"I am proud of my great-grandfather"

War is a terrible word. The war takes the lives of people, brings a lot of pain and suffering.

    Soon we will be celebrating the Great Victory. For this victory and peaceful sky above us we owe our veterans.

 I'm seven years old and I'm in the second grade. Our teacher told us about the Great Patriotic War and the heroism of our soldiers who have defended our country from enemies.

 And recently I have learned from my relative that in this terrible war was my great-grandfather - Serikov Nikolai Mikhailovich. My great- grandfather graduated from the Kharkov School of Infantry, during the war he was the commander of the First Infantry battalion. My grandparent went through the war from the beginning till the end.  A granddad was injured in August 1941 at the Kalinin Front and in the 1944 on the third Ukrainian one. For courage and bravery he was awarded medals and orders. It's hard to remember for me all their names yet but I do know that all the medals and orders received by my grandfather for protecting our homeland, for protecting us.

My mum is a granddaughter of Nicolai Mikhailovich. She often remembers his grandfather. He was invited to the school, and great-grandfather told his disciples about the war, about the heroism of our people. Mom was a little girl, and she liked to go to a meeting with students and listen to his granddad’s stories. Also my great-grandfather loved singing a military song "Nightingales".

 Nightingales, nightingales, do not disturb the soldiers. ... My mom welling tears in her eyes, she recalled how she and her grandfather sat on a bench in her grandparent’s cozy garden and sang this song.

After the war my grandparents came to live to Kalmykia and the rest of their life they lived in the village of Tatal in Ustinskiy region.

I am proud of my great-grandfather. I would really like him to be with us now, but unfortunately, he is not alive almost for twenty years. We have a large and close-knit family.  My grandparents have three children, six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

We will always remember our great-grandfather and honor his memory.