WWII veteran Ivan Yevtodyev was solemnly congratulated on Victory Day in Moscow.

A solemn ceremony was held in Moscow to congratulate Ivan Pavlovich Evtodyev, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War (WWII), a retired KGB colonel, on the upcoming Victory Day. Izvestia publishes footage of the event on May 8.

In addition to friends, relatives and wards, veterans of the Foreign Intelligence Service and the Border Guard Service of the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia, as well as representatives of the Alfa and Vimpel special forces, came to congratulate the veteran and express gratitude for his feat.

In addition, representatives of the brass band of the Central Border Band of the FSB of the Russian Federation arrived at Evtodyev's residence in full dress. They performed melodies from military songs and a festive march for the veteran. The retired KGB colonel was also shown a film about his frontline history, made many warm speeches and conveyed congratulations from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"I asked to go to the front. In 1941, he added one year to himself. The military commissar (military commissar) came out. — Ed.), asks "who are you, what do you want?". And I couldn't help but blurt it out. Not against my will, but without my almost conscious awareness — "I want to join the army," Evtodyev recalls.

Then he, a native of the Kirovograd region of the Ukrainian SSR, was 17 years old. He assured the military commissar that he was already of legal age, saying that he was born in 1923. Explaining his action, the retired KGB colonel notes that he and members of his generation could not have done otherwise, as they were initially raised that way.

Yevtodyev began his service in the Red Army as part of the 143rd separate Rifle Brigade, which in turn was involved in the legendary landing on the coast.
Taman, in the area of the spit of Chushka. A year later, in 1942, he and his colleagues joined the fighting on the Crimean Peninsula, during which Yevtodyev was seriously wounded.

A couple of months later, after being discharged from the hospital, the recovered veteran was assigned to the 95th special purpose border Rifle Regiment of the troops of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR (NKVD). This association was awarded the Order of Lenin for its participants conducting defensive battles in the area of Saur-Grave heights in the Donbas. Yevtodyev liberated Crimea, fought against nationalist gangs in Lithuania, and after the end of the Second World War began serving in foreign intelligence.

Currently, Evtodyev continues to be active in the work of the veterans' organization.

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On May 7, Izvestia published footage of congratulations from WWII veterans Nikolai Egorovich Loginov, Viktor Andreevich Blagov and Fyodor Fedorovich Rykhlov, who live in Naro-Fominsk. Musical gifts and performances were also organized for them, in which artists from the local Palace of Culture were involved.