If Not We, Who then?

If not us, who then ... This principle led our forefathers to the Great Victory seven decades ago. If not we, who supports them today then.

Deputy of the Supreme Council Galina Antyufeeva knows veterans of Tiraspol by name. She is a frequent guest of the events, conducted for them and constant help in matters related to the support of the Great Patriotic War, rear workers, prisoners of concentration camps - all those whose biographies have pages burned the war, the bloody ones, sprinkled with tears of fear, loss and ... happiness. They won! They were destined to survive in one of the worst wars in the history of the world, to bring up the next generation of enduring values ​​- love of country, the desire for freedom, faith in victory. Today, every one of them needs to be supported. Material or moral, it is equally important, especially on the eve of the anniversary of the Great Victory.

Millstones of fascism did not come by the family of Galina Antyufeeva. The war took the life of her grandfather Shklyarov Semion Moiseevich. He went to the front in 19 4, but less than a year later the notice was received that Simon Shklyarov missing. His orphaned son at the age of eight all his life does not have any hope of finding his father. He applied to the recruitment office, requested information in the archives of the Ministry of Defense, wrote in a newspaper editorial board and the program "Wait for me", they looked for information on specialized websites. Happy news came in November 2008 from Podolsk. Descendants responded at the next request that the 105th Infantry Brigade, where Semion Moiseevich Shklyarov was a junior sergeant, July 8, 1942 (which is the official date when he disappeared) conducted combat operations in the Tula region. Later we found out that my grandfather is buried in the village Zaitsev.

Happiness of son - Mikhail Semenovich Shklyarov, who at that time already very long ago became a grandfather - was immensely. He almost returned the person who was taken away by the war. Grandchildren of the veteran of World visited a mass grave located in the Tula forest. There are names of those killed in these lands in the war years on the plates near the monument. Among them there is sergeant Shklyarov - the one who granddaughter Galina Antyufeeva is proud of, who surely would be proud of her. Talking to the veterans, she seemed to pay tribute to the memory and respect of her own grandfather.

This week the club "Veteran" again gathered those who went through World War II under one roof. Galina Antyufeeva, the head of the Russian community, gave them financial assistance from the Government of Moscow. Approximately sixty people received 570 rubles, but there are more recipients. Many funds will be awarded later with the established in January of this year the medal "70 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945". Not all of them will come to the parade. Years and indelible memories are taking their toll. It is much calmer to accept congratulations in a close circle.

Vladimir Ivanovich Vasilevsky went to the front in 1943, just after his seventeen celebration. Terrible news of the beginning of war found the teenager in Donetsk. He says that today it is hard going through happening there. I have just recently learned that his home school is under fire. But he believed that seven decades ago, defended the world. His native 108th Division went through the whole Belarus, liberated Warsaw, came to Berlin. After the war, the Soviet guarded frontiers in border troops. By fate and war debt was in Tiraspol, who gifted a wife to him. Their family - is almost as old as the Great Victory. Five children, eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren confirm that life is lived not in vain. But it is sometimes not enough communication with wartime comrades. Those with whom you can share memories, there are fewer. Here, in the club "The Veteran", it does not matter who was a front in which the rank and rank met Victory won any awards. They have a common military background.

Today, 88-year-old Dora Isaakovna rarely leaves the house, and less and less tell about the events of the war years - the heart can not stand. But it is necessary to talk about it, the veteran is sure. The lessons of history are best explored in theory, in practice it may otherwise happen again irreparable. Hundreds of millions killed in World War II did not return. Young Dora Among could be among them.