Stories of veterans, the grandmothers and grandfathers of COTES’ employees

Unfortunately, less and less veterans and homefront workers of the Great Patriotic War who are alive by the 75th Anniversary of the Victory Day. There is one thing they have in common. They do not like to tell about war and to look back to those times of struggle. But people must learn the stories of veterans and share these with children. It is the veterans, who sacrificed themselves for us to live in peace and to see the sky such a clear and sunny overhead. And we collected brief stories of our parents, grandmothers and grandfathers, to memorize!

Aleksandr Grigorievich Kolzeyev
birth date: January 26, 1930

(grandfather of Irina Kolzeyeva, an assistant of project manager at COTES Engineering)

By the beginning of war he lived in Izynsk village, Toguchinskiy district of Novosibirsk Region. In June and July of 1941, all men of 18 years and older were called up for military service, this is why children helped women in communal farms. Since 1942 (from the age of 12) he had worked in field cropping (tilled, dragged) and animal farming (handled animals, made a stock of feed), the same as every child in the village.

He remembers how they were awaiting for the letters, so called “triangles” (a piece of paper folded up in triangle), a postman carried from the people who went off to war.

There were three more younger children in the family of Aleksandr, his two sisters Nina and Zoya, and the youngest one, brother Misha. After the end of war Irina’s grandfather resumed studying in the school and decided to make his career as a military officer, becoming the colonel of Artillery. Now the grandfather Sasha is 90, he has two granddaughters and two great-grandsons.

Aleksandr Grigorievich (Kolzeyev) likes to go to the sauna every Saturday, all the year round.

Lyudmila Fyodorovna Lipatnikova
birth date: October 30, 1927

(grandmother of Natalia Nemykina, head of Public Relations at COTES Engineering)

She lived in Atamanovo village with her family, in their own house. She was 15 when the war burst out. Her father and older sister Galina (26 years old) were off at the front. Lyudmila left in the village with her mother, middle sister Irina (21 years old) and brother Tolya (10 years old). Mother and sister worked hard to maintain the homefront. Lyudmila should become a housekeeper, a gardener and should take care of her little brother. Meanwhile, Lyuda (nickname of Lyudmila) began studying as a paramedic and nearly at the same time started working as a paramedic and birth attendant. She helped people of all neighboring villages to survive. It was frightening when she received her father’s death notification. She tells it always with a sad heart.

Now Lyudmila Fyodorovna is 92. She has 6 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

Sergei Tikhonovich Ivanichkin
birth date: September 09, 1926

(grandfather of Alyona Otroshchenko, an assistant of director at COTES Engineering)

He was born in Denisovo village of Smolensk Region. The warfare reached Smolensk fast, so he joined a partisan party. Since 1944 he served at Belorussian Front, where he was injured. After the end of war he continued career in the Soviet Army. Today he is a retired Colonel, a grandfather loving his grandchildren. As many veterans, he doesn’t like telling about the war. He thinks his contributions are much lower than of those who was fighting from the very beginning till the end. His friends won the greatest battles and took Berlin by storm.

Should you have a story from veterans you are ready to share, send to us and we will publish it.