My brother in Mongolia during the war
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Ilya Melenevsky, my brother, who was called up in 1939, survived the war and returned home (to Leningrad) only in 1947, because after the end of the war his regiment was sent to Japan, in Manchzhuria. During the war we got no news about Ilya and only in 1945 we received a letter from him with a photo made in Mongolia, in a photographic studio. In this photo he is sitting at the table with a friend of his. They are celebrating capture of Moukdek. On the back side of the photo he wrote: "There is nothing else to relieve the monotony here - sometimes we have to resort to cognac and champagne, though we dream about something else. Ilya. Moukdek. 1945".