In early 1945 my father stopped receiving letter from Roman from the front. At my father's request commander of the military unit where my brother served sent him this certificate dated 8.02.46.
A few days before the WWII began my brother Roman finished the 9th grade. He was to turn 17. In 1941 he went to the military registry office to be sent to the front. He was so thin that the commission decided he was ill. However, he stood his ground and they sent him to a military school in Ashkhabad (today Turkmenistan).
Roman wrote about his school and invited my father to visit Ashkhabad. My father managed to travel there once and Roman told him his story. Roman was promoted to junior lieutenant and in the late fall of 1944 he was sent to the front. Their train stayed in Kiev few days. He stayed with his friends. His classmate girls arranged a farewell party for him. Roman was assigned to 146th rifle battalion. He was a Komsomol leader of the battalion. They were like commissars: they were the first to rise in attack and the others followed them. In early 1945 my father stopped receiving letters from Roman. He wrote his commander and received his reply: 'On 26 January 1945 he was wounded and left our division. He never returned to our division and none of our military had any contacts with him'. Roman never wrote anyone: he died from wounds on the way to hospital.
