War. My life during the war.

by SM Baranova

War. 

Unfortunately, the world will never stop the war. 

War - an armed struggle between nations or peoples, and between classes within countries.  

Generally, in any war, there is a battle with all its burdens and consequences in difficult conditions and circumstances, which one must be able to adapt to.   

I was born in Belarus.  I was born before the start of WWII, just one month, in May 1941.  (In the Soviet Union began in June).  My father worked on the construction of roads.  Of course, I do not remember anything about the first and subsequent days.  I know the stories of parents, brother (he was 7 years old) and my father's sister.   

 

In the early days of the war, when the bombing started, people went to the East: on horses, in cars, trains, but, basically, it was organized evacuation whole labor collectives with their families.   Of course, taking all their worldly possessions from their house or apartment.   

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Our family along with many more families moved away. We left in a low-powered lorry.    People sitting in the bed of the truck and when approaching enemy aircraft all jumped down to the ground and lay down, covering the children. 

Planes flew low and the enemy saw all columns of cars and therefore did not move on the main roads, and through the back of forests. My brother told me that he was afraid that the enemy would hear a small child crying and tried to create the best conditions for his little sister not to be scared and cry.  I remember and I thank him for that.   Despite the difficulties, our caravan was able to move into the country while enemy aircraft "flew like fugitives",  rushing to bomb big important cities.

On the way to settlements locals always helped us. We drove through Smolensk, Tver and end point was the city of Cheboksary (Chuvashia).  It was already autumn 1941.  In the small village of Chuvash we took the apartment.  Shortly before that, my father and all the men went into the army, so in the village there were only women and children.   

We lived here until 1943, when it was became clear that the enemy was retreating.  During the evacuation, people helped the front, as much as they could by working in hospitals, factories, mainly - they were old men, women and children.   We lived hungry, cold, without basic amenities.  Many people died.   

Mother and sister traveled often father recalled (even after many years) as there were in the next village to change what some belongings for food.   Especially in the winter when it's cold, and it is necessary to walk several kilometers.

War - is scary.  

In the former USSR has no family does not have a story of someone who has died,  or missing, died of hunger and disease on the labor front, at least one person. My mother's brother was killed in a partisan in Belorussia, my father's brother was killed in battle near Leningrad.  

Courtesy of Wikipedia

War scattered native people, with broken lives. For example, my father's sister, our aunt Maroussia, 19 years old.  She came from the Ukraine at the beginning of May 1941 to stay with his brother.  During the war her fiance Fyodor.   Many of her friends were sent as Ukrainian Germans in Europe as a cheap labor force, they all died in the concentration camps. 

And Russia is still portrayed in words: "Everything will be fine, if only there was no war."  But people still kill each other and for what?  For the sake of money, power, envy.  Russian Television has a series of programs entitled "To be remembered ." The goal of this program is to create a database of people who died during World War II . To collect the most comprehensive information about combat and non-combat losses , remember names and faces , and pass this memory descendants. People write there, although it took about 70 years after the war. 

I am deeply convinced that a sharp reminder of how to appreciate the world and all it's people, and of each individual, is necessary to future generations so that we may have a whole, peaceful earth.