Евгений Бессонов - Tank Rider - Into the Reich with the Red Army

Colonel Petr Nikitovich Turkin, Brigade commander. He stayed in the army after the war and served for some seven to ten years. Before his retirement he served in Kaliningrad (former Koenigsberg). This is where he settled with his wife, Alla Alexeevna. When he passed away in the spring of 1987, he was over 80 years old.

Colonel Grigori Vasilievich Starovoit, Deputy Brigade commander. Born in 1915. Apparently he served in the army until 1965 and settled down in Kiev. I met him at the Brigade’s veterans meeting in Kiev (as he left for Kiev for the office of Brigade commander in 1946). Passed away in 1985.

Lieutenant-Colonel Afanasi Grigorievich Skryago. Born in 1906. Settled down in Kiev after retirement. Passed away in 1966. I did not have any contact with him.

Major-General Vasili Ignatievich Koretski, Chief of Staff of the 6th Guards Mechanized Corps. Born in 1913, retired from the office of chief of staff of the 5th Guards Tank Army. He lived in Dnepropetrovsk. Passed away on 23 August, 1986.

Lieutenant-Colonel Terenti Grigorievich Kozienko, battalion commander. Born in 1914. Served in the army until 1955. Retired as deputy regiment commander and settled down in Cherkassy. He passed away on 30 January, 1995 after a prolonged illness. Our families stayed in touch with him and often visited each other.

Major Abram Efimovich Gerstein. Born in 1912, former political officer of the battalion. He was in the army until 1955. After his retirement he lived in Moscow. He died in 1995. I used to meet him often at the veteran meetings. I visited him when S. N. Kostenko and I. S. Tsikanovski visited Moscow.

Major Petr Sergeevich Shakulo. Born in 1923, served in the army until 1971. He did not have any higher military education, this is why his career was so slow. He served in the local army recruitment office in town of Essentuki. This is where he died on 6 July, 1986 after a serious illness.

Colonel Fedor Grigorievich Popov. Born in 1925. He was in the army for over 40 years, until 1985. He retired at the age of 60. Together with him I served in the head personnel section of the Defence Ministry. After that he was transferred to the office of head of personnel department of the Engineer department of the State Committee of external relations (there was such a body during the soviet times). Fedor died on 10 April, 1994.

Lieutenant-Colonel Nikolai Danilovich, mortar platoon leader. Born in 1923. Retired in 1947 and joined the service again in 1957 – he entered the military institute of conductors (there was such a college, later it was reformed and made the military faculty at Moscow Conservatoire). After graduation he served in the Baltic Military district. Later, in 1957, he was transferred to the Ministry of the Interior and appointed the military conductor of Irkutsk military academy of the Ministry of the Interior. He died in February 1996 after a prolonged illness.

Colonel Alexander Danilovich Stolyarov, Commander of the tank regiment of the Brigade. Born in 1914, served in the army in different offices after the war. After his retirement from the army he settled down in Gomel (Belorussia). He passed away on 4 December, 1999.

Colonel Vladimir Dmitrievich Belyakov, Company commander. Born in 1924. Retired from the office of military commissar of Chimkent (Kazakhstan). Passed away on 24 June, 1989. He lived in town of Troitsy, Moscow region.

Colonel Alexander Ivanovich Traiduk, deputy chief of staff of the battalion. Born in 1923. Was the deputy chief of staff of the battalion. Later served as military prosecutor in Nizhni Tagil, Sverdlovsk region. He passed away in 1990.

Colonel Nikolai Dmitrievich Tsygankov, the Brigade’s HQ commandant. Born in 1923. After the war he served as the military commissar of Timiryazevo district in Moscow. Passed away on 22 October, 1991.

Nikolai Konstantinovich Chernyshov, Senior Lieutenant, 1st company commander of the battalion. Born in 1924. They said that he drank himself to death, selling all his war decorations. He died in 1978.

Lieutenant Alexei Kuzmich Belyakov, commander of the 2nd company of the battalion. He lived in Podolsk. Passed away in 1987.

Lieutenant Israel Solomonovich Tsikanovski, machine-gun platoon leader of the 3rd company of the battalion. Died in Tashkent in 1990.

Senior Lieutenant Anatoly Anatolievich Kashintsev, commander of the battalion’s mortar company. Passed away on 9 July, 1992.

I think that now it is time to recall my classmates and friends from school. The guys with whom I graduated from high school in June 1941. I will mention the guys of my age, the ones that went into the war in 1941 and many of whom did not make it back. Dozens of years have passed since the end of the Great Patriotic War, and now I am writing about the guys that I grew up with, the ones I studied with and with whom I was good friends. First I will mention my classmates. There were 31 children in my class, 15 girls and 16 boys. Of these boys 9 survived and 7 died.

German Gavrilov . Born in 1923. I studied with him from the 1st grade. He looked quite sickly. He was physically weak and I think he did not even do physical education. He studied quite well, even very well in the last classes. He was modest, silent and quiet. He was good friend of everyone, did not have any best friends. Killed in action.

Vasily Zolotukhin . Born in 1922. I started to study in the same class with him in the 8th grade. He was a very successful student. He was also physically fit – he was a good soccer player and was even part of Lokomotiv youth team. A very ambitious guy. Was slightly arrogant with the rest of the guys. I did not make good friends with him. He was the school’s Komsomol secretary in the 10th grade. It was only Nikolai Kaminin that was at friendly terms with him – Zolotukhin helped him in his studies. Zolotukhin was killed in 1941 during battle of Moscow.

Nikolai Kaminin . Born in 1923. A short and physically strong guy, he was a fast, happy and kind-hearted person. He was a good friend of everyone, but especially with Zolotukhin. He was quite bad in his studies. Everyone in the class loved him. For some time I helped him in mathematics, as we lived on the same street. He was killed in battle of Kursk in 1943. I studied with him from the 8th grade.

Yuri Novitski . Born in 1923. He was a tall and slim guy. He did not have a sense of humour and was always offended with our jokes. He was an athletic guy and a successful student. He did not have any good friends, I do not know why. He was killed in 1944. I studied together with him from the 1st grade.

Vladimir Popov . Born in 1923. He was a good comrade and a calm person. He could study better. I was friends with him. He was physically strong. He left school before graduation. He completed a course in pilot club and entered a military school of junior specialists. During the war he was a tail gunner and a radioman of a bomber crew. He was killed in 1943. I studied with him from the 8th grade. Everyone in the class respected him.

Leonid Fetisov . Born in 1923. A good guy. I studied with him from the 1st grade. He was tall and calm. He did not do any sports. He had the best grades in the 10th grade, especially in mathematics. We were good friends with him. He was modest and timid. He was the first guy in our class to be killed – on 8 August, 1941 he was killed by a German bomb next to his house at Bolshaya Pochtovaya street.

Alexander Fokin . Born in 1923. He was a tall and athletic guy. He was good at volleyball and taught me to play volleyball, too. He was calm and the most beautiful guy in the whole class. He was quite respected in the class. He had good grades. He, Zolotokhin and I had the best results in high jumps in the whole school during the 10th grade. He studied with us from the 8th grade. He was a sociable and humorous guy. We were good friends and also had another friend from another class – Andrey Otryganiev. That guy survived the war and died in 1955 from stomach cancer. Alexander and I were drafted on the same day; the only difference was that I went into infantry, while he went into artillery academy. He was killed during the battle of Kursk in 1943.