Military love stories. War

We, the generation living in the 21st century, are accustomed to think of the Great Patriotic War as a feat of millions of people. Someone knows more about it, someone less, but for the majority it has already turned into pages of textbooks. But during the war, people not only performed feats, but simply lived: they met, loved and created families.

A funny and touching love story, however, already in the post-war period, is shown in the series Five Brides. Time of action - May 1945. The war has just ended, but the soldiers-liberators, who reached Berlin with victory, are in no hurry to let go home: the service for them continues. The brave fighter pilots are very upset by this circumstance, and most of all, the handsome Vadik Dobromyslov, who is eager to marry his pen pal, Nastya. When his comrade Lesha Kaverin is sent on a business trip to his homeland, Vadik asks him for a favor: sign Nastya on his behalf, according to his documents, and bring her to Berlin. While Lesha resists the persuasion of a colleague, several more comrades find out about this scam. And now the soldier has the task of marrying five girls. For everything about everything he has a day. Watch the TV series "Five Brides" on the MIR TV channel on June 17 at 10:10.

Of course, love during the war was not completely happy and cloudless. And yet, on the eve of the Day of the Great Patriotic War, we also decided to recall this human, and not the heroic side of wartime.

Sex question, or where can I kiss?

In the rear there were very few men and many young single women, at the front it was the other way around. And all the girls and women from the close male attention felt like real beauties. At the same time, there were not only courtship, but also novels, and great real feelings.

Here is what Olga Sergeevna Lugovaya, a native of Leningrad, told the correspondent of MIR 24, whose parents fought from 1941 to 1945:

“My mother was a signalman. And when the war started, she was already married. And her unmarried communicator friends flirted as best they could. But it was still very chaste, they did not allow anything superfluous either to themselves or to the men around them.

In those days, there was a completely different morality. No one flaunted his love, everything was very secret, hidden. It was impossible to walk down the street in an embrace. A public kiss was simply unthinkable. It got ridiculous: lovers came to the station, to any train, especially to kiss. Everyone there says goodbye, kisses, so it’s possible. And then the train leaves, and they stand.

Or on the stairs: you entered the entrance - you hear a rustling rustle. These two lovers shied away from each other. And there is no other place: everyone lived in communal apartments, several generations in a room.

Newlyweds - and they did not have their own rooms, their corner was fenced off with a screen. And for those who just met, there was no place to retire at all. Moreover, all this was considered as moral decay and was punishable along the Komsomol line. Therefore, young people took manifestations of love very seriously. Either everything is serious, and then get married, or no flirting!

However, nature took its toll. All these are not love stories, but rather, breathing, whispering, living every minute anew in memory, and long memories, and the pain of loss.

Photo: From the personal archive of G. Korotkevich

Costs of war

However, there were many cases when the romance ended with the war. For example, a man says that his family has disappeared. And it's true - evacuation. Sometimes there were front-line novels and new families were created. And after the war, often the former families were, and front-line love was left behind. Or vice versa - families, having barely found the father of the family alive, immediately lost him, since front-line love turned out to be stronger, brighter.

My mother's friend, - says Olga Sergeevna, - the signalman Raechka Lukatskaya corresponded with a certain Dima throughout the war. She dreamed that after the war they would get married. It was a beautiful romance. Then they met after the war, but there was still nowhere to live, and they just met. When his family was found and returned from the evacuation, he did not confess it to her. And one day she met him walking down the street with his family. And immediately crossed to the other side of the road. It was a terrible blow for her, she remained alone until the end of her life. It is still unknown whether he deliberately hid that his family was found, or for some other reason he could not explain himself to her in time. And there were many such stories.

Toilet theme

My mother's friends Adochka Swindler and Raechka Lukatskaya, the same ones who flirted with young guys at the front when the war ended, graduated from institutes, many went on to scientific work, became professors. And there was nothing at the front! Mom said, punning on the fact that they were Hell and Heaven, “I went through the whole war between hell and heaven, and I didn’t go there either.”

Since the lovers had no chance of seclusion, and the novels were played anyway, there were also oddities involved in the unsettled military life. Somehow, the unit where the signalmen served for a long time was located in a two-story building on the outskirts of Leningrad. The girls have four beds and a bucket in the room, because it is cold to run outside in winter, and the sewerage does not work. They took out the bucket one by one.

Everyone's watch ended at different times, and now one, Nina, had her watch over, and she had already gone to bed. And a young soldier by the name of Blinov came to her before lights out. He sits in the dark on her bed, kisses her hands, but things don’t go any further - and the girl is strict, and he himself understands that you won’t allow yourself anything.

Suddenly, another signalman flies in, and, not understanding the darkness, rips off her cotton trousers and sits down over the bucket. And Nina, in order to somehow save the situation, suddenly hugs the guy, draws him to her, presses her head to her chest so that he does not hear a sound! And, of course, it leaves you in complete bewilderment, where did such passion and impetuousness come from, if before it was only possible to secretly kiss fingers.

Sometimes they also poured this bucket right out the window when no one was looking. The window overlooked the backyard, where no one went. And then one of the girls, Raechka, bursts in and laughs so that she literally slides down the wall from laughter. It turns out that they were whispering under the window with the boyfriend, when suddenly the window opened and the characteristic tinny rattling of a bucket was heard. She barely had time to pull his sleeve with all her might, and hide with him around the corner. And he asks: “What are they, spilling tea?”.

Ada Svindler was unusually intelligent and sublime, and even then she remained the same: a doctor of science at the Academy of Arts, all the bohemia of St. Petersburg visited her at home. Here they had a terribly nasty commander who, as an educational study, forced her to carry out a bucket of feces after him. And she - in any! Earned several orders out of turn for disobedience.

And then my mother says: “So, let’s go past him together now, we’ll march decorously with this bucket, let him be ashamed himself. Moreover, we will say to everyone we meet: take care, we are carrying the toilet of a comrade commander!

Photo: Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

Scouting and bathing negligee

In general, the discipline was more than serious, and the service of the signalmen was not sugar. They went to outfits on the front lines, under fire, and to reconnaissance into enemy territory. They dragged a coil of wire behind them, clung to an enemy connection, and, unwinding the coil, returned back.

Once my mother was in intelligence. And suddenly there was a solar eclipse, and she lost all her bearings, because the shadows disappeared and everything began to look different. She was very frightened, because she was on Finnish territory, and falling into the hands of the Finns was worse than the Germans - they were terribly fierce, skinned from the living. But it worked out, she rested until the end of the eclipse and was able to complete the task and return.

And once a friend of my mother with one of the young signalmen was returning from reconnaissance and already not far from their unit they decided to swim, because they were walking past the lake, and it was very hot. In fact, this is a crime, for which they could be punished very seriously. From reconnaissance, it is supposed to go straight to the unit. In order not to embarrass each other, they decided to swim on different sides of the lake, although now such conventions may seem strange. She did not know how to swim and was mistaken: she did not understand that the bottom goes sharply into the depths. But he only heard a splash, and he thinks: wow, how he dives! No and no. Then, when he caught himself, he barely pulled it out. And still not a single extra touch, although the situation was more than conducive to intimacy. And they are 19 years old, and there they were in love with any girl, because there were few girls on the front line. And he, poor thing, only thought about that, so that she would not let anyone in the unit know that they bathed in violation of military discipline.

family at war

His parents met a few years before the war, he came from Riga to Leningrad to visit relatives. There were almost no courtship, he immediately said "marry me." Went and signed. I was born in 1939. Dad loved and was jealous of mom, I realized this later when I grew up.

Dad came with troops to Austria, mom served in the group of troops of the Volkhov direction. And I, two years old, stayed with my not yet old grandmother, who was only 48 years old, in besieged Leningrad. My grandmother died of starvation during the first blockade winter. But no one was going to demobilize my mother - they only let her go for a few days, to place her daughter in the first nursery that came across.

I remember how I sit there and cry - I want to go home. And the children surrounded me and sang a song:

You go home
There sits a lame man.
He dries his shoes
He will choke you.

From such a promise, I immediately lost the desire to go home. Then she took root and lived in this kindergarten, which had already become an orphanage, until the end of the war. I remember that because of the bombing, all the ceilings in the garden were cracked. From the drawing of these cracks on the ceiling, I composed such castles, such pictures, something fantastic! And the ceilings without cracks seemed unusually boring to me. I thought: “how can you live here, with such uninteresting ceilings?”

Once every four months, my mother was released from the unit to visit me. She took me home just for one night. And then I started getting hungry. Mom was called to take me to die at home, because it was impossible to allow a fatal outcome in the kindergarten. And she took me to the front. There, everyone honestly pretended that there was no girl here, since the child was not supposed to be in the unit. They fed me a little there, and I survived.

I remember the room where the female signalmen lived, the round table at which they prepared for political studies. I walked around this room, and then suddenly I was frightened of my shadow. And they explained to me what a shadow is and showed me funny pictures on the wall. And I, enriched by this knowledge, returned back to the kindergarten. I remember my mother's tunic, overcoat on the belt, and how I touched the belt badge with my knees when she carried me in her arms.

Military secret and maiden honor

A completely different girl, named Olga Martyanova, who served at the headquarters, said that everything was strict with them with love: they flirted, but she reached Berlin as a girl. Although this did not stop her from being a terrible mother-in-law.

All the girls at the headquarters lived in the same room and made fun of each other, of course. Olga told me that in the corner of the room there was a basin of water under the washbasin, and every morning her felt boots for some reason floated in this basin. Once she spoke so three-story about this that the girls complained to the commander that Olya Martyanova was using foul language.

Olga liked this commander very much. He put all the girls in a circle, and says: “Olya, get up and tell us all what kind of words you say that girls complain about you.” She, of course, stood crimson, and did not utter a word, and when they all returned to the room and were left alone, she besieged everyone even more intricately than before.

Olga also had very good handwriting. There was no copying equipment then, and she copied all the important documents at the headquarters in her beautiful handwriting. She moved along with the headquarters following the advancing troops across Europe. Then she proudly said that she kept all secret documents in secret and inviolability, as well as her maiden honor.

A lifelong romance

True love also happened at the front, which connected people for life. Linkova Lyudmila Davidovna, who was born in besieged Leningrad in 1944, told the correspondent of "MIR" the story of just such love of her parents.

When the war began, her mother Nina Artamonova was 19 years old. They, the students, were sent to dig trenches and then were not taken out of the front line. They walked home as best they could. It turned out that her mother managed to take her two younger children out of the encirclement line and left them in the village. She herself returned for her eldest daughter to Leningrad. Nina took a truck driving course to earn enough money to pay for her work bread card. She worked at a car depot, along with men. The work was very hard: the motor depot also served the Road of Life. Mom also drove along this legendary road, but only twice. And then an instruction came out that forbade sending girls there.

My father was from Cherkasy, he graduated from the Kharkov Road Institute in 1939 and came to work in Kronstadt. He served as the head of the motor depot, which was transferred to Leningrad during the Finnish War. Later, this motor depot was combined with a military unit, they added road equipment: bulldozers, graders, dump trucks. The car depot was assigned the number of a military unit. Mom was a civilian driver among many of his subordinates. But they didn't see each other right away.

Somehow, my mother and girlfriend Grusha were guilty, and the boss, my dad, called them to his place “for dressing”. It was under such circumstances that they met. She later admitted that her boss simply struck her: he was handsome and respectable. And they ran in, girls of 19 years old, and froze in the middle of the room - they were confused. And all the excitement is gone. He scolded them for something, and then slowly began to track mom's routes and find out if she returned to the base on time, if something had happened to her.

Green lamp and rations on the table

The period of courtship was not long, and it was not customary then to meet secretly, and once there was a war, everyone fell down from fatigue.

Dad sent people every day to where they might never return, and Mom was among them. They met in September 1942. And in November they got married.

The head of the motor depot was given a room in a four-story house at the motor depot. There he invited the future mother-in-law for acquaintance and matchmaking. They came with their mother on foot, in the rain. “Rain, cold, galoshes in clay. We enter, and he has a green table lamp and food on the table! ”, Mom’s mother later told her grandchildren. Grandmother, who at that time was still not at all an old woman, was impressed by what a prominent groom her daughter had: young, with a military bearing, reliable and strong-willed.

She was shocked that he immediately invited them both to live in his room, and that he put on the table all his carefully saved officer rations: bread, canned food, real tea and sugar.

It was both matchmaking and marriage - all at the same time. They sat at the table, solemnly talking about the fact that they decided to get married, and the next day he took them both with all the property that fit in one suitcase and a blanket, in which grandmother tied some things.

The parents kept their love story so secret, it was so not customary to talk about feelings, that they would be very surprised if they were offered to tell about the romance of the relationship. All this generation were people of action. But they loved each other very much, it was evident! Such tenderness was between them! But sometimes they teased each other.

Child as a blockade miracle

In January 1944 they had a daughter, me. The baby weighed only 1 kg 800 g. There were very few women in labor in besieged Leningrad. The maternity hospital was located on Okhta, the winter was frosty, the glass in the windows was broken during the bombing, so the windows were plugged with mattresses and everyone lived in one room in order to somehow warm up. And, in fact, the women in labor had almost no milk, since everyone was exhausted to the limit.

Milk, as much as anyone had, was pumped into one kettle, which stood on a table in the middle of the ward. From it they poured a little bit to all the babies, and the rest of the time they did this: chewed black bread, tied in gauze, this gauze was dipped in breast milk and such a home-made nipple was stuffed into the mouth of hungry babies, who did not even scream from weakness, but only squeaked a little .

My mother and I stayed at the maternity hospital until April. Women in labor were kept there for a very long time in order to somehow get out babies. But all this time they weren’t swaddled: it’s cold and still there is no cloth for diapers, no water to wash them, no chance to dry them in such a cold.

Therefore, at home, when the child was turned around, it turned out that he had practically no skin! One big piece of bleeding. Dad rushed, found a famous homeopathic doctor, Dr. Grekova. She gave a black, like tar, odorous ointment and warned that it did not wash off - all diapers soiled with it should be thrown away. And then the entire motor depot began to collect undershirts, sheets, pieces of fabric - what anyone had left. Everyone knew that the chief had a child, and everyone was carrying what they could. They came, brought them and stood on the threshold: everyone wanted to see this miracle - a child born in the middle of the blockade in the winter of 1944!

And gradually a thin pink film began to grow on the sides and back of the child - the future skin. So I stayed alive.

After the war

At the end of the war, my father's unit went along with the advancing troops across the Baltic. They ensured the construction of temporary bridges, crossings, gates for the advancement of all military equipment. They participated in the assault on Koenigsberg and from there part of them were recalled to serve in the newly occupied Revel - Tallinn.

Mom stayed in Leningrad. In 1945 she had a boy, my brother. And only after the war in 1946, dad took the whole family to Tallinn. My first post-war memory is very bright green grass and lots of yellow dandelions.

Dad always solemnly brought home rations. I remember a wooden suitcase, knocked down with small carnations, in which he brought flour in a linen bag, a block of butter, and canned food. I remember the first sweets in my life on November 7 - they were multi-colored dragees, very beautiful, my brother and I felt sorry for eating them. Mom in 1948 went to work as an announcer on the radio - she read the news in Russian.

My father served for 25 years in the ground forces as part of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet, then retired with the rank of engineer-colonel, and worked for 13 years in the Estonian Ministry of Construction. Mom raised the children, and when we graduated from school, she went to study herself - she graduated from the Faculty of History and Philology, worked in the editorial offices of several newspapers and magazines. So they lived all their lives in Estonia. And even many years later, they treated each other very tenderly and were surrounded by many friends: colleagues, blockade survivors - they gathered together for all the holidays, prepared a table in clubbing, sang songs, and held on to each other very much.

When there is war, you feel everything for real, especially when you love... Memories of love at the front from women who fought, from the books of Svetlana Aleksievich and Artem Drapkin.

Nina Ilinskaya, senior sergeant, nurse

“... Of course, there, at the front, love was different. Everyone knew that you can love now, and in a minute this person may not be. After all, probably, when we love in peaceful conditions, we do not look from such positions. Our love did not have today, tomorrow ... If we loved, then we loved. In any case, there could be no insincerity there, because very often our love ended in a plywood star on the grave ... "

Sofya Kriegel, senior sergeant, sniper

“Leaving for the front, each of us took an oath: there will be no novels there. Everything will be, if we survive, after the war. And before the war, we did not even have time to kiss. We looked at these things more strictly than today's young people. Kissing for us was - to fall in love for life. At the front, love was, as it were, forbidden, if the command recognized it, as a rule, one of the lovers was transferred to another part, simply separated. We took care of her. We didn't keep our childhood vows... We loved... I think that if I hadn't fallen in love during the war, I wouldn't have survived. Love saved. She saved me…”

Vera Shevaldysheva, military surgeon

“At one of our recent front-line meetings, a man admitted to me that he remembers my young smile, as he now remembers the smile of his little grandson. This is the most precious thing in his life. And for me it was an ordinary wounded man, I didn’t even remember him. When he told me this, I blushed like a girl. Agree that people do not often say such sincerity to each other. But when we remember the war, we are more sincere than ever ... "

Efrosinya Breus, captain, doctor
“My husband and I went to the front. Together.
I forgot a lot. Though I remember every day...
The battle was over... I couldn't believe the silence. He stroked the grass with his hands, the grass is soft... And he looked at me. I watched ... With such eyes ... "Go to bed." - "It's a pity to sleep."
And such a sharp feeling ... Such love ... My heart is breaking ...
... We were already going through East Prussia, everyone was already talking about the Victory. He died ... He died instantly ... From a fragment ... Instant death. Second. They told me that they had been brought, I ran... I hugged him, I didn't let him pick him up. Bury….
In the morning ... I decided that I would take him home. To Belarus. And this is several thousand kilometers. Military roads ... Confusion ... Everyone thought that I had gone crazy from grief. “You must calm down. You need to sleep." Not! Not! I went from one general to another, so I got to the commander of the front, Rokossovsky. At first he refused ... Well, some kind of crazy! How many have already been buried in mass graves, lie in a foreign land ...
Once again I made an appointment with him:
Do you want me to kneel before you?
-I understand you... But he's already dead...
I don't have any children from him. Our house burned down. Even the photos are gone. There is nothing. If I bring him home, at least the grave will remain. And I will have somewhere to return after the war.
Silent. Walks around the office. Walks.
Have you ever been in love, Comrade Marshal? I'm not burying my husband, I'm burying love.
Silent.
“Then I want to die here too.” Why should I live without it?
He was silent for a long time. Then he came up and kissed my hand.
I was given a special plane for one night. I entered the plane ... I hugged the coffin ... And lost consciousness ... "

Anna Michelet, medical instructor
“We were alive, and love was alive .... It used to be a big shame - they said to us: PZh, a field, mobile wife. They said that we were always abandoned. Nobody left anyone!
My marriage was illegal for half a year, but we lived with him for 60 years ... I came to his dugout in February 1944.
– How did you go? he asks.
-Usually.
In the morning he says:
-Come on, I'll walk you.
-No need.
- No, I'll accompany you.
We went out, and all around it was written: "Mines, mines, mines." It turns out that I went to him through a minefield. And passed."

“The commander of a reconnaissance company fell in love with me. He sent notes through his soldiers. I went to see him once for a date. “No,” I say. “I love a man who has been dead for a long time.” He moved so close to me, looked straight into my eyes, turned around and left. They shot, but he walked and did not even bend down ...
Then, it was already in Ukraine, we liberated a large village. I think: "Let me walk, I'll see." The weather was bright, the huts were white. And outside the village so - graves, fresh land ... Those who died in the battle for this village were buried there. I don't know, how it drew me. And there is a photograph on the board and a surname. On every grave... And suddenly I see a familiar face... The commander of a company of scouts, who confessed his love to me. And his last name ... And I felt so uneasy. Fear of such strength... Budo he sees me, as if he were alive...
At this time, his guys from his company are going to the grave. They all knew me, they carried notes to me. No one looked at me as if I wasn't there. I am invisible. Then, when I met them, it seems to me ... That's what I think ... They wanted me to die too. It was hard for them to see that I was ... alive ... So I felt ... As if I were to blame for them ... And before him ... "

Nina Vishnevskaya, foreman, medical officer of the tank battalion
“Only recently did I learn the details of the death of Tonya Bobkova. She shielded a loved one from a fragment of a mine. Fragments fly - these are some fractions of a second ... How did she manage? She saved Lieutenant Petya Boychevsky, she loved him. And he stayed alive.
Thirty years later, Petya Boychevsky came from Krasnodar and found me at our front-line meeting, and told me all this. We went with him to Borisov and found the clearing where Tonya died. He took the earth from her grave… Carried and kissed…”.

Nina Afanasyeva, foreman of the women's reserve rifle regiment

“The chief of staff was Senior Lieutenant Boris Shesterenkin. He is only two years older than me.
And so he began, as they say, to make claims against me, to pester me endlessly ... And I say that I did not go to the front in order to get married or have some kind of love, I came to fight!
When Gorovtsev was my commander, he always told him: “Leave the foreman! Don't touch her!" and under the new commander of the chief of staff, he completely disbanded, began to pester me endlessly. I sent it to three letters. And he told me: "Five days." I turned around and said: “I obey, five days!” That's all.
She came to the company commander (the women had already come as company commanders): “Five days in the guardhouse” - “For what? Why?"
And I just: “Take the direction,” and she herself took off her belt, took off her shoulder straps, everything was narrower. I go to the company and say: "Girls, take rifles - I'm to lead the guardhouse."
Well, everyone went crazy: “How is it? Why?!" We had such a Baranova, and now I tell her: "Let's go." And she is in tears. I say: “An order is an order. Get a rifle!"...
In the evening, the clerk brings me a pillow and a blanket. She puts them in the evening for me and says: “Shesterenkin sent me,” and I say: “Bring the pillow and blanket back to him and tell him to put it under his ass.” I was stubborn then! »

Tamara Ovsyannikova, signalman

“Valya Stukalova served as a medical instructor for us. She dreamed of becoming a singer. She had a very good voice and such a figure ... Blonde, interesting, blue-eyed. We became friends with her a little. She participated in amateur performances. Before breaking the blockade, they traveled with performances in parts. Our destroyers "Brave" and "Brave" were stationed on the Neva. They fired at the Ivanovskaya area. The sailors invited our amateur performances to perform at their place. Valya sang, and she was accompanied by a foreman or midshipman from the destroyer Bobrov Modest, originally from the city of Pushkin. Valya liked him very much. In the same Krasnoborsk sack where I was wounded, Valya was also wounded in the thigh. Her leg was amputated. When Modest found out about this, he asked the commander of the ship to go on vacation to Leningrad. I found out which hospital she was in. I have no idea where, but he got flowers, today you can order flowers delivery, but at that time they didn’t even hear about it! In general, I came to the hospital with this bouquet of roses and handed these flowers to Valya. He knelt down and asked for her hand .... They have three children. Two sons and a daughter."

Lyubov Grozd, medical instructor
"My first kiss...
Junior Lieutenant Nikolai Belokhvostik ... Oh, look, I blushed all over, and already my grandmother. And then there were the young years. Young. I thought ... I was sure ... That ... I did not admit to anyone, even to my girlfriend, that I was in love with him. Over the ears. My first love... Maybe the only one? Who knows ... I thought: no one in the company guesses. I've never liked anyone like this before! If you liked it, then not so much. And he ... I went and thought about him constantly, every minute. What... It was true love. I felt. All signs... Ay, look, she blushed...
We buried him… He was lying on a raincoat, he had just been killed. The Germans are firing at us. It is necessary to bury quickly... Right now... We found old birch trees, chose the one that stood at a distance from the old oak. The biggest. Near it ... I tried to remember so that I could return and find this place later. Here the village ends, here is a fork ... But how to remember? How to remember if one birch is already burning before our eyes ... How? They began to say goodbye ... They say to me: “You are the first!” My heart jumped, I realized ... What ... Everyone, it turns out, knows about my love. Everyone knows… The thought hit: maybe he knew? Here... He lies... Now they will lower him into the ground... They will bury him. They'll cover it with sand... But I was terribly glad at this thought, which, perhaps, he also knew. What if he liked me too? As if he is alive and will answer me something now ... I remembered how on New Year's Eve he gave me a German chocolate bar. I didn’t eat it for a month, I carried it in my pocket.
Now it doesn’t reach me, I remember all my life ... This moment ... Bombs are flying ... He ... Lies on a raincoat ... This moment ... And I rejoice ... I stand and smile to myself. Abnormal. I am glad that he, perhaps, knew about my love ...
She came over and kissed him. Never kissed a man before… It was the first…”

Olga Omelchenko, medical officer of a rifle company

“They brought the wounded, completely bandaged, he had a wound in the head, he could barely see. A little. But, apparently, I reminded him of someone, he addresses me: “Larisa ... Larisa ... Lorochka ...” Apparently, the girl he loved. I know that I have never met this comrade, but he calls me. I approached, I don’t understand, I’m looking at everything. "You've come? You've come?" I took his hands, bent down… “I knew that you would come…” He whispers something, I can't understand what he is saying. And now I can’t tell, when I remember this incident, tears break through. “I,” he says, “when I went to the front, I didn’t have time to kiss you. Kiss me…” And so I leaned over him and kissed him. A tear jumped out of his eye and floated into the bandages, hid. And that's all. He died…"

Zinaida Ivanova, signalman
“In 1944, when they broke through and lifted the blockade of Leningrad, the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts merged. We liberated Veliky Novgorod, the Pskov region, went to the Baltic. When Riga was liberated, there was a time of calm before the battle, we arranged songs and dances, and pilots from the airfield came to us. I danced with one. There was strict discipline: at 10 o'clock the foreman commanded the "lights out", and the soldiers lined up for testing. The boys said goodbye to the girls and left. The soldier we danced with asks, "What's your name?" - "Zina". “Zina, let’s exchange addresses. Maybe the war will end, we will stay alive, we will meet? I gave him my grandmother's address...
After the war, working as a pioneer leader, I come home, I look, my grandmother is standing at the window, smiling. I think: "What is it?" I open the door, there is a pilot Anatoly, with whom we danced. He ended the war in Berlin, kept the address and came. When we signed with him, I was 19, and he was 23 years old. So I ended up in Moscow, and we lived together all our lives.

Already at 7.00 on May 9, the telethon “Our Victory” begins, and the evening will end with a grandiose festive concert “VICTORY. ONE FOR ALL”, which will start at 20.30. The concert was attended by Svetlana Loboda, Irina Bilyk, Natalia Mogilevskaya, Zlata Ognevich, Viktor Pavlik, Olga Polyakova and other popular Ukrainian pop stars.

Evdokia and Adam

In February 1945, my grandmother, Evdokia Pavlovna Potapova, was summoned to the Novo-Borisov military enlistment office. An employee of the military registration and enlistment office reported that her husband (my grandfather), Sinyak Adam Petrovich, died a heroic death in battle in East Prussia on January 16, 1945, and handed over a death notice. Grandmother only laughed in response to such news. She said that he was alive, and in front of everyone tore up this notice. Naturally, when they saw this, the employees of the military enlistment office thought that after such a message, the grandmother had gone crazy with grief.

5 years ago, I learned about the site, which contains archival documents about those who died during the Great Patriotic War. Not hoping for anything, I entered grandfather's data and really found a copy of that same notice.

Nevertheless, to assert that grandfather is alive, grandmother had every reason.

On January 16, 1945, in the battles for the liberation of the city of Koenigsberg, grandfather was seriously wounded. As the grandfather himself said, after the battle, as a rule, there was a sanitary brigade, which provided assistance to the wounded and carried them out of the battlefield. And the other fighters who were killed were buried in a common grave. The orderlies considered the grandfather dead. But just at the moment when he was being prepared for burial, one of the fighters exclaimed: "Boys, what are you doing! He's alive!"

This is how the future fate of grandfather was determined, this is how his new life began.

Then followed a long journey from East Prussia to a hospital in the Urals, to the city of Irbit. This path ran through the city of Novo-Borisov, where my grandmother lived with her little daughter Nina, who was born in September 1941, not far from the railway station. The ambulance train, which was moving with wounded soldiers to the Urals, stopped for a while at the Novo-Borisov station. Grandfather asked a boy who was running past a friend to tell his grandmother that he was being taken to the hospital and he wanted to meet. At this time, my grandmother was seriously ill with typhus and was just beginning to recover.

Having learned that her grandfather was passing by at the station, she ran with all her might to meet her husband, although running is probably a loud word, since her legs did not obey at all. It is not known how long the grandmother got to the station, how long she was looking for her husband among a dozen cars, but nevertheless, by the will of fate, she found him. Grandma and grandpa just had time to hug, when the locomotive whistle blew and the train started moving ...

This meeting took place shortly before the notice of his death was received. As you understand, that is why my grandmother had such a reaction to the "funeral".

Grandfather underwent treatment at the Irbit city hospital for almost a year, after which he finally returned home.

Married in November 1940, fully knowing the cold, hunger, separation, grandfather and grandmother lived together for almost 60 years, raised and raised three children, were able to caress six grandchildren, and waited for great-grandchildren.

In March 2000, my grandfather passed away, and after 8 years, my grandmother also passed away.

Their relationship was and remains for me an example of what a family should be. They did not say many words about love, but they always treated each other with infinite reverence, but we, their grandchildren, constantly felt their attention, care and kindness.

Ivan and Valentina

(story of Larisa Kokhanovskaya)

Since childhood, the word "Victory" for me stood next to the epithet "Great". Because they survived, because they survived, because they saved lives. Because if there was no Victory, there would be neither me nor my daughter.

And today, more than ever, I understand how little my daughter and I know about our family victory and how much we still have to learn, and then save for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren, so that our land will always have peace and tranquility.

... On June 22, 1941, a war burst into the peaceful life of our country, crossing out the dreams and hopes of millions of people. Ivan Naumenko was then only 17 years old. In the Gorodok district, where Ivan lived, as in all others, the mobilization of those liable for military service into the Red Army immediately began. But no matter how he asked, they did not take him to the front. Ivan looked with envy at his older brother Dmitry when he went to the front. Then, to a teenage boy, war seemed something heroic, when you win victory after victory over and over again. But in reality, the war turned out to be completely different ...

Dmitry was the eldest in their family - his father died a long time ago. The family did not live so prosperously: a cow, a pig, and sheep, they plowed the field, and a good owner always has a good harvest. Is there a lot of wealth?

But in accordance with the decrees of the Soviet government, the family was recognized as prosperous, and there was only one verdict: "Dispossess kulak." They took cows and sheep. Somehow the head of the family could not put up with everything later ... And so he burned out from illness and injustice.

Now Ivan remained for the eldest - in his arms was a sister and two little brothers ... There was only one way out for him - to join the partisans. Moreover, at that time a fighter battalion was operating in the native Gorodok region and the partisan movement was just beginning.

The year flew by quickly. Ivan then often recalled how in the late autumn he swam across Lake Losvido, carrying weapons and a walkie-talkie to the partisans. There was no fear, only it was very cold ... When his strength was running out, he told himself that he had no right to let him down, because they were waiting for him on the other side, and - he swam!

Exactly February 21, 1942, on his birthday, Ivan went to war. Thus began the path of the soldier Ivan Naumenko. Having measured almost the whole of Europe with his boots, he will be among the Winners who reached the roads of the war to Berlin. But this will be only after a long four years.

... The war also deprived my grandmother of her youth: she burst into the life of the 16-year-old girl Valya Muravyova with shell explosions, screams and pain. Almost immediately, she fell under the "grabber" - as the locals called the deportation of young people to Germany. These "grabbers" were expected with special fear: daughters and sons were taken away from their mothers, and it was not certain whether they would meet again. As soon as they heard the cries of "grabber-grabber is coming," the youth took off and ran wherever their eyes looked. Valya always succeeded, but then, that day, she did not have time. It was already after the war that she learned that her native village was burned along with the inhabitants ...

Throughout the war, Koenigsberg will become a place of refuge for her. Here, for the first time, she will fully understand how terrible the war is, how terrible Nazism is, but at the same time - how many good people there are among the Germans. Here she will meet her fate.

They, teenage girls, were assigned to an institute where the Nazis conducted experiments on people. They didn’t do anything terrible to her: Valya washed cones and jars, donated blood once a week. A diligent and polite girl was noticed by one Frau - from the doctors - and took her to her maid.

Here, at Koenigsberg, Ivan was wounded. So I had to stay in the hospital for some time: these few months, while saving his injured leg, became the happiest for him. The hospital is located in an old German house. The heat was strong, so the windows were always open. One morning he heard how, somewhere very close by, a thin girlish voice brought out "Katyusha went ashore, on a high bank on a steep ...". This voice has become a symbol of hope, hope for victory! Ivan now knew for sure that he must survive and rise to his feet in order to see her, this girl, who, somewhere in a neighboring house, sings songs dear to her heart. As soon as Ivan was able to stand on crutches, he immediately decided to find the owner of a wonderful voice.

... She was very thin, a huge blond braid wrapped around her head. The girl's name was Valya, and, as it turned out, they were from neighboring villages from the Vitebsk region, but they met here, in Koenigsberg. Ivan then wrote long letters to Valentina, she always answered. And as soon as she sealed the envelope, she immediately began to wait for the next letter, all wondering how it was, where her Vanechka was.

Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, battle after battle. During the war years, you can get used to everything. Only the goal always remains the goal - for the freedom of their relatives, their land.

Vanya was already on the outskirts of Berlin. That April morning he remembered forever: it seemed that everything was already behind him, and he so wanted to go home ... A temporary respite between fights made it possible to breathe in the spring air with all his chest. Suddenly he heard: "Ivan!". He turned and saw his own eyes, the eyes of his older brother. There was no time for long conversations. "Soon, very soon we will be at home, brother, and we will drink a cup with you at our own table!" Ivan said goodbye. Dmitry looked at him for a long time: "You take care of our people, and take care of my son. Very soon." They hugged goodbye...

Only a few years later Ivan will bring a funeral. She will wander around the cities and villages for a long time until she finds her addressee. It will contain only a few words: "Soldier Dmitry Grigorievich Naumenko died in the battle for the capture of Berlin." So Ivan will carry through his whole life the covenant of his older brother and his long, such a native look - they did not meet ...

While the soldiers were waiting for demobilization, Ivan began looking for his sister and brothers. It turned out that back in 1942 they were lucky enough to jump out of the train that was taking them to Germany. So they ended up in the town of Oshmyany, they worked throughout the war in the village of Yagilovshchina in the "parubki". Ivan returned to them in Oshmyany.

Vali's father, by some supreme coincidence, also ended up in Oshmyany after the war. Valya returned from the war with a small suitcase. The good frau folded some of her dresses for her. So he stood, this suitcase, then at the door for many, many years, reminding of human kindness and the fragility of the world. Many years later, Valentina's daughter, already a teenager, opened her suitcase and gasped: there, as in a movie about three nuts for Cinderella, there were crimped dresses that were just coming into fashion in the USSR - such a gift from the war.

Having met after the war in Oshmyany, Ivan and Valya never parted. Having lived together for more than 50 years, they retained not only love, memory, loyalty, but also Katyusha, which wove their destinies into one.

Here, in Oshmyany, Ivan and Valya raised two children, got grandchildren.

And when the family gathered at one table, the main toast was the words: "So that there is no war." Over time, of course, they are already losing their former relevance, and the modern generation, until recently, treated them with a bit of irony. But more recently, these words have again acquired a very important, deep meaning.

God bless us all - do not repeat! May the sky over native Belarus always be peaceful!

George and Danuta

I remember how in childhood, climbing on my knees to my beloved grandmother, sitting in an armchair, I begged her to tell the story of her acquaintance with her grandfather, with whom she lived in love and harmony for more than fifty years. And here's what I found out...

My grandfather, Georgy Vlasovich Pogorelov, born in 1916, met the Great Patriotic War as a career artilleryman on June 22, 1941 in Sevastopol. In 1936, he entered the Sevastopol School of Anti-Aircraft Artillery, from which he graduated with honors in 1938 and was left at the school as a course commander with the rank of lieutenant for training.

From the first day of the war, he took an active part in organizing the air defense of the city. It was necessary to combine the training of cadets of the school during the day with the reflection of night attacks by enemy aircraft. Soon the school was transferred near Ufa, and grandfather, after repeated reports, was sent to the army. The commander of a separate anti-aircraft battery on the Southwestern Front, the division commander of the regiment of the RGC of the Moscow Defense Zone, the senior assistant to the head of the air defense department of the group of General Khozin, the deputy commander of the regiment on the Bryansk Front - this is a brief summary of his battle path until June 10, 1944, when, by order of the command, he was sent to the 1st Belorussian Front by the commander of the anti-aircraft regiment of the Polish Army, when units of the Red Army entered the territory of Poland.

My grandmother, nee Senyut Danuta Bronislavovna, born in 1925, was born in a large family in Poland and lost her parents early. In 1939, after the annexation of Western Belarus, five sisters and brothers were sent to an orphanage in the North Kazakhstan region. The times were difficult. Grandmother was the eldest, and in order to feed the kids, she went to work on a collective farm, and in March 1943 she voluntarily joined the army and was sent to the emerging 1st Kosciuszko Polish Division in the Moscow region. At first there were three-month nursing courses, but the fragile girl was sent to signalmen, believing that she would not be able to pull the wounded from the battlefield - her sister was too small.

She received her baptism of fire in the battle near Lenino in the Mogilev region in October 1943 as a telephone operator at the combat switchboard of the division artillery headquarters.

Then there were battles for the cities of Kholm, Lublin, Pulawy and Warsaw Prague. In September 1944, she was transferred to the combat switchboard of the commander of the 1st Polish Army. It was here that the combat commander of the anti-aircraft regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Pogorelov G.V., noticed the young signalman. and asked to be sent to his regiment. Since then, they have walked the military roads shoulder to shoulder. There were battles for the liberation of Warsaw, Bydgoszcz, Flatow, Jastrow, Deutsch-Krone, Falkenburg and Kolberg, and then the encirclement and capture of Berlin.

The battles died down, the salutes died down ... It was then that my grandparents decided to formalize their relationship, because earlier there were fears for each other's lives. But love protected them. By order of a superior commander, they were declared husband and wife.

I am especially touched by the story of how grandfather proposed to his grandmother to become his wife: there was a pocket watch on the table in front of the grandmother on duty, and grandfather asked if they agreed to the marriage to move it to him, and if not ... So be it.

And the clock began to slowly move towards the grandfather. Such highly moral and at the same time naive relations were then!

During the years of already peaceful life in marriage, the grandfather and grandmother had three beautiful daughters.

This couple will forever remain for me a bright and kind example of personal relationships built on mutual understanding, mutual respect and love. And although they are no longer with us, looking at a family photo where they are young, in military uniform, with awards on their chests, smiling at the lens, I again and again relive the years of their life together with them and ask them to give me the necessary advice. And on the wall under their portraits hang awards for feats of arms and valiant peaceful labor.

It can rightly be said that the whole geography of Europe sometimes rings with orders and medals on the chest of veterans. The feat of our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers will forever remain in our hearts. And I am proud that among them were my grandparents.

Alexey and Olga

My grandfather Alexei served before the start of the war in the Far East. Just before the war, the tank troops, where he served, were transferred to the border of Poland with Belarus. The war began, and, unfortunately, grandfather was captured very quickly, but he got one chance in a million - grandfather escaped. And, of course, he moved into the forests of the Vitebsk region - to the partisans.

And grandmother Olga was just born near Vitebsk and spent her youth there. After that she moved to Minsk and lived in the area of ​​the current automobile plant, and worked at that plant.

They might not have met their grandfather, but when the war began, Olga returned to her relatives near Vitebsk. There she became a liaison and helped the partisans a lot. So they met Alexei, but then, of course, there was no time for dates and romance - they were connected only by short meetings to transfer information.

So Alexei partisans until the Germans began to retreat. He drove the fascists along with our army. So he reached Minsk and stayed there to rebuild the city. He was given one of the free apartments at the factory where he got a job.

Time passed, and the grandfather kept thinking about how to find him that partisan liaison girl. He didn't even know her last name!

But fate is there. One day the door opened and the same girl, about whom Aleksey so often thought and regretted that the meetings were so short, entered, as if to her home.

Olga really lived in that apartment at the factory, which Alexei occupied, before the war. I decided to return to Minsk, arrived at the old housing, came in - and there he was, the same partisan. "Irony of Fate" - only wartime.

A year later, a daughter (my mother) was born, after that - my mother's younger sister, so they lived in perfect harmony until the end of their days. Their meeting was definitely not accidental, and I always remember this when I hear the word "fate".

Read the second part of the material tomorrow - on Victory Day!

Love and humanity are the best qualities! It would seem that talking about them when there are many military conflicts around is not relevant. However, it is in war that humanity is tested. It is war that brings out the best and worst qualities in people. But today we will not talk about the bad. Today we will tell you about unusual military stories of love and humanity, almost fabulous

STORY #1

Stavropol residents Varvara and Ivan Repin both went through the war: she was a nurse, he was a signalman.

Military love stories. In the army of General Vlasov

Ivan Repin was born in the village of Blagodarnoye. Since childhood, he dreamed of becoming a pilot. When he finished ten classes, he went to enter Kharkov, but despite good exam marks, they did not take him. Only many years later he found out why. His brother was condemned as an "enemy of the people" and sent to a camp. The wives of Molotov and Kalinin also sat in the same camp.
After the exams, Ivan returned to his native Stavropol and began working as a primary school teacher.
- I remember, only young girls worked at school as teachers, - Ivan Efremovich tells. “We didn’t deal with the hooligans. So they gave me a prefabricated class of hooligans to guide me. All recovered. True, I worked at the school for only a year.
1939 participated in the Finnish War. After her, in the 40th, I nevertheless entered, but already at the Stalingrad Military School of Communications. As soon as the war began, all studies ended. I was called to the front.
Ivan Repin fought in the famous 2nd shock army under the command of General Vlasov. In the winter of 1942, it was tasked to break through the blockade of Leningrad, but the army fell into a German encirclement.

There were hard times. They ate all the horses, and then they dug up their bones and ate them. Then many soldiers died of hunger. True, ours helped: they dropped ammunition and crackers on planes. As they fell, sacks of crackers were torn against branches, and their contents were scattered. One of the platoon commanders was seen gathering and eating crackers. They immediately decided to shoot. Although, as a military man, he was a hero and has already shown his best side many times. Before being shot, he was asked about his last wish. He asked for a smoke. He was given a piece of newspaper and tobacco. As he began to roll up his cigarette, he saw a note stating that he had been rewarded for his bravery. He burst into tears and he, as a hero, was pardoned ...
By that time, I had already realized that we couldn’t get out of the encirclement, and I asked my commander that I and 25 other people go for a breakthrough. He gave the go-ahead and presented the banner of our battalion, which one of the soldiers wrapped around his belt. It was only later that I realized why this was necessary. After all, if the banner is preserved, then the battalion, as it were, is alive, even if only one person remains from the battalion. We waited for darkness and moved on. We walked through the swamps, which were fired upon by the Germans. When they opened fire, we almost completely went under water. One was lost. Until now, I think that he just chickened out and lagged behind. First, the sounds of shooting were in front, then around us, and when they left behind, we realized that we had managed to break through. From the whole army, besides us, a few more people got out of the encirclement.

Having reached their own, Ivan and his comrades reported on the situation, and on the basis of their 709th separate line communications battalion, they formed a new unit. They appointed a commander, gave equipment and equipment. Varvara Makarovna was sent to serve in the same unit.

Military love stories.“We always said: if we stay alive, we will be the happiest”

In 1942, I voluntarily went to the front, - Varvara Makarovna recalled. - All my relatives were in the zone of occupation. And I was left all alone. So I decided to go to war. There were five women in our military unit: doctors, a paramedic, and me, a nurse. I had a difficult job: I always went into battle with the first platoon, that is, ahead.
I remember once it was necessary to run through a small forest to the wounded, and then the Germans began to bomb. I saw a large hollow in a tree, climbed into it, curled up into a ball and prayed. And so she was saved. In winter, we only went skiing - the snow was above the waist. The wounded from the battlefield were taken out on special boats - drags.
Each soldier had a special bag on his belt that contained a sterile bandage and a tourniquet. I have seen so much blood, bandaging each wounded... The heavy ones were taken to the nearest hospital, and there are only two hundred people in line for bandaging.
In the unit, the girls and I brewed needles every morning, because. there were no vitamins, so at least drink it. They put whole boilers and before
Everyone drank breakfast. My Ivan is still grimacing, remembering the taste of this "tea". In general, I always treated him in a special way, we protected each other. Living in such conditions, when every day someone is killed, it is simply necessary to have a close friend. It helps a lot. At first we just dated. He came to me in the medical unit for all sorts of little things - either his finger hurts, or he would come up with some other nonsense. The girls and I even hung a sign on the door: “Do not enter without business,” so that he would not bother us just like that. And then they got married in the registry office of Volkhov, Leningrad Region. Our certificate was number 1.

When Ivan was wounded in the arm, he was transferred to the hospital, and our unit began to be sent to the Karelian front. When I found out about this, I immediately went for my husband. They didn’t want to write him out, but I still persuaded the doctors. She said that she herself was getting out. We arrived at the location of the unit, but there was no one there. We rushed to the station, and the train had already started, so we jumped on the go. Together we met the Victory. Then they gave birth to two girls. So since then we have not parted. The war has brought us down. In the most terrible moments, we, clinging to each other, dreamed of surviving and said that we would then be the happiest in the world.

Recorded history Lilia IVASHINA

STORY #2

This amazing love story was told by retired Major General Alexei Rapota.

Military love stories. Love by correspondence
In September 1941, Alexei Rapota, among the best cadets, was released early from the aviation school and, with the rank of senior sergeant, was sent to the regiment of night bombers. From the end of December 1941, Rapota participated in combat missions. He ended the war with the rank of captain.
- On May 1, 1942, a festive rally was held in our regiment. First, we were read a greeting telegram from the Military Council of the First Air Army, and at the very end we were informed that there were also congratulations from the students of the Moscow Pedagogical School.
As my wife later told me, it was the headmistress who advised them to write congratulations to the front-line soldiers. Moreover, instead of the address, they simply wrote - "To the Western Front." They thought that at least someone would get it ... However, the political department copied their letter and sent it to different parts.
As the secretary of the Komsomol organization, the commissar instructed me to proofread his answer for me. He wrote, he dryly and I thought, well, what kind of letter is this? As if some kind of newspaper propaganda - “We are flying! We beat the enemy and achieve victory!
Then, without saying anything to anyone, I made a small postscript - “Girls, all of us are guys, young, single, but some of their parents remained in the occupied territory, so they simply have no one to write to. And they will be very happy if you write the simplest warm words to them. Then he listed the names of 12 of our pilots.
By the way, in the letter from the girls there were three signatures: the trade union organizer - Kiseleva, the Komsomol organizer - Makarova and the head of the group - Tatyana Shlykova. The latter interested me, I just remembered that Count Sheremetyev had such an actress. And I decided to send a small personal note addressed to her: "Tanya, and you, if you can, answer me."
Soon letters began to arrive in our unit. The guys were surprised. Even the commander received one letter, for which I received a scolding from him. But the very first to receive a letter was from Tanya. True, she wrote it officially, addressed to "you." This is how our correspondence began in May 1942.
I must say that my friend Sasha Ilyanovich periodically ferried planes to replace the engine in aircraft workshops at the Kupavna station near Moscow. And we gave him a "spy" assignment - be sure to call at the school and properly examine all the girls. When he returned, everyone surrounded him: “Well, how is mine? And my?" I waited until everyone was done and asked about Tanyusha.
And he says to me: “You know, if you weren’t my friend, I would have beaten her off from you!”
Here, of course, I got even more wound up, I wanted to get to know each other personally. And soon the opportunity presented itself. In October, Sasha was again sent to overtake the plane, and he says: “Come on, let's go together!” And how to approach the commander with such a request, because the situation is difficult, every day we make 3-4 sorties? I hesitated for a long time, but Sasha convinced me: “Well, what are you worried about? It's only for 2-3 days. The motor will be replaced and immediately returned.
We went together to the regiment commander, and I said that my brother was passing through Moscow, and I really want to see him. And the commissioner, the infection, knew everything. He leaves the next room and says: “And your brother, by any chance, is not in a skirt ?!” Out of shame, I almost fell through the ground ... But the regimental commander just laughed and let go.
I went to Moscow with certain concerns. I knew that Tanya's father was very strict. In general, we flew to Moscow, and Sasha immediately took me to Zagorodnaya Street, where Tanyusha lived. It turns out that on the first visit he managed to get acquainted with her parents. My father saw Ilyanovich, was delighted: “Oh, Sasha!”, And there was zero attention to me. I was upset, well, I think I’m not at court, but I should be more dear to Sasha. I have been writing letters to Tanya almost every day for six months now. I imagined how we would meet with her, embrace ... And here I’m not myself and, to be honest, I was about to leave. But then, finally, she came. Tanya was then moonlighting as a physical education instructor, and on that day she and pre-conscripts went through an obstacle course. She ran home all dirty, hungry, frozen. Mom took her to a neighbor, and there she dressed up in the best dress - after all, the groom came to the bride. Well, the groom was at least somewhere - already an officer, in a beautiful flight uniform, and even with military orders. This is how we saw each other for the first time...

For the next two days they walked around Moscow all the time. As a result, before leaving for the front, we decided to get married. Tanya told me that everyone asked her: “Are you going to marry him? After all, we only saw each other a couple of times.” And she answered like this: “I will go! They are good guys! You can safely marry anyone! Then I returned to the regiment, and just before the New Year, the commander suddenly gives me leave for a whole week - to get married.
Went with Tanya to sign on January 1, 1943. We arrive at the registry office, a woman of about thirty-five is sitting there. And I don’t even have a passport, only a temporary certificate. She turns it over in her hands, does not know where to put the stamp, it is quite small. A funny situation, of course, has developed, but still, it was found where to slap the seal ...

As a result, we got married, and after us, three more guys from our squadron got married through this correspondence. In the spring of 1943, the position of a clerk at our headquarters became vacant, and I asked the commander to take on Tanya. She reached Smolensk with our regiment, and in November she went home to give birth to our first son ...
After the war, Alexey Nikiforovich remained to serve in the army. In 1955 he graduated from the Air Force Academy, and in 1963 from the General Staff Academy. From 1968 to 1970 he was a senior adviser at the headquarters of the Air Force and Air Defense of the Republic of Cuba. After returning to his homeland, he was a senior lecturer at the Academy of the General Staff. For 15 years he headed the Department of Air Defense at the Academy of Armored Forces. In 1987 he retired with the rank of major general.

STORY #3

This story was told by the mountaineering instructor of the pre-war formation Alexei Maleinov.

In 1942, the soldiers of the army commander Tyulenev took up defensive positions in the passes of the Caucasus Range. They had to celebrate the New Year in the mountains. On the German side, they were opposed by the special mountain rifle corps "Edelweiss" under the command of General Lanz. For most of the German rangers of this corps, the mountains of the Caucasus were very familiar. Back in the 30s, many of them visited here as climbers, climbed the mountains in the same bundle with Soviet athletes.
At the end of 1942, the German command decided to conquer Elbrus, a strategically advantageous mountain point from which control over the Baksan Gorge was exercised.

On the slopes of Elbrus, the Germans were interested in the comfortable tourist hotel "Shelter of Eleven" and the nearby weather station (altitude 4250 meters above sea level).

A well-equipped detachment of German rangers under the command of Captain Grotto participated in the capture operation. At the weather station at that time were the head of the Shelter of Eleven, Alexander Kovalev, a meteorologist, radio operator Kucherenko, and a group of four Red Army soldiers.
As soon as our people began to prepare for the meeting of the New Year, when suddenly there was a knock of rifle butts and a clang of bolts. Nobody was waiting for the Germans... Captain Grotto was the first to enter the door. The first reaction of our fighters is to shoot. But suddenly Alexander Kovalev raised his hand and cried out, "Set aside!" and turning to the captain said: "Kurt, do you recognize me?". It turns out that in the German officer he recognized his partner in the ascent, which took place in the late 30s. I recognized Kovalev and Grotto. This saved the lives of our fighters: five against fifteen rangers - the forces were too unequal.

The unusual situation prompted further actions. Away from the commanders, on New Year's Eve, opponents turned into friends. Schnapps, German Christmas rations, lard and alcohol were recovered from the stocks. New Year's Eve flew by in memories of past ascents.
In the morning, both groups quietly parted ways. The Russians left the "Shelter of Eleven", the Germans occupied it, and then followed the order, hoisted their flags on the two peaks of Elbrus. Literally a month later, these flags were removed from Elbrus by Soviet climbers led by Alexander Gusev ...
PS
In fairness, I must say that the story of the "Shelter of Eleven" was not quite like that, well, yes, people who went through the war have the right to create legends ...

STORY #4

Antonina Andreevna Smirnova, a participant in the Great Patriotic War, a resident of Volokolamsk, told her military love story. The front-line years became fateful for her

Military love stories. Behind the front line
- By the beginning of the war, I was 16 years old, and I graduated from the first year of a teacher training college in Torzhok. I lived in the village of Berezki, Novotorzhsky district, Kalinin region. The Army Hospital for Lightly Wounded No. 2950 arrived in our village, and I went to work there.
The first year I worked as a ward nurse, and then in a pharmacy. I went to the sansklad for dressing material. Our hospital was located near the front line. When we hear that fighting is going on, it means that the wounded will be brought soon. Mostly foot soldiers with damaged arms and legs. Let's treat them for two weeks - and again they go into battle. To me, a girl, at that time 45-year-old soldiers seemed like old men, it was a pity to send them to the front.
Where our army went, the hospital moved there. We were not located in cities, but mainly in forests and fields. We stood near Rzhev for a long time, and I met Pobeda in the Baltics.

Military love stories. Fell in love in the Mongolian steppes
- After the war with Germany, our 10th Guards Army, and with it our hospital, was transferred to the war with Japan. We were preparing for big battles, many echelons were being driven east.
There was a long stop in Irkutsk, and I had time to take a photo with my front-line friend, Sergeant Anna Kozlova. I keep this photo. Here I am 20 years old. On my chest is the badge "Excellent worker of the sanitary service." I was in the rank of corporal, but I didn’t wear one stripe on shoulder straps. Somehow this was not accepted by us.

We arrived in Mongolia, and there was a meeting that changed my whole life. In the hospital, Senior Lieutenant Mikhail Konstantinovich Efimov treated his leg after being wounded. He was a front-line scout and Komsomol organizer of the regiment. Although I did not treat him, we met and became friends. By birth, he is a native Muscovite.

We had parties, he turned on the gramophone and taught me how to dance. We went to the cinema. He gave me bouquets of flowers, plucking them from the flower bed. He talked a lot about himself, I listened with interest.
Mikhail kept his personal diary, where he wrote down everything that happened to him. Here is his entry, where for the first time it is said about me: “I met a girl as tall as a 12-year-old child - small, plump.” Yes, I was really short. An overcoat was sewn especially for me. The hairdresser did my curls. That's how I was - a soldier in a skirt.

Military love stories. Got married in the Far East
- The war with Japan ended quickly, our army did not even have time to fight there. In October 1945 I was demobilized and I went home. Michael stayed on to serve.
In 1947, Mikhail sent me a challenge, I went to see him in Blagoveshchensk, where we got married. I kept my maiden name when I was married. When I became pregnant, Mikhail sent me to Moscow to his mother, and there I gave birth to a daughter, Natalya. The husband, as a military man, was transferred from one military unit to another. The second child, the son of Vyacheslav, I gave birth to in Khabarovsk.
We lived in Chukotka for two years. My husband was there the head of the airport and the secretary of the regiment's party organization. I worked in the regiment as an accountant. It was the best time ever! Life was good. The Chukchi are kind people, simple and naive, like children of nature.
In 1956, my husband was demobilized, and we arrived in Volokolamsk. Mikhail worked as a chief engineer at a school for the blind, and I got a job as an accountant at the Mosoblselstroy-18 trust. Soon, two more medals were added to my military awards - "Veteran of Labor" and "For Labor Valor".

Recorded history Vladislav SOLOVIEV

STORY #5

This amazing story was told to the guards by retired senior lieutenant Claudia Mikhailovna Manyuto, the only woman in the history of the Great Patriotic War who captured a German pilot along with an airplane

Hyundai hoch
- When the Great Patriotic War began, I was 19 years old. I worked in the city of Ivanovo, in the city hospital as a paramedic. She was an active Komsomol member. When the war began, I wrote a statement to the district committee of the Komsomol - to send me to the front. My statement was published in the regional newspaper "Leninets" and soon sent to the front. So I ended up near Moscow, on the Kalinin Front. The heaviest battles near Moscow were in November-December 1941. Participating in the battle for Moscow, she carried 11 wounded from the battlefield, and when she crawled after the next one, she came under shelling and received two shrapnel wounds. One in the right shin with crushing of the bone, the other - in the soft tissues. She was undergoing treatment at the evacuation hospital of the Timiryazev Academy, and after being cured, she ended up on the 3rd Belorussian Front, served in the 105th Guards Aviation Regiment as a squadron paramedic.

They flew to the Belarusian partisans of the Batki Minai detachment. They brought ammunition, medicines there, and from there - wounded partisans and children. She participated in the rescue of Polotsk children from an orphanage, where the Germans took blood from the children for their wounded soldiers. The operation to rescue them was called "Asterisk".
On one of those days I was on duty at the forest airfield in a tent. The planes flew away to the partisans, and I remained on duty in the tent, waiting for the plane with the wounded. They flew mostly at night. And then all of a sudden I hear the roar of an airplane. The sound seems to be our plane, I call the starter to give a rocket - I allow the landing.
The plane landed. Taxiing to my tent, and suddenly I see fascist signs on the fuselage of the plane. I think: what to do? I'm alone here, and the technical guys are 300-400 meters away from me. I figured: if there is only one pilot, I will take him prisoner. And if there is also a flight engineer or navigator, then they will kill me. The plane taxis at low speeds, and without thinking twice, I jump onto the wing and point the gun at the cockpit and shout: “Hyundai hoh!” The pilot was confused, raised his hands. And then the guys run and shout: “Klava, hold on! I command the pilot: "Shnel, shnel", I show - get out. Then the regiment commander Yevgeny Klusson, the chief of staff, and others arrived and took the pilot to headquarters.
The pilot turned out to be a scout, he flew around the front line, photographed our positions and recorded the German ones. He fought in France and now on the Eastern Front, he had awards. In general, he was an "ace". And then a coincidence failed him. Before the flight, I had enough "schnapps", but it turned out that our airfields were in parallel coordinates. So he lost his way, got into our "disposal", where we "grabbed" him. Random but great. Then they sent him to Moscow along with the plane and intelligence. They are valuable and important. And then I was awarded the Order of the Red Star.
When this pilot was sent to Moscow, he asked the regiment commander to show him the girl who had taken him prisoner. The commander agreed. A messenger came from the headquarters for me. I came and reported, the commander explained to me that the pilot wanted to see me. I looked at him - he is so cute, young. It turns out that he was the only son of his mother. And I felt very sorry for him. I turned to the commander with a request to run to the field kitchen and bring him lunch. Evgeny Tomasovich allowed. I brought lunch to the pilot ... He ate, and I stood in front of him - a thin girl (my weight was 48 kg then), they called me Beryozka in the regiment. Then I had a long braid and blond hair.
It is a pity that I did not remember the name of this pilot. He must have survived. I would like to find him...

Military awards of Claudia Mikhailovna. Two orders of the Red Star, the Order of the Patriotic War, medals "For Military Merit", "For Courage".