Could you read naturally, but not very fast, please. Thank you!
In ten days it will be the 9th of May. We are going to celebrate the 70th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War. It is a very important day for us, as every family, including yours, was touched by the tragedy of the war in one way or another. And today I wish to pay tribute to those who fought, who supported the army and to all the people who lived during the Great Patriotic War.
The greatest respect is always given to veterans, who faced the most difficult and most dangerous part of the war: they met an enemy face to face. My cousin’s grandfather, who is now 93, shared his memories with us. In 1943, at the age of 22 he participated in one of the largest tank battles in history, the Battle of Kursk that led to the Soviet Army’s success. He witnessed death, he lost his friends, but he never lost his hope for a life free of fascism.
I feel great admiration for these brave people who are certainly to be on the top of our history. And yet, I personally sympathize more with so called “invisible” war heroes. I want to share a few experiences from my own family history. My grandfather was only 15 when the war broke out. He, as many other young people, was willing to defend his fatherland. However, his low height and small weight disqualified him from participating on the front. Instead, he was sent to cut timber and build roads. At the same time my grandmother, being only 12, also worked during the war period. Both of my grandparents worked and provided as much as they could to those who fought on the war front.
My grandmother from my mother’s side was only 7 at the time. There were two more children, girls, besides her in their family. They lived in a small village. Their father worked in a gold-mine and he was not allowed to leave it. So, the girls lived with their mother. With tears in her eyes, my granny told me how her mother struggled to support their life. Her mother cooked three potatoes a day for her daughters and they tried to make those precious potatoes last as long as possible. The girls, as many other children, lacked clothes and their mother had to make dresses of sacking.
The life was incredibly difficult. Nevertheless, my grandparents overcame the difficult obstacles and managed to survive. They learnt a lot, and they passed their knowledge to my parents, and my parents, in turn, passed it to my brother, sister and me.
The Great Patriotic war was a lesson for all humankind. Over 25 millions of men, women and children gave their lives for the victory. It is almost forty times as much as the current population of Izhevsk. All these people, I would call them real war heroes, contributed greatly to the victory and our happy present and they certainly deserve to be remembered and honored by me, by you, by all of us.
