Wish You Great Victory Day! In the memory of my Grandparents and other soldiers of World War II.

Published by ruadmin at May 8, 2020

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My grandmother, Belyakova Anna, rarely talked about the war, and when war movies were on TV, she was always avoiding it… she couldn’t watch them without crying. Therefore, we, her descendants, do not know very much about her history of participation in the war.. But most basic points I know and want to share it with you, for the memory, of her and other soldiers, who was fight and died in World War II. (1941-1945).

Tomorrow, 9^th May 2020 will be 75 Anniversary of the Victory Day. Veteran parades, that were supposed to take place across the world, incl Russia, have been canceled due to the coronavirus. But this does not mean that this day can be forgotten.

… My Grandmother was 18 years old when she, along with a friend (also lady), was called up to the front in 1942, almost immediately after the news of her father’s death at the front came. The losses of the Soviet army were appalling, and the villages began to receive orders for girls to become a soldier. Leaving her mother and two small sisters at home, she went to the Karelo-Finnish front, both ladies became signalmen. They were sent to a men’s battalion and given men’s clothing. My grandmother always said that, it was a lie when the movies show beautiful girls in skirts and with long hair on the front in the war… most of the girls were shaved bold, and no one wore skirts. So, the girls were no different from normal soldier, and they had to fight on equal terms with men…

Still, she did tell me a couple of stories. Once during the retreat, with many dead and wounded around, she threw away her army bowler hat, which meant losing a hope… You can’t get food without a it. One of her companions picked it up, caught up with her, and handed it back, saying that “hope is the last thing to go, and while we are alive, we have to fight….” She had survived the War without even being seriously injured, although she had been on the front line doing communications. I assume that she was in one of the divisions that tried to break the ring of the siege of Leningrad. In 1944, she was demobilized and returned to Kazan, to her family, who had been moved from the village. And there she met my grandfather, Vladimir Belyakov, who had been working as a blacksmith at an military aircraft factory in Kazan since 1941 and during all war, and who had been awarded the title of the best blacksmith of the factory more than once.

My Grandfather on May 1 Labor Day celebration, 1969 (a man in hat on white background)

Me and my Grandmother, 2007

My grandmother often told me when I complained about some sorrows that it is not important and asked me not be tense, “Everything will be fine, as long as there is no war.”… She died in 2011, waiting for me to give birth to a boy (no one knew if i would get a boy or girl), her great-grandson, my son was born in 2010, September. When my Grandmother died, and the moment when she was buried to the ground, there was a very bright flash of lightning and thunder, like a volley of clapping for a departing hero…. after all, this is how heroes were seen off on their last journey. We remember and we are proud of our ancestors, heroes of the Motherland, who lived and fought for us! Hurray! Wish You Great Victory Day!