Semen Natov

This is my husband Semen Natov. The photo was taken in November 1942 and sent to me in evacuation. The inscription says, ‘To Galochka! To my dear friend from Senya. November 1942.’

The thing is that as soon as we came to Pervouralsk, on 1st October 1941, my husband was called up to the army, and on 14th October he was sent to the front. I don’t know why it happened, maybe somebody was envious about our happiness. Before his departure my sister threw a party, and for the first time in his life my husband got drunk. We did not even say a proper goodbye to each other.

We kept up a correspondence with him. I still have his pictures from the front. I also have his letters, where he wrote how much he loved my son and me, and what a wonderful life we would have after the war.

Well, there was no happy life after the war. In 1944, I was summoned to the military committee and given a death certificate for my husband. He was killed in fighting for the village of Babinovichi, Belarus.