Pyotr Bograd and his family

This photo was taken in the year 2000 in Moscow.

I am 80 and celebrate the jubilee at home. From left to right: my son Leonid Bograd, my wife Sarrah Elkina, I and my daughter Irina Shelukhanova.

I got married on 12 August 1945, at the age of 25. We'll soon celebrate the 59th anniversary of living together. My wife's name is Serafima, Sara Elkonina, she's a Jew.

Serafima raised our two children and now she takes care of our grandchildren. I've always felt her support, particularly in hard times, when I had a regiment and then a division under my command.

We shared successes and misfortunes, and inevitable emergencies always had a hard impact on her. She has been my consolation. She's given me confidence in the present and future.

We have two children: our daughter Irina Shelukhanova, born in 1947, and our son Leonid Bograd, born in 1954. Our daughter finished the Moscow Electric Engineering College. She is an engineer.

Her husband Anatoliy Shelukhanov is Russian. Their son Konstantin Shelukhanov was born in 1971. He finished the Soil Science Faculty of Moscow State University, but he works as a literary.

My son Leonid followed into my wife's footsteps. He finished Moscow Medical College. He worked as a surgeon in an infectious hospital in Moscow and defended a doctor's thesis. Now he works in Bonn in Germany where he moved in early 1991.

Our family is close. We've always tried to spend much time with our children. We went to the seashore in summer. In winter we went skiing. We went to the cinema and theater. Though our children live with their own families, we feel their love and support.

My son and his family visited us recently and we celebrated my wife's birthday jubilee. On 15 December my son will turn 50. My wife and I are going to his birthday. We always celebrate birthdays of all members of our family.

My wife and I have built a small house near Moscow where we stay in summer. Our grandchildren stay there with us and my daughter and her husband visit us there on weekends. We enjoy growing flowers, vegetables and fruit.

My wife and my friends often visit us. Lately my wife and I have returned to Jewish traditions. We occasionally go to the synagogue and always on Yom Kippur. We celebrated my birthday in the Moscow Jewish community center.

My wife and I receive a pension. I get a bigger pension than my wife. We have everything we need.