Vasiliy Mikhailovich Anisimov

Junior Lieutenant / Machine Gun Platoon Commander, Junior Lieutenant of the 125th Guards Rifle Regiment, 43rd Guards Rifle Division. 14 March 1925 – 4 February 1945. War spares no one — neither the young nor the old, nor children. I remember only a little from my grandmother's stories about her brother Vasiliy. He was born in the Leningrad Region, Porkhov District, into a large family with three other children. The news of war caught everyone off guard. My grandfather Vasiliy was young, handsome and healthy. He was not yet 18 when the war began. Despite everything, he volunteered for the front on 25 June 1941 at the age of 16. He was drafted at the Cherepovets Military Commissariat, Vologda Region. He was a machine gun platoon commander, Guards Junior Lieutenant of the 125th Guards Rifle Regiment, 43rd Guards Rifle Division. My great-grandmother dreamt that her son fell from a height. Soon after, she received a death notification from the front. In 1945, the fighting took place in the Latvian SSR. My grandfather was killed on 4 February 1945 in the Battle of the Courland Pocket, never living to see Victory Day, at the age of 19. For a long time our family did not know where exactly he was buried, until my great-grandmother received a letter stating he was initially buried in Latvia, in Kuldiga County, in a mass grave. He was later reburied with military honours at the Kursishi Brothers' Cemetery in Latvia. We are a very close and large family! We are proud, we remember, and we love! No one is forgotten, nothing is forgotten!