Today Russia prepares for 67th Victory anniversary. And the older the surviving veterans of the Great Patriotic War get, the more poignant the feeling their stories raise in our hearts.
Vladimir Chernikov, Head of the Committee for Youth Affairs, Colonel, war veteran: “Of course we celebrated it in the way we could. It was something amazing. At night they woke us up with an alarm. We jumped up and grabbed our machine-guns when they told us “Victory!”. We were then in Czechoslovakia. We were basically still fighting until May the 14th. The group remaining in Czechoslovakia did not want to surrender and wanted to go over to the British. They wanted to be captured by them. But ours, of course, did not agree with it. While we were fighting with this band, bombing from the air, two more squads got killed. They say if you died on May the 14th, it is after the war. We continued to serve for a long time. I had almost seven years of service. The photograph that you see… These are guys before the demobilization who decided to take a photo next to our plane. I was the photographer, so I am not in this photo. Everybody who got demobilized received this photo. Another photo shows me when I came there, a 17-year-old. This is what I wrote “17-year-old boys are covering their home country with their bodies.” We came to the region of Kursk. We were just 17. 17 or 18. I was chosen because the Komsomol secretary of our squadron sent me on sergeant-training courses. We were preparing the dugouts and trenches that would become our home. We worked until June 5 or 7. In addition, we were taught how to shoot. I was a good shooter because I am Siberian and there we always had a hunting rifle since my childhood. Therefore, me together with another guy, a Kalmyk, received grade A. Only two of us became sergeants and the rest were only junior sergeants. I got to the head of the squadron and he asks me where I was drafted. I said that I'm from Central Asia. He asked me where I was from originally. I said that I was from Siberia. And he said that I should go to the Siberians. That is how I ended up in the Siberian squadron. It was a separate squadron that was sent in the most difficult moment. Imagine my position. They gave me a uniform. I have nothing except the uniform and the shoulder straps. When I came there and introduced myself, saying that I am the sergeant, they looked at me and I asked why none of them was made a sergeant, because all of them were twice as old as me, how could I give orders? They told me that I do not have to give orders, but the position should be filled. I was relieved. And maybe because of these guys I survived. After the Kursk battle, out of twelve only three survived”.
Yuri Korobkin, war veteran, rear-admiral: “Victory Day is a mark in the life of 170 million of what was called the Soviet people. May the 9th entered the life of our people, our states, as a memory of heroism and sadness, a memory of victory and greatness of the generation of people that struggled against fascism in 1941. On May the 9th with their effort, blood and sacrifice they brought the long-awaited victory, for which the best lives were given in our multi-million home country. We waited for this day for so long, the war was coming to an end. Every family was waiting for somebody to return alive, for their fathers, sons, brothers, and sisters. In every trench, on every ship they waited for the return to a peaceful life. To say that it was a joyful day means saying nothing. Victory Day is not simply a holiday, it is the greatest holiday. Today it is attacked because the glory of our victory does not please everyone. And the task of the young people is to know the price of this victory was and to protect it. If we do not protect the flag of victory and the attitude to it, we will not protect peace in our state and peace for our people”.
According to the Head of Armenian Military Veterans Committee Petros Petrosyan, today there are about 190 thousand veterans of World War Two. “I will remind you that in general there are now 575 Heroes of the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation living in Moscow, but only 202 participated in the war. There are four full cavaliers of the Order of Glory. You know that on July the 1st 2012 Moscow will widen its borders to include some territories of the Moscow region. The newly-acquired territories have another four Heroes of the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation who participated in the war and one full cavalier of the Order of Glory. There are 1750 war veterans in the acquired territories, 645 of those directly participated in the war. I have very interesting information specifically for your press conference. In our city we have war veterans who are older than 100 years.
“Moscow veterans receive all the measures inscribed in the law. In addition to the federal measures we have our municipal support. It includes of course the free use of public transport. The war participants do not have to pay their utilities or municipal fees. Free medication. Free treatment in resorts. Free dental treatment. Free use of a landline telephone. All war participants and those disabled in war receive monthly financial aid. Those disabled in war get 3834 roubles, war participants get 2872 rubles. Those who worked on the home front receive municipal financial aid of 748 rubles. Since 2005 they are also covered by social support that they did not have before: an extra municipal discount for utilities in addition to the federal 50% discount, plus a 50% discount for medications. These are the measures of social support for the older generation.
“But this is not everything that our veterans live with. Pensions and money are not the most important things for our veterans. The main component of our work is the organization of a social service. It was not in vain that I mentioned the veterans that are more than 100 years old. The youngest veteran is now 86. That is a respectable age, when the veterans require not financial aid but social service and care. Therefore the task that the social systems face is to cover the war veterans with social services. At the request of the mayor, Sergey Sobyanin, we organized a survey among the war participants and widows of the war participants that live alone. That is about 88,000 people.
“In addition, I would like to remind you that the city has 122 centers for social support that are meant to provide social care both at home and on site. There are 169 departments of day care that give preference to war veterans. We started the program of providing free hot meals to war participants. About 2000 people can get free meals in a network of cafés and in addition 6000 people can get hot meals in the centers of social support. I already mentioned that due to their age our veterans require special health care. This is of course the responsibility of the health care department. I will remind you that our city has four hospitals for war veterans that are now renovated and supplied with the newest equipment. Some of them can hardly find comparative facilities in Europe. All of them are in high demand. In addition, the health care department has organized a home care program for those who cannot come to the outpatients clinic. Of course, if they require any medications, as they usually do, this is also delivered to them. This year we plan to provide more than 150,000 trips for resort treatment. We already have about 130,000. Naturally, war veterans will take priority. Today there is no shortage of organized trips for resort treatment”.
