Izvestia presented the 97-year-old WWII veteran with a reprint of the newspaper dated May 9, 1945

Izvestia presented Nikolai Rochev, a 97-year-old veteran of the Great Patriotic War (WWII), with a reprint of the newspaper's May 9, 1945 issue.

"On Victory Day, I was in Arkhangelsk, in the 33rd reserve Rifle Regiment," Rochev said.

The veteran told how he ended up in the army: according to him, he joined the army when he was not yet 17 years old. The military enlistment office tried to dissuade him, but, as the veteran emphasized, he stood firm — he did not want to part with friends who were also going to the front.

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Valentina Koposova, a participant in the Great Patriotic War, told Izvestia on May 9 about her work as a signalman during the war. Koposova went all the way to Berlin. At the front, she served as a signalman and worked as a telegraph operator on the S-35 apparatus — she transmitted operational reports, intelligence, ciphers and orders. The working day lasted for 12 hours, after which she returned to the unit, the veteran said.