Russia: WWII veterans

writes dimaberkut

May 9, Victory Day, I was in Moscow, was walking through the city, passing one after another cordons and metal detectors at the approaches to the Red Square. There were so many riot police and so few veterans that I have this relationship immediately impressed. There was a question that now those people who uchastvovavali in the war? .. They die one by one, taking with them a whole layer of Russian history.





2. In the village of Vinnitsa, in the north-east of the Leningrad Region, with a total population of three thousand people
 - Live for the moment there are only six veterans. With the head of the local branch of the social services,
we looked for a visit to each of them.



3. The first one we went to was Ugartseva Catherine Nikitichna. She was 87 years old, he comes from the Novgorod region.
During the war he was in Tikhvin on Sinyavino swamps. Then in Krondshtadt, Narva.



4. In 1951, arrived in Vinnytsia and since then has lived here. Catherine Nikitichna, said that it is very Sutch for his homeland,
and I would like to go, but ... it has all the same 87 ...



5. In this house lives Chmykhov Prokopevich Fedor, he 85 years old.



6. Entering the courtyard, we found him at work in the garden. Friendly and very energetic, he greeted us with a big smile.



7. chauffeur by profession, a native of Voronezh region. During the war he served in the Army and was in occupation.
He studied at the junior commander near Tambov, then was sent to the reserve infantry regiment in Königsberg.



8. At the end of the war he worked in the convoy - helped rebuild Leningrad.
Then he was sent to the Vinnitsa and only in the 51st demibilizovalsya - served 7 years in the army after the war.



9. At home at Fedor Prokopevich never visited. But having met in Vinnitsa love,
just a few days after demobilization married and lives with his wife in harmony already shestdyasyat years.



10. Severe land, the most beautiful places. They looked for a visit and to Bodunova Matryona ANDREYEVNA 88 years.



11. She was born nearby, in the village of Goginichi. On the front left young devchenkoy, received a summons from the recruiting office,
I worked in the bakery Infantry Division.



12. All war Matrona Andreyevna reached Svir ... but more unfortunately could not remember anything ... old age ...



13. But Spirkovu Vassilyevna Taisiya, 86 years old, we found at the hospital on a drip.



14. A native of Vinnitsa. When the war started, she went with a friend to the regional center to help the wounded in hospital,
which brought down the river on a barge. And then there was work in hospitals Murmansk, Rybinsk and the Far East.
After the war, he came home to his parents. During his difficult life she lost all the relatives and left completely alone.



15. Peter A. Gurkin front of me was pleased with their health and a desire to live.



16. Despite its 86, he, too, during our visit, he worked in the garden.



17. At the beginning of the war he was evacuated from the winery in the village of Whom we are, and then how to sixteen -
a military point Shondovichi village.



18. He studied military science, was the youngest commander in the 43rd was sent to the front. In Lithuania, I was wounded.



19. After convalescence was the second Belarusian, Ukrainian and then the first.
Peter A. remembers meeting with the Americans on the Elbe, and the war ended in Berlin.



20. Seven years of compulsory military service - Germany, Hungary, Austria. He went to the front 17 and back 24
(with Insignias efreytorskuyu had to serve another year)



21. After the war, Peter A. received officer rank and was invited to work in the district committee of the Komsomol.
In a bright future does not believe, he is very worried about the grandchildren. Independently conducts economy, coping with any job.



22. Our last interlocutor was the Vashenko Maria Ivanovna, 86 years old.
She has a nice house and loving children - what more could you want old people.



23. She was born in Kislovodsk, when the war began she was seventeen. She graduated from medical courses, worked in hospitals.
Maria Ivanovna told war shook her across Russia and then Belarus, Poland and Germany.
I remember very well a meeting with allies on the Elbe ...



24. That ended my little trip to our veterans. Looking like a man in the ninth decade still do physical work - I wonder, have I mastered it? Military hardening felt throughout. They deserve our attention, but not pity. Let this small report will be a tribute to our generation to these people. May God grant them to meet more than one spring in its beautiful countryside.



Source: ">