Victory Day!

June 18, 2017 Society, USSR

On May 9, Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia, and peoples of other former Soviet republics celebrate the victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. I wish neither you nor anybody else experiences anything similar to what our parents went through in 1939-1945. War is bad by any account, and we must avoid it in all possible ways.
My father, May 1944. My father, June 1971.
My father Peter (1925 – 2014) was a soldier in 1942-1945 and went fighting from Stalingrad to Czechoslovakia. He was decorated by the full set of soldier awards of the time. After the war, he continued his military service, graduated from Moscow Finance Institute (where he met my future Mom), worked as a military financial specialist, and reached the rank of a colonel.
The only picture of my granddad Nikolay with my future mother Larisa in 1932. His widow my grandma Maria in 1953.
My grandad Nikolay was killed in 1942 in Stalingrad. There is a war memorial there now, and his name is etched in the red granite there. It is in his memory I was named Nikolay too. His widow my grandma Maria during the war evacuated (with two children) to Siberia, where she managed three production sites that manufactured military uniform and other war-related equipment. She had several wartime decorations for her war effort contribution. Our parents have defended us, often with the weapon and against all odds. And we? Have we done everything we could for our children and grandchildren? We are trying.