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Immortal Regiment KRSU. It couldn't have been any other way! (Khalil Kadzhiev)
Each family has a history associated with relatives and friends who went through the Great Patriotic War. There are many memories, different stories, but one thought runs through them as a red thread – liberation of the Motherland.
The heroism of the Soviet warrior, responsibility for the country and people, duty, honor, conscience, and finally, the lives that the soldiers gave without thinking for a minute to destroy the enemy – all this is inscribed in the history of those terrible days.
I have the opportunity to tell a story about the fate of a loved one who brought such an important and necessary Victory closer – the story of my grandfather Khalil Abuzarovich Kadzhiev, who honorably went through all the hardships of the war. We, his children and grandchildren, will proudly celebrate the 75th anniversary of Victory Day, remembering the true history of the Great Patriotic War.
In those days of hard times there was no division along ethnic lines; the Soviet Union acted as a multinational army.
My grandfather was born in 1914 in Azerbaijan, into the family of a wealthy peasant. Like tens of thousands of other families, his family was deported from their historical homeland. In 1933, my grandfather’s family reached the village of Kant. This path can be compared to the circles of hell – on the way, his mother and two brothers died. Khalil steadfastly accepted these blows; in his new place he began to work the hardest jobs, uprooting thickets of reeds, and digging drainage collectors.
When the Great Patriotic War began, my grandfather was 27 years old. By that time he already had his own family – wife and little daughter. First, he was called to the artillery training school in the city of Tokmak, where he underwent training for two months. Then he left to defend his homeland. For two years he fought courageously at the fronts.
Grandfather was a Muslim believer, studied in madrassas since childhood, and even in war he did not forget to turn to God. Death was nearby, the soldiers were sometimes overcome by despair, but they promised to return alive and defeat the fascist horde, so talking with God in war was extremely important. Fellow soldiers asked my grandfather to show him how to do prayer and what to say. In the company he was an example – he knew the suras of the Koran, Muslims, at the request of fellow soldiers, he gave land according to Islamic canons.
In November 1943, near the Kursk Bulge, Red Army soldier Kadzhiev was seriously wounded – blindly wounded his right hand by a mine fragment, and after a year of treatment, as a war invalid, he was demobilized.
My grandfather returned home immediately after discharge. He arrived by train in his village, the way home passed through the local market, where at that time his wife, my grandmother, was selling milk. What was left to feed the family.
That day, from the very morning, her heart beat in a special way, her thoughts were only about her husband. Is he alive? Standing at a homemade wooden counter, thinking, she looked up and saw a skinny soldier with his hand tied to his chest. The grandmother’s heart began to beat stronger, she leaned forward, and only by her green eyes could she recognize the soldier as her husband. He reached out to his daughter, who was standing nearby, and she burst into tears, not understanding what was happening...
Home, family, dear lands – the best medicine. A day after returning, my grandfather went to work on the state farm, essentially with one working hand.
He devoted his entire life to Kyrgyz soil, working with a ketmen in his hands until he was very old. Our family keeps his awards from peacetime – for high harvests, valiant work, tireless assistance to the front, including the medal «Veteran of Labor».
For his heroism at the front, his grandfather was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, II degree (in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Great Victory of the Soviet people), and for courage in the rear he received medals «For long-term conscientious work», many certificates and gratitude.
Grandfather almost never talked about what he had to endure. But children are children. They asked questions all the time. And only when everyone was watching Soviet films about the war together, he pointed to the screen and said: «But here I am, children, shooting at tanks!». The children believed and were proud of him.
Grandfather celebrated Victory Day in his small homeland. When asked by the children whether the grandfather believed in the victory that his fellow soldiers remained «to forge», while he himself was demobilized home, he proudly and without the slightest delay said: «...it could not have been any other way!».
Kamilla Kadzhieva,
student of the FMO
