Letter to descendants from a simple tanker

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

This find shocked many people … "And I am happy that I am leaving you with great love …" A quarter of a century after the war in a deep forest near Vyazma, a BT tank with a clearly visible tactical number 12 was found buried in the ground. there was a gaping hole.

When the car was opened, the remains of a junior lieutenant tanker were found in the place of the driver. He had a revolver with one cartridge and a tablet, and in the tablet there was a map, a photograph of his girlfriend and a letter:

October 25, 1941

Hello, my Varya! No, we will not meet with you. Yesterday at noon we smashed another Hitler column. The fascist shell pierced the side armor and exploded inside. While I was driving the car into the forest, Vasily died.

My wound is cruel. I buried Vasily Orlov in a birch grove. It was light in it. Vasily died, without having time to say a single word to me, did not convey anything to his beautiful Zoya and white-haired Mashenka, who looked like a dandelion in fluff.

This is how one of the three tankers was left. In the dark, I drove into the forest. The night passed in agony, a lot of blood was lost. Now, for some reason, the pain that burns through my entire chest has subsided and my soul is quiet.

It’s a shame that we didn’t do everything. But we did our best. Our comrades will chase the enemy, who should not walk through our fields and forests.

I would never have lived my life like that if it weren't for you, Varya. You have always helped me: on Khalkhin Gol and here. Probably, after all, whoever loves is kinder to people.

Thank you, dear! A person is getting old, and the sky is forever young, like your eyes, into which you can only look and admire. They will never grow old, never fade.

Time will pass, people will heal their wounds, people will build new cities, grow new gardens. Another life will come, other songs will be sung.

But never forget the song about us, about the three tankers. You will have beautiful children, you will still love.

And I am happy that I am leaving you with great love for you.

Your Ivan Kolosov"