st Belorussian front, he liberated Belarus, Poland, and Germany. At the end of the war, the unit in which he served became part of the Polish Army. At that time, Vyacheslav was a party manager of the 483rd battalion of the air force squadron. He celebrated the victory in Berlin. He was wounded several times. At the frontlines, friends gave him a small trophy accordion, which he quickly learned to play, remembering his piano lessons. Later, they managed to find a violin, which was played by his comrade Boris from Odessa. In Poland, the unit was placed in Lodz at first, then was transferred to a small town of Novy Dvor. There, in one of the rooms, they found an out-of-tune piano. There, during times of rest, they were able to hold real concerts and invite other soldiers of the battalion to them. The piano was played by Taras from Kharkov. Vyacheslav's friend Tolik Koroteev from Gorky city sang. There were many other friends and acquaintances with whom my father and we maintained relations after the war. My father did not return home until the summer of 1947. His father and mother survived the German occupation, were alive and well. But his younger brother, whom Vyacheslav loved very much, was not anywhere to be seen. And their search for him was unsuccessful… A long, decent life lay ahead. It entailed participating in the restoration of a war-torn country, studying, working, loving, building a family, participating in the transformation of the Crimea into a land of orchards and vineyards, getting hobbies...

Rank: Second Lieutenant. Division: 104th guards’ rifle division of the order of Kutuzov. Alexander Kirillovich KUKUSHKIN, born on June 21, 1914 in the village of Konino Borisovo, Sudsky district of the Vologda region. From September 15, 1936 to December 30, 1940, he served as a junior commander in the 3rd border guard (Petrozavodsk) of the NKVD border troops and during the period from November 1939 to March 1940, as part of the 4th border regiment of the NKVD troops, he participated in combat operations in the war with the White Finns. On March 1, 1940, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR "For military exploits in the defeat of the White Finns", he was awarded the medal "For Bravery". From June 22, 1941 to August 25, 1941, he served as a platoon commander of the 217th regiment of the Northern front. He participated in the defense of Murmansk and Kandalaksha. On August 25, 1941, Senior Sergeant A. K. Kukushkin was wounded, and with a diagnosis of "a through bullet wound of the upper 1/3 of the shoulder of the right hand with a broken bone" was treated in the evacuation hospital 3747 from September 29, 1941 to December 24, 1941. He was recognized as unfit for action by a medical council under article 53, III group list of diseases by the order of the NKO of the USSR No. 184 of 1940 with a mandatory re-examination in one year. On January 12, 1942, he was registered in the Borisovo-Sudsky Military Comissiriat. For military services on the frontlines of the Great Patriotic War he was awarded the order of the "Patriotic War" of the II degree, the medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45". From October 15, 1943 to June 22, 1947, he served in the state security agencies in the Ministry of State Security of the USSR in the Vologda region, and took part in military operations to eliminate nationalist gangs in the North Caucasus, Crimea, Belarus, and Lithuania. In 1947, he was dismissed from the Ministry of State Security. Since 1947, he had lived with his family in the village of Borisovo-Sudskoye, Babaevsky district, Vologda region. He worked in various managerial and economic positions and raised four daughters. Alexander Kirillovich Kukushkin died on July 11, 1969 at the age of 55. He is buried in the cemetery of the village of Borisovo-Sudskoe.

Mikhail Bubnov, a Red Army soldier, was born on October 17, 1908, and was drafted into the Red Army by the Rostov Military Comissiriat of the Yaroslavl region on November 10, 1941. He took part in the Great Patriotic War since January 1, 1942 as a telephone operator of the platoon of the Control Commander of artillery 234 S.D. In the combat operations conducted by this division, the telephone operator Mikhail Sergeevich Bubnov proved himself to be a loyal, persistent, disciplined fighter, fairly and conscientiously performing all the tasks of the command office. During the offensive conducted by the division in August 1943, he showed courage, perseverance, and fearlessness, while ensuring telephone communications. Under heavy artillery and mortar fire, he quickly and skillfully restored the damaged telephone line, both during day and night, thereby ensuring continuous communication of the Commander of the Division of Artillery enabling the command over artillery fire. In September 1943, for the courage and bravery shown during the battles, the Red Army soldier Mikhail Sergeevich Bubnov was awarded the medal "For Bravery". In December 1943, Mikhail Bubnov, a telephone operator of the KAD-234 control platoon of the Lomonosov rifle division, served as the head of the communications center supervisor in the battles for the village of Dvorishche, Sirotinsky district, Vitebsk region, servicing the communications center of the Commander of the Division of Artillery with the APP group. Bravely, all by himself, he repaired the damage under continuous fire from enemy batteries, ensuring the flawless functioning of the communication center. In January 1944, the Red Army soldier Mikhail Sergeevich Bubnov was presented with the government award the order of the Red Star. He took part in combat operations on the Kalinin, Baltic, and 1st Belorussian fronts. In the battle for the capture of a fortified area of the enemy in Neu Stralenberg (Germany) during the period between February 7-9, 1945, Senior telephone operator Mikhail Sergeevich Bubnov, providing telephone communication of the Commander of the Division of Artillery with the APP 1350 group, repaired 25 communication line tears under enemy fire, while he was lightly contused. In February 1945, Junior Sergeant Mikhail Sergeevich Bubnov was presented with the order of the Red Star for his bravery in battle, the senior telephone operator of the platoon of the Artillery Commander of the 234th Lomonosov-Prague division. He died due to wounds on January 24, 1948, and was buried in the city of Rostov, Yaroslavl region in "Mass graves".