Grandpa

9 May, 9 in the morning. Putin is delivering a speech; I seem to be listening attentively… they did not capitulate, they held out, they won… and in my head only one thought: they flooded the country with blood. Mama recalls: at the Bolshevo school the boys of the tenth graduating class of 1941 went to the front… All perished. Grandfather used to tell: it was very important to be strong, well physically prepared, to be able to “protect yourself in field conditions, and that meant — dig in quickly,” that is create around yourself a “fortification” of small mounds of earth with a small sapper’s spade. Whoever could not do this became a direct target for the enemy. ...

To be honest, in Grandfather’s lifetime I never once asked about his decorations. And quite recently, a few years ago, I managed to obtain from the military archive a copy of the award sheet: two medals For Valour and the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd class. I quote the extract: “25 January 1945, in the battle for the town of Els/Germany/, under strong enemy rifle and machine-gun fire, advanced his crew forward and with accurate fire from his mortar destroyed an enemy machine gun located in a trench in front of a separate house; transferring fire onto the trenches, silenced a second enemy machine gun that was hindering the advance of our infantry. ...

Now is not the time to continue yesterday’s theme, but I will return to it. I don’t know about you, but every time I feel irresistible emotion and tears in my eyes at the approaching holiday of 9 May. Today I will remember my grandfather on Mama’s side. My grandfather Dorofeev Sergei Sergeyevich was born on 31 March 1901 in the settlement of Bolshevo, 40 km from Moscow. He finished a parish school — that is only 4 classes. For that time, I understand, it was not a bad education. He wrote very correctly, drew beautifully, unfortunately only on scraps of paper, when I, quite little, asked him. I remember he could in a few minutes draw a skier coming down a hill. It seemed to me then that all adults drew well only because they were adults. ...