Tank Rider: Into the Reich with the Red Army

Senior Lieutenant Anatoly Anatolievich Kashintsev, commander of the battalion’s mortar company. Passed away on 9 July, 1992.

Classmates

I think that now it is time to recall my classmates and friends from school. The guys with whom I graduated from high school in June 1941. I will mention the guys of my age, the ones that went into the war in 1941 and many of whom did not make it back. Dozens of years have passed since the end of the Great Patriotic War, and now I am writing about the guys that I grew up with, the ones I studied with and with whom I was good friends. First I will mention my classmates. There were 31 children in my class, 15 girls and 16 boys. Of these boys 9 survived and 7 died.

German Gavrilov. Born in 1923. I studied with him from the 1st grade. He looked quite sickly. He was physically weak and I think he did not even do physical education. He studied quite well, even very well in the last classes. He was modest, silent and quiet. He was good friend of everyone, did not have any best friends. Killed in action.

Vasily Zolotukhin. Born in 1922. I started to study in the same class with him in the 8th grade. He was a very successful student. He was also physically fit – he was a good soccer player and was even part of Lokomotiv youth team. A very ambitious guy. Was slightly arrogant with the rest of the guys. I did not make good friends with him. He was the school’s Komsomol secretary in the 10th grade. It was only Nikolai Kaminin that was at friendly terms with him – Zolotukhin helped him in his studies. Zolotukhin was killed in 1941 during battle of Moscow.

Nikolai Kaminin. Born in 1923. A short and physically strong guy, he was a fast, happy and kind-hearted person. He was a good friend of everyone, but especially with Zolotukhin. He was quite bad in his studies. Everyone in the class loved him. For some time I helped him in mathematics, as we lived on the same street. He was killed in battle of Kursk in 1943. I studied with him from the 8th grade.

Yuri Novitski. Born in 1923. He was a tall and slim guy. He did not have a sense of humour and was always offended with our jokes. He was an athletic guy and a successful student. He did not have any good friends, I do not know why. He was killed in 1944. I studied together with him from the 1st grade.

Vladimir Popov. Born in 1923. He was a good comrade and a calm person. He could study better. I was friends with him. He was physically strong. He left school before graduation. He completed a course in pilot club and entered a military school of junior specialists. During the war he was a tail gunner and a radioman of a bomber crew. He was killed in 1943. I studied with him from the 8th grade. Everyone in the class respected him.

Leonid Fetisov. Born in 1923. A good guy. I studied with him from the 1st grade. He was tall and calm. He did not do any sports. He had the best grades in the 10th grade, especially in mathematics. We were good friends with him. He was modest and timid. He was the first guy in our class to be killed – on 8 August, 1941 he was killed by a German bomb next to his house at Bolshaya Pochtovaya street.

Alexander Fokin. Born in 1923. He was a tall and athletic guy. He was good at volleyball and taught me to play volleyball, too. He was calm and the most beautiful guy in the whole class. He was quite respected in the class. He had good grades. He, Zolotokhin and I had the best results in high jumps in the whole school during the 10th grade. He studied with us from the 8th grade. He was a sociable and humorous guy. We were good friends and also had another friend from another class – Andrey Otryganiev. That guy survived the war and died in 1955 from stomach cancer. Alexander and I were drafted on the same day; the only difference was that I went into infantry, while he went into artillery academy. He was killed during the battle of Kursk in 1943.

Nikolai Balabanov. Born in 1923. He was of average height, physically weak. He was calm, but he deserved his last name – he was an awful balaban (chatterbox), he could lie very well. He was not a very good student, as he was awfully lazy. He would often copy homework from the others. I studied with him from the 7th grade. I met him after the war, he said that he had been at the front, but I did not understand where he was and what he we was. I have not heard anything about him later.