Galina Antyufeeva congratulated veteran Vladimir Gromov on his 97th birthday

Resident of Tiraspol, veteran of the Great Patriotic War Vladimir Gromov celebrates his birthday today. The veteran was congratulated on his 97th birthday at the central office of the Renewal (Obnovlenie) Republican Party.

According to the Obnovlenie website, party activists visited Vladimir Gromov at home on his birthday in previous years, but today he decided to come to visit himself. The meeting was held in the circle of activists of the party and its youth wing. Vladimir Gromov was presented on the occasion of the holiday with a cake, flowers, an album with common photographs that the party had collected over many years of friendship, and accessories for fishing, which the veteran goes with his grandson. The veteran of the Great Patriotic War was congratulated by the Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, the Head of the Obnovlenie Republican Party Galina Antyufeeva.

Vladimir Ivanovich told about his hobbies at the festive tea-drinking. The veteran loves cooking, although it now takes him longer to prepare dinner than before: his joints ache. They talked about the war at the meeting. The veteran recalled the difficult years of 1944 and 1945, the dead comrades, a reliable front-line friend – a heavy machine gun that had to be "dragged along".

Vladimir Gromov was born on July 14, 1926 in Staraya Russa, Novgorod Region. He was drafted into the army and sent to a military school in the city of Vyksa in 1943. He fought in the infantry, on the 2nd Baltic Front as part of a machine gun company of the famous 8th Panfilov Guards Division of the 10th Guards Army. Participated in the liberation of the Baltic States, the liquidation of the Courland group of German troops, was wounded. The Order of Glory of the 3rd degree of the Guards Junior Sergeant Gromov was awarded for the courage shown in March 1945 when breaking through the enemy defenses in Latvia, near the village of Jaunanna Muiža. He was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War II degree, the medal "For the Victory over Germany", and other awards.

Vladimir Ivanovich served in Pskov in the parachute division, has 125 parachute jumps from 1946 to 1950. He started a family, devoted half a century to peaceful labor after moving to Tiraspol: he worked as an electrician at a woodworking plant, as a mechanic at the Odema factory.

Vladimir Gromov is an active member of the city veteran organization, a participant in the 2018 Victory Parade in Moscow.

Text and photos of the Obnovlenie website