A veteran of the Great Patriotic War, who crossed the age-old line, was honored in Frunzensky

A veteran of the Great Patriotic War, a participant in the liberation of Minsk, Fyodor Feshchenko, was congratulated on his 101st birthday on September 25, the correspondent of the Minsk-Novosti agency reports.

On this day, Olga Germanovich, Deputy Head of the Frunzensky District Administration, representatives of social protection bodies, district services, a veteran's organization, public associations and political parties, and young people came to congratulate the birthday person.

O. Germanovich wished the veteran long life and good health:

— Accept the spark of congratulations on behalf of the administration of Frunzensky district. Stay as cheerful, responsive, and active as you are. You are not only a celebrity of our Frunzensky district. You are a role model for every Minsk citizen, every Belarusian. You opened football matches with a symbolic blow, at the age of 100 you went out on subbotniks and participated in sports competitions. And everyone will remember your recent dance dedicated to the Day of National Unity.

The birthday boy told students of secondary schools No. 126 and 138 about his work and combat experience.

In September 1941, Fyodor Sergeyevich went to work at the plant immediately from school. Young people and teenagers in those years replaced adults who had left to fight the Nazis. Shedding sweat and blood, he helped the Soviet troops with his work for two years.

— I clearly knew only one thing — my place at the front, — said the veteran. — It was there. At the age of 17, he realized that he had fulfilled his duty in the rear in two years in full. I just had to fulfill my front duty. Today, everyone understands that communication is the basis of both defense and offensive. I served in the artillery "volatile" — army mobile radiotelephone station. We traveled and established communication with headquarters in the most important areas of the front.

In the summer of 1944, F. Feshchenko first saw Minsk. And the city struck him to the heart. In the center there are ruins, instead of housing — wastelands and burnt furnace pipes. But there was something unusual and attractive in the wounded Minsk. Something that inspired confidence in the future. And when the veteran returned to the capital of the BSSR after the service in 1950, he could not believe his eyes. Instead of ruins, there are wide avenues, majestic high-rise buildings. Construction sites are boiling all around. F. Feshchenko became a student of the Faculty of Geography of BSU and has been living in the capital since then.

"Love your hometown," the veteran instructed the youth. — He is beautiful. Be patriots of your country and prove it by your deeds: now by studying, and then by your work and deeds.

Many wishes and kind words were addressed to the birthday boy.

— I said that "a hundred is not age", and I prove it, — the birthday boy smiled. — I'm already 101 today. I lead an active lifestyle: I play sports, participate in competitions, subbotniks, celebrations and other events. Movement is life, you can't stop. Although, I believe that I am not 101 years old, but only under 80. The war took away a quarter of a century from me. On June 22, 1941, a happy and carefree childhood was at one point crossed out and forgotten, as if it did not exist at all. From the age of 15 to 25, I fought against Nazism: at the factory in the rear, at the front, while serving in Germany. Now I am just living what the war took away from me.

Photo by Irina Malinovskaya