Veterans shared their memories of the Victory Day celebration in 1945

The veterans of the Great Patriotic War told Izvestia about their journey during the war years, as well as about meeting the joyful news about the defeat of Nazi Germany in May 1945. One of the sections of the Izvestia News Center's special project "The Great Victory" dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the end of the war is dedicated to the stories of the winners of Nazism.

Georgy Isaakovich Rogov, a resident of Volgograd, was 17 years old when the German invasion broke out. He met the war while studying at a factory school in Belgorod, and later his institution was evacuated to Kazakhstan. A year later, in September 1942, the young man was drafted into the army, where he headed a machine gun squad.

The young commander's first battles took place much later in East Prussia. On the last day of January 1945, he came under fire when he came to report to the company command. Georgy Isaakovich suffered an eye injury and spent the rest of the war undergoing medical treatment. He met the victory in the hospital in Syzran.

"It was reported on the radio that the war was over. We almost jumped for joy like children. After that, they came to us from the local state farm and brought a bucket of fresh chicken eggs," the veteran shared.

Galina Pavlovna Yakimchuk, a resident of Kursk, also suffered severe trials. At the age of three, she and her extended family found themselves in besieged Leningrad, her father went to the front, from which he returned disabled in 1942. According to the woman, the children were able to survive the blockade only thanks to the efforts of their mother, who desperately got food for them.

Galina Pavlovna remembers well the voice of the announcer Isaac Levitan, who announced Victory in 1945. The woman recalls that everyone was delighted with the news — people were jumping, hugging, kissing, shouting: "Hurrah! Victory is ours!"

Now, at the age of 87, the pensioner often buys small rag toys for herself and gives them to her family.

"Bunnies, elephants… Others may not understand this, but since I didn't see any of this as a child, I was deprived of this joy, now I really appreciate it and am adding to the collection. And I want to live," said Galina Pavlovna.

The last bastion: how the Victory banner was raised over Konigsberg

On the 80th anniversary of the liberation of East Prussia by the Red Army

Earlier, in February, veterans shared with Izvestia their memories of the capture of Budapest in 1945. Anatoly Medved, who served as a mortar man, said that the storming of the city was strategically necessary: it was the key to Budapest, and then to Vienna and Berlin.