Nobody is forgotten, nothing is forgotten: WWII veteran Nikolai Chichkin shared his memories of the war years
On the eve of the 75th anniversary of the Victory, in our section "People of Labor" we begin to tell about agricultural workers - participants of the Great Patriotic War. One of them is Nikolai Timofeevich Chichkin, who has worked in the livestock industry for 38 years.
He was born on December 15, 1924 in Maslovka, Rybno-Slobodsky district in a large peasant family. When the war started, Nikolai Chichkin had grazed cattle of the Rybno-Slobodskaya community.
His life was not easy. From an early age he helped his carpenter father. In 1942 he studied military affairs in his native district. In August 1942 he went to the front.
“A black steamer sailed, loaded with bombs. There were 50 draftees in the back. On August 29 we were sent to a military unit in the Mari SSR at night. We studied there for six months,” remembers Nikolai Timofeevich.
A harsh military road passed through the Kursk, Poltava, Poland and ended in Germany.
“On the Kursk Bulge, we were on the defensive. Our troops had to go on because the German command sent 22 divisions. My 5th army lost that battle. We reached almost Poltava. At 4 o’clock in the morning the enemy attacked us. It was in 1943. There were 18 of us left from the battalion. I was delivering cartridges for a machine gun. I was injured. I spent at the hospital six months, then went to the front again, " the veteran shares his memories.
After the war, he trained for 6 months in military units. He worked in Kennigsberg. November 9, 1945 he was mobilized and returned home.
"Everything was destroyed at home. Father was taken to a military factory, where he died. Three sisters and a mother stayed at home. I had to restore everything," says Nikolai Chichkin.
Like many of his fellow countrymen, he began to work selflessly in agriculture. He worked on a collective farm of his hometown Bersut, as a cattleman on a farm and a collective farm shepherd, in winter - on logging.
Now Nikolai Timofeevich is the only living war veteran in the village.