Employees of the Sakhalin Region Investigations Directorate of the Russia’s Investigative Committee have congratulated veterans of the Great Patriotic War Vasily Trofimovich Bilyk and Albert Ivanovich Shubin and gave them flowers and presents.

Mr. Bilyk was born on 2 May 1926. When the war started he was in the city of Mirgorod, Poltava District and got into occupation. He was held in a concentration camp from 1942 to December 1943. After the release he was called up to the army and sent to Leningrad in artillery brigade. When the war finished with the same regiment and was sent to Sakhalin to take part in the war with Japan. Mr. Bilyk was awarded: medal “for Victory over German in the Great Patriotic War in 1941-1945”, II class Order of the Great Patriotic War.

Albert Ivanovich Shubin was born on 8 October 1925 and was drafted to the Soviet Army in 1943. In 1944, he was sent to infantry school and after that in Eastern Prussia. He was seriously wounded seizure of Königsberg. After leaving hospital Mr. Shubin returned to his mother in the town of Alexandrovsk-Sakhalinsky. On Sakhalin took part in the war with Japan in 1945. He was awarded: medal “For seizing Königsberg”, I class Order of the Great Patriotic War, medal “For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War in 1941-1945”, medal “For the Victory over Japan”.

Soviet soldiers walked thousands of kilometers on the roads of the Great Patriotic War. Over that long and hard path each of them lived a whole life. Even the youngest soldiers returned from the war old men deep inside – seeing and suffering things that is impossible to imagine or describe. This terrible experience made the whole generation wiser and tougher, making them treat human life as the greatest treasure, be tolerable to each other, love their homeland.

On the Day of the Great Victory we bow our heads before you, the veterans of the Great Patriotic War. Rest in peace those who are not with us, but who will live in our hearts and the hearts of the next generations.