Heroes and feats

In our family the Great Patriotic War is a special topic. My father Kinapin Sergei Dmitrievich fought in this war and died from his wounds. His fate is amazing. Sergey was born on July 18, 1923. He graduated from school brilliantly in 1941 and immediately after his graduation went as a volunteer to the military enlistment office. This is what is sung about them: Remember, guys, Remember, guys, Not possible to describe with words, How they stood at the ATM with shaved heads forever... Statistics say that of the guys of his birth year, almost no one came back alive. Seryozha was lucky. Since he was a student of almost all A's, he was sent to the Military Medical Academy in Leningrad. Many military leaders understood that the war would be long, and the front needed competent officers and doctors. But even then, during the terrible years of war, the Academy held entrance examinations. Seryozha dreamed of being a physicist, not a doctor; he childishly failed the exam in Russian and got "2". And he was not alone. They were summoned, scolded, said: "Doctors are urgently needed at the front" and they were forced to rewrite an essay (in the school certificate my father had a grade of "5"). So Daddy was accepted... Blockade. They studied during the day, and at night they were on duty on roofs, putting out "lighters" and eliminated fires. And in the morning they went and heard: "From now on, the norm of bread is like this”.... In October 1942, they were taken out on the "road of life" and evacuated near Ashgabat. (There is a discrepancy in the information: Ashgabat stands in the documents, and in my childhood memories my father spoke about Samarkand. So far, it was not possible to specify). At home, like a shrine, we keep documents from those years. In the certificate of graduation from the medical school, next to the combat training, sanitary and chemical protection you can see absolutely "peaceful" subjects: pharmacology, diseases of the ear, throat, nose... Their stuudies were shortened - they studied not five years, but only three years. And in August 1943 they were sent to the front as paramedics - junior lieutenants. Dad fought in 193 rifle regiments at the Central Belorussian Front, then at the Second Belorussian Front. On November 4, 1944, he was wounded at a small bridgehead on the Narev River. A series of hospitals began. About a kilogram of iron was taken out of the father. One of the certificates from the evacuation hospital № 2798 was preserved... When daddy returned home, he, like all his fellow students of the Military Medical Academy, was offered to continue his studies at the fourth year of the Medical Institute and two years later to obtain a diploma as a doctor. But Sergey did not give up his pre-war dream and in 1945 he entered the Radiophysical Faculty of the Gorky State University named after Lobachevsky, which he graduated in 1951. He worked at the GIFTI, the Polytechnic Institute and the Scientific Research Institute of Applied Mathematics and Cybernetics, defended his PhD thesis, got married, had three children... On March 13, 1981 he died, unable to withstand a surgery...

My grandfather, Nikolai Krotkov, was born on February 24, 1905 in the village of Novo-Tarasovo, Kineshemsky district, Kostroma region (now Ivanovo region). The family had five children, my grandfather was the oldest. On September 1, 1928 he was drafted into the Red Army and in November 1929 was demobilized as the middle reserve commander. In 1930, he entered the Moscow Peat Institute, after completing a training course at the university, he became a peat bog engineer. By distribution he was sent to the peat enterprise in Gusevsky settlement (Vladimir region) where he lived with his family, wife and son until he was drafted into the Red Army in 1940. Since July 1941 he was at the front in the acting army with the rank of lieutenant. He served in the artillery troops, was a unit commander. The last letter to the family from the front dates back to August 18, 1941. On September 1, 1941 he was killed while performing a combat mission in Kordemovsky district of Smolensk region, near the Dnieper River. His colleague, S. Bushuyev, took off his killed grandfather's field bag, which contained his military ticket, a badge with a note and other documents. He also sent these things to his wife (my grandmother). All my life our family carefully keeps them. Grandmother spent a long time looking for where her husband was buried, but the answers to all requests were negative. And only recently we found with the help of the site "Road of Memory" information that our grandfather was buried in a mass grave in Kordemovsky district of Smolensk region, apparently near the place of death. In the lists of those killed, our grandfather was listed as a Red Army soldier, and his title was not mentioned for a reason unknown to us.

Semyon Efimovich Karyagin was born on February 15, 1908 in the village of Filatovo, Luchinskaya parish, Zvenigorodskaya district of Moscow province. Until November 1930, he was engaged in agriculture in a peasant family. From 1918 to 1923 he studied and graduated from the 5th grade Filatovo school. In 1924 he joined the Komsomol. Since 1926, he was the secretary of the Filatovskaya Komsomol cell. Since 1928, he was the Chairman of the Filatovsky Village Council of the Luchinskaya Parish, Voskresensky County, Moscow Region. From November 1930 to November 1932, he served in the Red Army of Odessa. During his service, he completed one Rabfak course. Since November 1932, he continued to serve as Chairman of the Filatovsky Village Council of Istrinsky district of Moscow region (Voskresensky district since 1929 renamed to Istrinsky district). From 1935 to February 1939, he worked in the Istra savings bank as a cashier, accountant and senior accountant. From May 1939 to June 25, 1941, he was an accountant at the Snegiri Rest House. From June 25, 1941 to November 1945, he fought in the Great Patriotic War. Until October 01, 1941, he served in the 892th rifle regiment of the 298th rifle division with the rank of senior sergeant in the rifle unit of the regiment's headquarters. In October 1941 he was getting out of the encirclement for 12 days from Sumy region to Kursk city. From November 1941 to November 1945, he served in the 605th Rifle Regiment of the 132nd Rifle Division, a rifleman, a battalion adjutant, an APC Platoon regiment, a company foreman until March 1943. In December 1942, he took a one-month foreman course in Livny and was promoted to the rank of foreman. Since April 1943, he was the foreman of the regiment headquarters building unit, since June 1945 he had been the head of the regiment's administrative office. For the Patriotic War he was awarded: Medal "For Combat Services" on 28.03.1943. Medal "For Courage" on 18.08.1943. Medal "For Combat Services" on 20.07.1944. Order of the "Red Star" on 02.09.1944. Order of the "Patriotic War" of II degree. 13.05.1945 Medal "For the Victory over Germany" 22.04.1946 Medal "For the capture of Berlin" 01.05.1947 After the end of the Great Patriotic War Karyagin S.E. on a voluntary basis carried out huge work to find the relatives and friends of the soldiers who died and were buried in the Istra district near the village of Glebovsky and the village of Istra Filatovo village. After leaving for the front, S. E. Karyagin left his wife and little son (Mikhail Karyagin) who lived in the village of Filatovo, which was ocupated by the Nazis. In the post-war years, he carried out active public work, being a repeatedly re-elected deputy of the Bukarevo Village Council. At the same time, he remained a wonderful grandfather of 2 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren.

Kritskiy Victor Mikhailovich was born on July 20, 1923 in the village of Ankovo, Teikovsky district, Ivanovo region. In his youth, he worked in the communications department, and his brigade served government communication lines between Ivanovo and Moscow. Despite his reservation, when he learned of the beginning of the war, V.M. Kritskiy went to the military registration and enlistment office. Having been sent to the Serpukhov Aviation Technical School, where he was trained under an accelerated program from September 15, 1941 to May 28, 1942. However, his dream to become a pilot did not come true: the country did not have enough planes. Kritskiy V.M. served in the 450th rifle regiment of the 265th rifle division. He was a gun commander. War roads led him to become one of the defenders of Leningrad, and he took part in fierce battles for the Sinyavinskie Heights. During the fighting, his seven-man crew destroyed: two DOTs, three DZOTs, six artillery guns and 48 fascists. At night, the soldiers went to reconnaissance to detect enemy fire points and draw a map of fire, and then, according to this map, deliver accurate strikes against the enemy. During the battles almost all the crews died. Few are still alive. But as a result of the offensive in the Sinyavsk direction, together with the troops of the Leningrad Front, it was possible to disrupt the enemy's plan of attack on Leningrad. In 1944, on the approaches to the border of the Latvian SSR, a few kilometers from Riga, Viktor Mikhailovich was seriously wounded, his left hand was shattered. Thanks to the skill of doctors, amputation was avoided. V.M. Kritskiy welcomed Victory Day in Ivanovo Hospital №3818, where he was sent after his wound. Subsequently, Viktor Mikhailovich graduated from Ivanovo Dental School. After receiving his diploma in dental engineering, he was sent together with his wife (former classmate) to the city of Demidov, Smolensk region, where he worked in his specialty. In 1953, the Kritskiy family moved to Furmanov. Kritskiy V.M., as the most experienced specialist, by the management of the Fourmanovsky CSB, was sent to factory number 2 to open the first dental office at the enterprises, where he worked until he was 81. Those who came to Kritskiy V.M. for help said that he had "golden" hands. Kritskiy V.M. was awarded: the Order of the Red Star, the Order of the Great Patriotic War, the Medal "For Courage", the Medal "For the Defense of Leningrad", the Medal of Zhukov and insignia, including the "Veteran of the Volkhov Front - a participant in the battle for Leningrad 1941-1944. Tsarev A.I. passed away at the age of 88 in the family circle.

Korovin Fyodor Alekseevich was born on January 8, 1910 in the village of Orel region, Znamensky district, Goldaevo village. Fyodor Korovin graduated from Omsk Automobile and Road Institute (Ural Institute of Railway Transport). For a long time he worked as a site foreman at the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM). Then from 1939 to 1941, he worked as a graphics teacher and head of production practice. On June 30, 1941 he was called up for mobilization into the ranks of the Red Army (Workers' and Peasants' Red Army). On August 10, 1943, while performing the duties of rangefinder of the 2nd b. anti-aircraft gun, the young artilleryman was awarded the medal "For Combat Services" (the indication of the exact coordinates made it possible to shoot down the battery of 3 enemy planes "U-87" (the corresponding record is available in the archive of CAMO, at http://www.podvignaroda.ru). He was also awarded a medal for the defense of Stalingrad, participation in the battles of the South-Western Front (1941), the Stalingrad Trakt (1942), the Battle of Kursk, 2nd Belorussian Front (1944), for which he was awarded the rank of sergeant (corresponding entry in the Red Army book of 18.11.44). He was in the group of Soviet occupation troops in Germany until 01.07.1945. He was transferred to the reserve in May 1945, in the rank of senior lieutenant. He was awarded the Order of Patriotic War of the II degree. On February 6, 1946 he was awarded the medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945". After the war, he was again enrolled as a teacher at the Borisoglebsk Road Technical School, where he worked even after retirement until 1977. In July 1962, he was additionally appointed Acting Deputy Director for the educational part. A loving and caring father, he spent all his free time passionately engaged in self-education and writing a book - on road construction, which he managed to finish in his life, but, unfortunately, did not publish and the work was lost. Everyone who knew him from his work or place of residence spoke about him with deep respect, characterizing him as an honest and hard-working, responsible person, with a strict spiritual organization, ideological and judicious, able to immediately come to the aid in difficult moments. This modest and calm man always took care of his family, children and grandchildren, as well as numerous students, not allowing himself to raise his voice once. He died in Borisoglebsk, Voronezh Oblast, in 1998.

He was born on February 23, 1910 in Ozerki village of Zhernovsky district (now Petrovsky district) of Saratov region. In 1921 he graduated from the 2nd grade of elementary school in the village of Ozerki. In 1941, when the war began, Alexei Ivanovich was 31, he had a wife and three children. He was called up for mobilization by Zhernovsky Military Committee on 27.06.1941 and was appointed a shooter in 218 rifle regiment (6th Army). There were fierce battles in Ukraine and the regiment was surrounded, while Alexey Ivanovich was taken prisoner. One night, when they were walking in a column controlled by convoy, Alexei and another soldier rolled into a ravine under a bridge. So they managed to escape from captivity. They moved at night, the Germans were evrywhere. Finally, they reached a village. Asked for help of one of the residents. He worked for the Germans. So he was again in captivity. Soon, at night, he ran again. He and his comrades managed to overcome barbed wire barriers. They threw overcoats over the barbed wire and rolled over it. Then he partisaned in the forests of Smolensk region (Yelansky district). They lived in non-slip bogs. Bridges were being blown up, German units were being destroyed, and echelons with military equipment and enemy manpower were being undermined. In July 1942, crews of the partisan detachment named after "27th anniversary of October" joined the army. Alexei Ivanovich got into 634 rifle regiment, with which he participated in the battles at Stalingrad. In September 1943 he was wounded and treated (669 field hospital). In November, he was sent to the 2nd Guards Motorized Regiment (rifleman). In June 1944 he was wounded again, contusion (Evachospital 4641). Then in August 1944 - again on the front line in 226th Vitebsk Red Banner Rifle Regiment, 63rd division. In October 1944 Alexey Ivanovich was wounded for the third time, seriously - the bullet hit his mouth and went out through the neck. In his unconscious state, he was found by a Polish woman. She took care of him. Then till March he was being treated in 53488 evacuation hospital. By the way, Alexey Ivanovich was considered missing on 28.09.1944, which is mentioned in the Memory Book of Saratov region, volume 5. After his recovery, Alexey Ivanovich went to serve in 265 rifle regiment. (3rd Belorussian Front.) Participated in the battles for the liberation of Prussia. He was awarded a commendation by the commander of the unit for excellent combat operations (order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of March 29, 1945). And then the storming of Berlin and Victory! Krasnikov Alexei Ivanovich was awarded medals "For the capture of Berlin", "For the victory over Germany", the Order of Patriotic War 2nd degree, jubilee medals. After demobilization on December 12, 1945. Alexey Ivanovich returned to his native village. He worked at a collective farm. Together with his wife Alexandra Vasilyevna, he raised six children.

Krylov Nikolay Grigorievich was born in 1926 in Spassky settlement in the family of Grigory Vasilyevich and Elena Ivanovna ( maiden name Shumilina). He was a 3rd child, besides him there were 3 other daughters in the family. Grigory Vasilyevich worked in the collective farm as a groom and a saddler, sewing harness (equipment) for horses. Elena Ivanovna worked in the field. 24.12.1943 Nikolai was conscripted into the army by Verkhneuralsky RVC of Chelyabinsk region. At first he was in the city of Chebarkul, and from September 15, 1944 he was sent to the front. Before being sent, he and other guys from our village were brought home to say goodbye to their relatives. He served as a telephone operator of a 76 mm battery of guns of the 556th Bialystok regiment of the 169th Rogachevskoy Rifle Division of the Red Banner Division. "Comrade Krylov in the battles to break through the enemy defense on January 14, 1945 near Glazhevo-Viti, Warsaw Province, and in subsequent battles in East Prussia, proved himself as a brave and fearless phone operator. On January 14, 1945, he repeatedly replaced telephone communications in place of disabled one by enemy artillery fire. For three days without rest, not noticing how tred he was, he provided uninterrupted communication between the battery positions and the observation point. During this time, he fixed under enemy fire up to 13 gusts of the telephone line and twice directed the telephone line, thus contributing to the accurate firing. He was awarded the Medal "For Merit in Combat". After the war, his second reserve rifle regiment was left to continue serving in East Prussia. In his last letter, Nikolai wrote to ask that no more letters were written to him. He was going home. Then, his father received a notice from the military committee: 'Please inform citizen Krylov Grigory Vasilyevich that his son, Krylov Nikolay Grigorievich, Red Army soldier, died while performing his official duties on February 1, 1946 and was buried in St. Stettin - the port. Chief of Staff of the Second Separate Reserve Rifle Regiment Major Konovalov". He died, having gone on duty in the last guard.

The Great Patriotic War is the most tragic page in the history of our state and the whole world. It left the deepest trace in the life of every family, and victory came at too great a price. This national tragedy has not bypassed our family. We are proud that our grandfather, Zlufarov Umer Kubedinovich, was a soldier of this war and forged the Great Victory. Grandfather was born in the village of Kuchuk Ozenbash Bakhchisarai district in a peasant family. He graduated from high school and then entered the Chair trade school in Koreiz village. From 1932 to 1939, Umer Kubedinovich was a student at the Crimean Agricultural Institute named after Kalinin and received a specialty in winemaking and viticulture. In 1939 he got married. At first, after graduating from the Institute, he worked as a winemaker in Sudak District, and in 1940 he was transferred to the post of chief winemaker at Yalta winery of Crimea. Fate promised bright future, prospects were seen, plans were made... But the war started. On July 16, 1941, Umer Kubedinovich was mobilized to the southern front. He began the war as the chief of the construction detachment, because by that time he had completed army service and knew the military business. The task of the detachment was to erect defensive lines on the outskirts of the city of Krasnodar. Here, he was also awarded a diploma of the 9th Directorate of Non-Profit Organizations. From 1942 to 1943, he studied at the Blagoveshchensk Machine-gun School in Bashkir SSR. After graduation, he commanded a tank company of the 36th Tank Brigade of the 4th Stalingrad Guard. The tank landing force was breaking through into the enemy zone, distracting the enemy, while the main forces were developing the offensive. In my grandfather's memory, like potographs, came up horrible moments: "Once, the path ran through a vast meadow covered with corpses, and as the tanks passed, parts of human bodies hit the body of the combat vehicle.” Party members were obliged to command penal companies for 3 months, but due to the absence of a replacement for the guard, Lieutenant Zlufarov Umer Kubedinovich had to manage 208 separate army penal companies for almost half a year in 1944. The commander was required to have special stamina and the ability to influence the subordinates with his authority. Umer Kubedinovich coped with the command of the company and had special respect, both among his subordinates and those of the superior command. With the battles of the Guards, the lieutenant passed through Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria, was wounded 4 times (certificate № 6229, № 609, № 1371, № 28), has 16 awards, including the Order of "Patriotic War I and II degrees", the Order of Courage, 8 medals, 3 thanks and 1 diploma from the Krasnodar Regional Council. He was demobilized from Vienna in 1945, and he was told: 'Comrade Lieutenant, if you want to live in Crimea, you need to change your passport'. At that time, the family was already deported from Crimea; he found relatives in one of the villages of Namanganskaya Oblast, Uzbek SSR. On the basis of medical report, he managed to transfer the family to Frunze town, Kyrgyz SSR, where he continued working as head of chemical and technological laboratory at fruit and vegetable station. Then he was appointed chief winemaker and chief champagne maker of the Kyrgyz Champagne Plant. He was awarded the sign "Excellent worker of food industry of the USSR" and the sign "Excellent worker of state farm of Kyrgyz SSR". In 1958 he was awarded the big silver medal of VDNKh of the USSR. At the tasting of European countries champagne plant received a large gold medal of Europe for Kyrgyz dry champagne. Umer Kubedinovich did not allowe even his nephew into the bottling shop, as he worked as a driver, and the smell of gasoline could affect the quality of wine. In 1962 he moved to the city of Yangiyul, Tashkent region, Uzbek SSR, where he worked as a shift supervisor at the hydrolysis plant. Pre-war colleagues and rector of Crimean Agricultural Institute named after Kalinin repeatedly advised Umer Kubedinovich to move to Crimea. On September 5, 1967, USSR Supreme Soviet's Presidium's Decree 'On citizens of Tatar nationality living in Crimea' was issued, and certain part of Crimean Tatars believed and decided to use this decree. Having often sold their houses for a fraction of the price, they began to return to Crimea. Lieutenant Umer Kubedinovich Zlufarov, the pre-war winemaker at Yalta Guards' Winery, was among the first. In 1968, the Zlufarovs' family bought a resettled house in Simferopol, but couldn't get a residence permit for over 6 months. From one instance they were sent to the next, and then everything was repeated in a circle. Four times Umer Kubedinovich was at a reception with N.V. Bagrov, who after a short conversation assured: "Go, I'll call - they will give you a residence permit". Each time the passport office answered: "Nobody called us". The last conversation with N.V. Bagrov took place in a slightly higher tone and ended with the following phrase: "If you want to live in the Crimea, speak a tone lower. Go ahead, I will call". And this time the answer in the passport office was the same. Then, Umer Kubedinovich began to put hope only in patience of his wife: 'Fatime Mamutovna, I can no longer vouch for myself, now you try to finish the job. The policeman regularly visited the Zlyufarovs' family under various pretexts, and only Fatime Mamutovna's hospitality and tact prevented the policeman from doing what they did to others who lived without a residence permit. And such people in the town were mostly officers, pre-war officials, such as pilot A. I. Reshidov, Hero of the Soviet Union, Captain O. N. Memetov, representative of the Crimean ASSR People's Commissariat of Land Resources, who after long attempts, having undergone a humiliating procedure, got registered. Fatime Mamutovna for another 4 months beat the doorsteps of the passport table, listening to various bureaucratic tricks. Only stamina and patience helped her to get registered. The registration allowed her to look for a job and to get rid of intrigues of local authorities. In addition to Umer Kubedinovich, 4 war veterans lived in this alley of the city and every year they were congratulated on Victory Day, and the lieutenant's guards was ignored, but despite this, he hung the Red Flag over his house every year. Opposite the Zlyufarovs' yard was the house of the family of another war veteran - pilot navigator Rikman M., who, together with Amet-khan Sultan, graduated from the Kachinsk Flying School and went through the entire war. Friendly relations of these two families have been maintained by their children and grandchildren from the first days of their return to the present day. After receiving registration (not without the help of his pre-war colleagues), Umer Kubedinovich got a job at the head winery № 1 in the city of Simferopol and was appointed head of the souvenir shop, where the highest sorts of cognac were poured into small containers. Having worked at this factory for more than 10 years as a good worker and specialist, he was honored to receive a well-deserved retirement.

Zaitsev Alexey Alekseevich, was born on June 22, 1925, in the v. Vyselki, Spassky district, Ryazan region. He studied at Fedotevskaya school of Spassky district. When the war began, his father and older brother were taken to the front. Alexey remained the head of the family, although at that time he was only 16 years old. He had to take care of his mother and three younger sisters. In January 1943, Alexey, who was 17 at that time, was summoned to the army. After a short training camp, on January 12, all residents of the village of Vyselki and the nearest villages, mostly consisting of women and children, accompanied 30 people together with Alexei, who were to go to the preliminary exercises in Kazan. Alexey was enrolled in the 46th regiment of the 39th Brigade, which was located 20 km from Kazan. After the training, Alexei was promoted to the rank of "junior sergeant" in the Kazan training regiment - a gunner for the Maxim machine gun. Immediately after the training, in the summer of the same year, already trained young soldiers were put in freight cars, and sent to the front near the city of Kursk. At that time there were fierce battles, everything burned and smoked. The 4th Guards Tank Corps (now the Kantemirovskaya Division) had to be replenished. Alexei was enlisted in the 3rd Motorized Rifle Brigade with the 3rd Battalion in the machine-gun company, first as a gunner and then as the chief of staff. With that unit, he took his combat route from Kursk to Czechoslovakia. On the way were the following cities: Kiev, Zhitomir, Lyubar, Rivne, Zbarazh, Ternopil, Lviv, Rzeszow, Krosno, Yaslo, Krakow, as well as the Carpathian Mountains. Already behind the Battle of Kursk, Kyiv was liberated, but it was still far from victory. Immediately after Kiev, fierce battles unfolded, and Alexei was awarded the 'Guardsman Mark' for his participation in them. It was his first 'battle baptism of fire'. "We entered the front breakthrough, our tanks rushed forward. Our task was to expand the breakthrough of the front as much as possible. I remember such a case. We were marching at night and by morning we had to make a halt. And at dawn our column was unexpectedly attacked by 10 German tanks with automatic rifles. They were moving to the flank of our column, and we could not immediately understand whose they were. The tanks turned around and opened fire. We took up the defense. Some of them managed to cut into our positions. Both grenades and Molotov cocktails went into action.” Alexey lost many of his fellow countrymen and comrades in these battles to liberate the cities of Zhitomir and Lyubar. Among them was his cousin Vasily Zaitsev. Alexey himself received his first, but slight wound here and was treated in the medical battalion without leaving his unit. Leaving fresh grave hills, ruins of cities, the war went further west. The blood of Soviet soldiers was spilled for every village and city street. "I will never forget the battles for the liberation of Zbarazh and Ternopil. Winter came. Frosts. Soaked roads. One day we marched 80 km and by the end of the day went to the road. It was foggy and already dawning, nothing could be seen. We could hardly see the silhouette of the car, but we cpuldn’t determine whose silhouette it was due to poor visibility. We let it get closer - the German one. The car was on its way to Zbarazh. We opened fire. A German officer and driver were taken prisoners. As it turned out later, it was an important German officer. Then, we entered Zbarazh itself, which was occupied by Germans. The front was behind us, and we were not expected in the city. It was evening, and the German soldiers were watching a movie. Panic began, shooting. By morning, we had already reached the western outskirts of the city. The way to Ternopil was opened.” Street battles for the liberation of Ternopil took more than a month. In this combat operation, Alexey was wounded, and the rest of the crew died along with commander Sadov. Among the dead were Alexey's countrymen and fellow villagers: Nikolai Mironov, Valery Kochetygov, Fyodor Prokhorov. Alexei was awarded the medal "For bravery" and the title of sergeant - commander of the machine gun crew. After the battles, the military units needed to be replenished with military equipment, weapons and personnel. Meanwhile, the enemy did not give up, and the war went on, to the west. Ahead were the battles for the cities of Zolochev and Lviv. The Soviet tanks began moving further towards Lviv, and then towards the Polish border. After recovery, Alexei returned to his unit. Moving to the west, were released such cities as Krakow, Rzeszow, Krosno, Yaslo, Romanuv. The hardest battles were in the city, fights at night and it was especially hard to fight in the mountains. "Our tanks were moving along the channels of mountain rivers and gorges. For each handful of land in the Carpathians Soviet soldiers shed their blood, attacking a single hill for several days. Here, near Romanuv, I was wounded for the third time. This is where the war ended for me. After recovery Alexey was sent to Kharkov tank school in Chardzhou, Turkmen SSR. Here he welcomed the Victory Day.

Zelenko Ivan Grigorievich was born on April 7, 1913 in Ukraine in the village of Rozumovka, Kirovograd region. He graduated from the Odessa Artillery and Technical School. From 1939 to 1940, Ivan Grigorievich participated in the Finnish-Soviet war. From the first day of the Great Patriotic War Ivan Grigorievich served as a captain at Murmansk in the Valley of Glory (Valley of Death). It was here, in 1941, that the rapid offensive of German troops, which were ordered to capture Murmansk, was stopped. Ivan Grigorievich was an artillery technician, commander of the department for repair of small arms and artillery equipment company technical support 181 Tank Znamensky regiment. Together with his colleagues, he carried out the repairs of tank and artillery equipment. As soon as something was out of order, the soldiers took their tool bags and headed for a tank or artillery installation that had been hit. The soldiers had to come under enemy fire to get to the place. More than once Ivan Grigorievich went back without his comrades. For four long years Ivan Grigorievich was being saved by his fate. According to official data of military archives during the confrontation on the banks of the Western Litsi more than 2000 people were killed. Ivan finished the war on the 4th Ukrainian front fighting in the South of Ukraine. He got married after the war and had a large family of six children. One of them was my grandfather. Ivan Grigorievich died on July 10, 1990.

Andrey Matveyevich Kovalev (29.12.1916-28.07.2002), Guards Captain, Commander of tank battalion of the 55th gv tank brigade (7th gv tank corps, 3rd gv tank army, 1st Ukrainian front). Participated in the battles in Ukraine. Hero of the Soviet Union, awarded the Order of Lenin, Alexander Nevsky, First Class Patriotic War, Red Star, medals.

My great-grandfather, Konovalov Fyodor Vasilyevich, was born on July 05, 1918 in the village Shiroky Buerak, now - Volsky district of Saratov region, and on 01.01.1938 was called up to the Red Army as a border guard in the town of Peremyshl, where he served as a conscript in the NKVD (92 POGO NKVD 6A SZF). Today, Peremyshl is a Polish town Przemysl, near the border with Ukraine. The city was then divided by the border in the middle - along the channel of the river San. The eastern part belonged to the USSR, the western part - to the enemy, was part of the Governorate General (former Polish territories occupied by the Germans). My great-grandfather was supposed to be demobilized (complete his military service) in May and early June 1941, but ... he served as a machine-tool engineer - he knew how to set up and shoot weapons, including machine guns, there was no one to replace him at that time, and he was asked to wait for a month for his demobilisation. This month resulted in five years, six injuries and a long, long combat journey ... to Berlin. During Operation Barbarossa, the 17th Wehrmacht Army was to quickly seize (30 minutes) the bridges over the San River, occupy Peremyshl and move to Lviv and Kyiv. Our defense was based on Peremyshl fortification, the position of the 99th Rifle Division and the 92nd Border Guard Unit (where served my great-grandfather). Soldiers of the 92nd Frontier Division were the first to engage with the Nazi invaders. At 4:10 a.m. on June 22, 1941, German troops broke through the border with the USSR near Peremyshl. After art. training, they began forcing the San River on rafts and rubber boats. But as soon as the Germans entered the bridge across the river and reached its middle, the border guards opened fire. The German advance troops tried to bypass the bridge from upstream and downstream, but the border guards would not let them do so. According to eyewitnesses, the Germans were washing themselves in their own blood. The Soviet fighters and commanders fought to the last breath. Nechaev, the Deputy Chief of the Border Guard, fought back from enemies to the last moment, and then, left alone, blew up both himself and approaching fascists with a grenade, stepping into immortality. And my great-grandfather with his easel machine gun "in the battle for the Motherland at 151 in the Medik area for two days (22-23-24.06.41) held back the onslaught of the fascists, with his courage inspiring the fighters. He was left alone with an easel machine gun, securing a new position with units of the Red Army, and when leaving the battle under heavy gun fire, he carried an easel machine gun” Weight of the Degtyarev machine gun, then in service - 14.3 kg empty, box with a belt for 200/250 rounds of 8/9.4 kg, for which was presented on June 24, 1941 to the Order of the Red Star. But the Germans still seized the Peremyshl... Though on June 23rd the Red Army repulsed it! It was the first town to be liberated by the Red Army, just on the second day after the war. It alone would have been enough for eternal pride for my ancestor, but...he went through the whole war, serving in the intelligence service. He graduated from the Higher Border School in 1943 (of course, there were no others during the Great Patriotic War) and welcomed the Victory in the title of captain in Berlin by signing the Reichstag. Behind his back at the end of the war there were six wounds (three light and three heavy) and three funeral notices. Now in Russia and Germany there is his surname on the mass graves... When we were in Berlin, my mother and I specifically came to the Reichstag walls to worship the memory of our grandfather and great-grandfather. My great-grandfather lived a good, honest, though not very long life - 65 years (apparently, the war wounds made themselves known), raised good children. And all his life he was sincerely proud of his Homeland and there was no holiday more important and sacred for him than Victory Day. We will never forget about his feat!

I often hear from my mother about my great-grandfather, I know that he and his brothers and sisters were at war. This year, the Great Victory celebrates its 75th anniversary. I decided to take part in the national historical depository "Faces of Victory", to leave my mark in history and to capture the names of my great-grandfathers. I came to my mother and asked her to tell me what she knows. My mother took out old, yellowish newspaper clippings from the closet, which she had been carefully keeping for many years. She showed me two articles with photos of my great-grandfather Vladimir and his brother Victor, where they recall those terrible years of life in the war. I plunged into reading. The first article was about my great-grandfather Kondrashov Vladimir Ivanovich with the headline: MY VICTORY I SAW ONLY in 1952 "At the front, I got into the division of the people's militia. Our units were formed quickly, trained in some respects, and it is terrible to remember about uniforms and weapons in general. Most of the echelons were bombed even before the front line, - recalls Vladimir Ivanovich Kondrashov. - We fought for two months at Yelia, and then got into the famous Vyazmenskiy melting pot. Encirclings, captivity and a camp for prisoners of war. My number -128736 - I will say it, even if you wake me up at night, this is impossible to forget. No one was called there by their surname, let alone their first name. But everybody's chest and back were marked with big letters SU (Soviet Union) and wooden pads. Of course, captivity is captivity, and I don't even want to talk about what I have gone through. But back in the Homeland, as it turned out later, they were not waiting for us with pies. In April 1945 the Americans freed us, and I was sent to Russia together with other similar prisoners of war, but not home, of course, and again to a concentration camp, only now "native", Soviet. It was a terrible shock, they just couldn't believe that there were similar camps on our soil. That we, the Soviet soldiers, and those who fought, who shed blood for the victory, are not considered at home as people, despised, called traitors and enemies of the people. In 1946, I was sentenced to 6 years of special settlements, without a court hearing. I served mine in Komi, then in the Far East, after a while moved to the Krasnoyarsk region. Finally, in 1952 the day came when I was told: "That’s it, Kondrashov, you are free". Only then I welcomed my Victory. I settled here in Omsk Oblast, got married, had children, worked, and was recently rehabilitated. Now it's really frustrating when you come to some officials, they say: "What benefits are you talking about? You are not a concentration camp prisoner, but a prisoner of war, aren’t you?” I really would like to ask: "Do you know what it is?!” The second article, about my great-grandfather Kondrashov's brother Victor Ivanovich: He was wounded twice, but he remembers the war calmly. Yes, time has dulled the pain, dashing, bitterness of loss. But the memory ... is like a nerve that is naked, piercing and trembling. The heart shrunk and everything went dark when Maria, with trembling hands, opened the agenda. Somewhere in the Smolensk direction her son Vladimir is at war with the enemy and her daughter Lisa is pulling out of the battlefield the wounded. And in the military hospital, older daughter Lyuba is saving the lives of our soldiers. She is a surgeon. And now it is the youngest turn to go to war - Victor. She looked at her sleeping son and wiped away a tear: "What kind of a warrior is he? He is just a boy". ...Maria will not stand, will cry later, when among the crowd of people Victor clumsily weaves in her shoulder. She will cry, silently, clinging to his disobedient head. "Well, with God, son," she whispers goodbye. "Come back with victory, son!" - his father will exhale and give him a strong, manly hug. It was a gloomy autumn of '42. "SIS, HELP..." First, the training camp in three kilometers from the defense line. Then the 3rd Ukrainian Front, then until the end of the war - the 2nd Ukrainian, 65th Army, 413th Division, where he, a soldier Kondrashov, was a divisional scout. The battles near Voronezh exposed and mixed the bitterness of retreat, and the pain of loss of dead soldiers, and an unconscious feeling of joy from the returned spans of the native land. In one of such battles a sanitary-instructor Klava was seriously injured. Somewhere in the same way, pressing into the frozen ground from whistling bullets above her head and exhausted from powerlessness, his sister Lisa is dragging a wounded souldier. Somewhere... And where? Clava was bandaging a soldier. The shell rumbled, and the girl pressed against the wounded, covering him with herself. She remained lying like this. She heard a groaning voice: "Sis, help me...". And Clava, having gathered her last strength, crawled to the neighboring funnel. She bandaged everyone. And... lost consciousness. She was brought to the hospital with a multi-shrapnel wound. So in 1943 the war ended for her, leaving a notch in her memory - a permanent disability. The brave, pretty girl was loved in the regiment. Someone secretly sighed for her, others, including sergeant Kondrashov, remained her good friends. And the frontline friendship, as we know, is not forgotten. WAS BORN IN A SHIRT. In January 44, in the battles for the Ukrainian village of Kamenka, Victor was wounded. At the very moment when the shell boomed somewhere quite close, Viktor, having the rule "not to bump into a pile", bounced away. The hand seemed to have been hit hard with a stick. And seven guys stayed lying on the snow... They buried them, made crosses, gave a volley... That's the whole memorial service. After a short pause in the hospital, Victor caught up with his unit and continued the front road as a branch commander. In breaks between fights he buried his friends and wrote letters home. The long awaited triangles did not always reach the place. And it happened so that there was no news from his native village for several months. And here, at war, as in war. Work. And sometimes a terrible fear in traitorous goosebumps crawls on his back. Especially when death is staring at you at point-blank range. But in the moment of operation, the fear disappears, and you get in the mode for feats. Desperate sorties "for the tongue" caused excitement in the fighter Kondrashov. Small and spirited, he slipped away from the ambush. And he believed that he was born in a shirt. HE GOT THE "TONGUE" AND EXPLODED ON A MINE. But - irony of fate. Again his unfortunate January 1945, is waiting for him. He almost died that year. There were fights for Warsaw. At night, the scouts, having captured the "tongue", were returning back. They passed the fence and went to the field. They knew that the road was demined. Suddenly, the night was lit up by a blast. And when the smoke cleared, the soldiers saw a half-covered figure of a friend on the edge of the fresh funnel. Viktor exploded on a mine. Afraid of the chase, they dragged him into the funnel, promising to take him away. Victor began to wait for dawn. With the first sun rays, he heard the tank roar. He swung his hands. The commander of the car shouted on the move: - Be patient, brother, now they will come for you. - You, comrade captain, will not go straight ahead – it’s all mined, - warned "brother”. - Good! - The tank, having swung a barrel, turned to the right. Viktor did not know that the funeral notice was already on its way to his village to the house of Kondrashovs... Soon an American car arrived and took the wounded sergeant to the hospital. When they found out that their friend had returned "from heaven", they hurried: “- Come on, write a letter to home!”. And the leg was sewn, sculpted, repaired so that our brave soldier reached Berlin. And in 1946 he returned home. Only he didn’t stay long in his native land. He longed for “the fog”. And Victor swung to the North, in Komi ASSR. Four years later he came to Siberia at the invitation of his friend. The guy liked the places - picturesque. And people are friendly. ...Five children were raised by Viktor Ivanovich and Nina Afanasyevna. He worked at a collective farm. In the works and care did not notice how the children grew up. Everyone has his own families and already grown up grandchildren. There is a great-grandson. Young people of big and difficult family are proud of their grandfather. AFTERWORD. One day Victor Ivanovich heard a familiar name in the Moscow program "In your letters". War veteran, health worker Clava was being congratulated on her birthday. He did not hear her last name. But when he heard “the 2nd Belorussian Front, the 65th Army”, his heart skipped a beat. She! And the division was the same, and the battalion number was the same. He did not believe his ears. The letter also said that her front wounds were giving her a hard time. And Viktor Ivanovich came to the editorial office with a request to help him find his fellow militiaman. That's how we got acquainted with him. We made a request to Krasnodar Veterans Council. We are waiting for an answer. These are two interesting articles that I read about my great-grandfathers. In our peacetime, it is terrible to imagine what it was for them then, during the war, in hunger and cold, losing relatives and friends. I am very proud of my ancestors! By May 9, 2017, in Efremovsky district of Tula region, in the village where my great-grandfathers came from, a memorial monument to the participants of the Great Patriotic War was opened, among which are the names of my great-grandfather Kondrashov V.I. and his relatives. And in 2018, the flight by S7, Moscow-Omsk was named after my great-grandfather Kondrashov Vladimir Ivanovich. Thank you, my family for giving us peace and happiness on this earth!

Kravtsov Alexander Nikiforovich was born on 22.10.1922 in the village Lagan, Astrakhan region (now the Republic of Kalmykia), in a family of wealthy fisherman, one of the first settlers from the village of Vladimirovka Astrakhan region, the founder of the village Lagan. At present, the parental home is a Museum of Regional Studies. Father Nikifor Fedorovich, in 1937 by false denunciation was exiled to Solovki. In 1941, Alexander Nikiforovich graduated from three courses at the Astrakhan Art College named after P.A.Vlasov, and in July was drafted into the Red Army. From 1941 to 1945 he fought at the fronts: the North-Western, Central, I Ukrainian and I Belorussian. He participated in the Battle of Kursk (northern face) and in the assault of Berlin. He served as an automatic soldier, artillery scout in fighter regiments. He was in the ranks of Red Guard, Sergeant, Guard Sergeant, platoon commander of the Department of separate artillery division 57 MEBr. At the front he was seriously wounded, contuded. He was awarded: two Orders of the Red Star (1943, 1945), the Order of Glory of the Third Wall (1945), for the capture of Berlin (1945), the First Class Patriotic War; medals: for the Liberation of Warsaw (1946), for the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. (1946); 20 years, 30 years of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. (1966,1978). By the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Marshal of the Soviet Union, Comrade Stalin, a Commendation was given for heroism and courage shown during the mastering of the large industrial center of Poland. Radom (No. 222. 16.01.1945), for taking the city of Schneidemühl (No. 279. 14.02.1945), for breaking through the heavily fortified German defense east of the city of Stargard (No. 288. 4.03.1945), for taking the city of Altdamm (No. 304. 20.03.1945). After the war he served in the Group of Soviet troops in Germany for several years. Upon returning from the front, he wrote stories, some of which have been published.. He graduated from the Penza Art School named after K.A.Savitsky (1949-1952). Since 1952, he was the artist-director of the Astrakhan Drama Theatre. From 1966 until his death he taught at the P.A.Vlasov Art School of Astrakhan. The participant of art exhibitions, since 1957: artists of the Volga region, the Great Volga, Artists of theater and cinema of Russia. His works are in the collections of AGKG named after P.M.Dogadin, AGOIAMZ, in many public and private collections. For many years he was the head of the Astrakhan Union of Artists. Repeatedly elected as a member of the Central Revision Commission, the Creative Commission of the RSFSR Marinists. For services in the field of culture and many years of fruitful work was awarded the honorary title "Honored Worker of Culture of the RSFSR". (1989), was awarded the medal "Veteran of Labor". He died on 20.07.1994, after a long illness.

The territory of Belarus was occupied by the Germans almost from the first days. Already on the seventh day of the war, June 28, 1941, Minsk and the whole Minsk region was occupied. In such a short period of time people did not manage to evacuate. Life began in German occupation. From the words of my mother, who was only 6 years old, those days remained "black" memories even in the childhood memory. Germans came into the houses, took away food and valuable things, healthy people were sent to Germany as slaves. For the slightest disobedience, entire villages were shot and burned together with its residents. By autumn 1941, guerrilla movement in the deep enemy's rear began to be organized in Minsk region. My mother distinctly remembers that in winter 1941 my grandfather was already in the guerrillas. However, unfortunately, there is no data on which partisan detachment and under whose command he fought. Immediately after the liberation of Belarus by the Soviet troops in July 1944, his grandfather was conscripted into the current army, and was promoted to the rank of Red Army officer. He served in the 5th Rifle Company, 2nd Rifle Battalion, 197th Army Reserve Rifle Regiment, 28th Army, and then was sent to the 160th Guards Rifle Regiment, 54th Guards Rifle Division, 3rd Guards Rifle Corps, 28th Army, 3rd Belorussian Front (v\ch p/p 18959). In autumn 1944, he entered the USSR state border northwest of the city of Brest with his fellow regiments. The division forced the Western Bug River on the move and entered the territory of Poland. In October, it took part in the breakthrough of the long-term defense of the enemy in the Gumbinn direction. In early 1945, he took part in the East Prussian operation. In March 1945, presumably on Polish territory, he went missing. He was only 42 years old! His relatives still do not know the place of his death and burial!