In 2020, our country celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Great Patriotic War victory. This is a holiday mixed with tears. We gratefully remember war veterans and homefront workers who fought heroically to ensure peace for the future generations.

“A war is the most terrible, senseless and unnatural act in human history because it kills people and destroys whatever they worked to make. However, we defended ourselves and our homeland, so we rightfully considered it was a fair war on our part. Both writers and generals wrote a lot about the war. Some of them mostly described military aspects, others showed human behaviour and feelings. Veterans share their war memories highlighting specific facts; such stories are unique and, therefore, very interesting”. This what B.V. Ryzhov, Great Patriotic War veteran, who has worked in TsNIGRI for almost 30 years, wrote. The first and the second generations of the institute’s employees, war veterans, homefront workers and war children, shared their experience gained during war years. Now we present their memories.