Vasil Mosalov

I have never seen him as he tragically perished (however, he lived up to 84 years). He's my grandmother's father.

When the Great Patriotic War, as WWII is known to our country, began he and his large family lived in Russia in the Kaluga region in a very distant village.The city of Kaluga lies just 150 kilometers southwest of Moscow. Due to its geographical position, it was an important strategic point in the German forces' attempts to seize control of Moscow.  The German troops occupied this region in October 1941. The village is rather far from roads but fascists came there. They gathered all local men together and two policemen were accompanying them in a column. Imagine: a thick forest, a large group of young men, only two armed policemen and nobody dared to run away but my great grandfather did. He was not called up for military service because he was a person with childhood disability (one leg was much shorter than the other). But he managed to escape and ran to his house. There he laid down on a bench in the kitchen (in Russian villages there were not chairs but benches), his wife put some cloth and clothes on this bench and all his six children sat on that bench. The police were looking for him and several times they came into the house. But they saw only the frightened children sitting on the bench. In such a way my great grandfather escaped from being taken to Germany or killed as he was unable to go fast.

After the war he headed a collective farm (kolkhoz in Russian) and as they say was a good and honest person. He lived a long life. For me he is a hero.One day I hope to go to the Kaluga region and visit his grave.