Russian Armed Forces soldiers congratulate 100-year-old WWII veteran on the eve of Victory Day

On the eve of the 80th anniversary of Victory Day, military personnel of the Omsk Rocket Association congratulated 100-year-old veteran Mikhail Ivanovich Shalaginov on the upcoming holiday.

The military personnel of the Omsk Missile Association Support Center, together with the yunarmeysky detachment and students of the Omsk Kormilovka Secondary School, cordially congratulated Mikhail Shalaginov, presenting him with a gift, and then marched under the veteran's windows in a solemn march to the sounds of wartime songs performed by a military brass band.

Mikhail Ivanovich Shalaginov was born in the Omsk region. In the winter of 1943, as a graduate of the six-month courses at the Omsk Infantry School, he and his colleagues were sent to the front, where he became a machine gunner in an infantry regiment. Shalaginov took part in the Battle of Kursk, where he was wounded for the first time in August 1943.

After being wounded again in the summer of 1944, Mikhail Ivanovich, occupying the position of commander of a machine-gun squad, did not return to the front: a fragment of a German shell deprived him of the fingers on his right hand.

The veteran of the Great Patriotic War was awarded the Order of the Red Star and the Patriotic War of the First degree for courage and bravery in the battles against the Nazi invaders. In the post-war years, for his success in peaceful labor, he became a knight of the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, was awarded the medal "For Valiant Labor" and other awards.

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