“So Many Joyful Tears!”: Veterans Recall the Moment They Met Victory in 1945

For veterans, Victory Day is literally forged from heroic deeds. These are the people who stood firm where standing seemed impossible. Behind every name lies a story of courage and valour; behind every medal, countless lives saved. They witnessed horrors that no other generation should ever have to see.

We have gathered the testimonies of those whose steadfastness proved stronger than steel — living legends who forged peace in the bloodiest and most harrowing years, and who, with all their strength, brought closer that long-awaited spring of 1945.

More than three million people — every third Belarusian — perished during the Great Patriotic War. That is the terrible price our country paid for the Great Victory. Today they are called “the last heroes”: those who left for the unknown in 1941 and returned home in 1945 with tears in their eyes. In all of Belarus, only 574 such living legends remain. Their words and their truth are now our most reliable living shield against any attempt to rewrite history.

The parade tunic of a veteran shines with medals, yet behind each one lie hundreds of terrible days and nights when any moment could have been the last.

Our hero, Fyodor Sergeyevich Fechenko, met the war as a fourteen-year-old boy in Nizhny Tagil. Only yesterday an eighth-grader, like thousands of his peers he longed to go to the front. Instead, the front came to him — in the workshops of first a tank plant and later an aircraft factory.

Fyodor Fechenko, veteran of the Great Patriotic War:

“I worked there as an apprentice turner on a DIP-200 lathe. Right next door was the tank factory. We watched train after train arrive from the European part of the USSR carrying trophies — battered German tanks and guns. Metal was desperately needed. Tank crews would come straight to the factory to collect their new machines — whole crews, young, cheerful, absolutely certain of victory.”

For those labouring in the rear, the path to the front was closed. But in January 1943, Fyodor exchanged his lathe for a rifle, receiving his Red Army soldier’s book. After basic training, the seventeen-year-old was sent to the front as a signals soldier with the 3rd Belorussian Front, where he took part in the legendary Operation Bagration.

Fyodor Fechenko:

“We entered Minsk. I served as a radio and telephone specialist. We had a vehicle called the ‘Little Flyer’. Wherever communications were needed, we would appear with the regimental signals chief, Safonov, ensuring contact between divisional commanders and their batteries.”

Yadviga Erobkina, participant in the Great Patriotic War:

“We had only just left for Gomel. There were so many people. Suddenly they announced there would be an urgent government broadcast. All the vehicles stopped. No one was allowed to pass. And then came the words: ‘The war has begun.’”

Last year Yadviga Genrikhovna celebrated her 100th birthday. Despite her venerable age, her memory still vividly preserves the events of those years. The war found her a very young girl. At eighteen she volunteered for the front and served as a medical orderly in a hospital train until the final victory. Thousands of wounded soldiers passed through her caring hands.

Yadviga Erobkina:

“There was fear. When the hospital trains came under fire or bombing, everyone who could walk would jump out onto the platform. But I had a carriage full of the severely wounded — thirteen of them, lying in hammocks, all heavily bandaged and in very grave condition. There was only Aunt Pasha — the conductor, nurse and orderly all in one. I was terrified I wouldn’t be able to protect them. I never thought about myself.”

She met Victory in Czechoslovakia. That day remains crystal clear in her memory even now.

Yadviga Erobkina:

“We were standing on a siding, waiting to head to the front. Suddenly everyone started celebrating. People were drinking and rejoicing. That’s how I met Victory.”

Grigory Baykov, veteran of the Great Patriotic War:

“Planes came roaring overhead. They flew over Bogushevsk and bombed us in the morning.”

Grigory Petrovich Baykov is another example of unbreakable will. He met the first minutes of the war in Bogushevsk. As soon as the bombs began falling near the settlement, the young boy dug a trench in the yard and hid his entire family inside it.

Grigory Baykov:

“The Germans were already advancing and occupying our land. A German soldier approached our trench and asked, ‘Are there any Russian soldiers here?’ We said, ‘No, no.’ He told us to go to the village they had occupied.”

Having honourably endured all the hardships of war, in 1944 he found himself in a rifle division in Minsk. It was there, amid the harsh conditions near the front line, that he met the most important spring of his life — the spring of 1945.

Grigory Baykov:

“I heard the barrack door open. ‘The war is over!’ the duty officer shouted, waking everyone up. There was so much joy… and so many joyful tears!”

Time is relentless, and the number of those who witnessed that spring grows smaller with every passing year. That is why their memories today are our genetic code and our nation’s most precious inheritance.

No matter how many films are made or books written after the war, no one can tell the story of that war as these people can — the true heroes and living witnesses of all the terrible events that unfolded on the very land where we now live our peaceful lives.

Belarus is proud. Belarus remembers!