It’s one of the projects dedicated to 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. To honor this event and to preserve historical memory, 2020 was proclaimed the Year of Memory and Glory. 

- Each soldier has his own truth about the war, says Lyubov Stepanovna Yezhova, Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation, Honorary Citizen of the Satkinsky District, the local lore expert who wrote and compiled the new publication. – The book that came out is the truth about the Great Patriotic War told through fates of Satka residents – Heroes of the Soviet Union. Satka have ten of them: Aleksey Stepanovich GOLOVIN, Yegor Fedorovich ZELYONKIN, Grigory Mikhailovich LAPTEV, Leonid Kuzmich KUZNETSOV, Ivan Nikolayevich NEMCHINOV, Mikhail Antonovich NEMCHINOV, Ivan Nikolayevich PLOKHIKH, Dmitry Sergeyevich RAKSHIN, Anatoly Georgievich SAFONOV, Vasily Vasilyevich SHAROV. 

In the book, reader can find many facts published for the first time. For example, about Hero of the Soviet Union, Honored Test Pilot of the USSR colonel Kozlov Mikhail Vasilievich who turned out to be also related to the Satkinsky District. Information about him was issued for the first time, as well as the detailed information, collected by us, about full Cavalier of the Order of Glory Papyshev Grigory Ivanovich. The book contains excerpts from literary and documentary works, magazines, newspaper articles, poems and letters, copies of materials from museums of the district. Memoirs of the heroes are supplemented by stories of their relatives, friends, fellow soldiers. The publication is illustrated with photographs, pictures, copies of newspapers. Reader can learn materials from award sheets where feats of the war veterans are described.

- Lyubov Stepanovna, tell us how was new information searched, did you work not only with archives of local museums?

- First of all, I was looking for people who could give additional information about the Heroes, in addition to the information that was already known. In Satka, I found Leonid Kuzmich Maslov, husband of Antonina Anatolievna Maslova (Safonova), daughter of Anatoly Georgievich Safonov. Unfortunately, she is no longer alive. But the husband agreed to provide photographs from the family archive.

On May 9, 2018, when the bust of Ivan Nikolayevich Plokhikh was opened, I met with his daughter, Nina Ivanovna Maklakova (she came for the holiday from Novotroitsk, Orenburg Region), who also provided a number of post-war family photos, and told how the father lived after the war and what he was keen to. We got acquainted with Nina Ivanovna long before this event, and we transferred some photos from her archive to the workshop of Ivan Korzhev for work on the bust, readers will see these photos in the book. 

Relatives of Aleksey Stepanovich Golovin were also found – his daughter Lyudmila Tokareva lives in Volgograd, and his grandson Matvey Chistyakov – in Moscow. Lyudmila Alekseyevna really helped me with photos and text which also enriched the stock of our museum of local lore. We spoke by phone several times. Speaking about her father, she told about his tragic and absurd death: he stepped on energized wire when hunting. I also called to his grandson. On one of his vacations, he went to Volgograd and photographed the memorial plaque with the inscription: “This is the house where Aleksey Stepanovich Golovin, Hero of the Soviet Union, participant of the Great Patriotic War, scout lived in 1969 – 1981.” Unfortunately, the photo arrived too late and was not included in the book. However, it’s in our museum now.

I’m really sorry I couldn’t talk with Ilya Zelyonkin who is great-grandson of Yegor Fedorovich and lives in Moscow; with Tatyana Georgievna Timofeyeva, granddaughter of Mikhail Antonovich Nemchinov. For some reason, they did not want to come into contact.

And, of course, I used materials of museums, the military registration and enlistment office, mass media, materials collected and published in various publications by local lore expert, searcher Oleg Dedov, Raulya Islamova’s memoirs about her trip to Ukraine (she worked in the museum of local lore in 1980s and was at the opening of the Sharov’s monument in village Belokrinichye, Shepetovsky District) and open source materials. 

- The book has the section “Entitled To Be Remembered” – is it a separate story?

- Memory of those who died during the war is sacred. And Satka residents are trying to keep it. And this is right what this section is about – it tells about how district dwellers honor their heroes, about their careful attitude to the wartime past of their home, their relatives, fellow countrymen, how they keep all information about them. They name streets, schools, leisure and health centers after the heroes, they erect busts, memorial plaques, they publish books. You can also find more about it in the new publication. In addition, there is list of supplementary literature about each of the heroes at the end of the book. 

Drawn up by Anna Filippova.

Photo by Anna Dubrovskaya and Vasily Maksimov.

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500 copies of the book “We Remember All Heroes by Name” was published with support of the Cultural Initiative Supporting & Preservation Fund "Sobranie", some of them were decorated with special gift cover – red with gold stamping.

Employees of museums and libraries of the district, local lore experts Svetlana Golovina, Galina Golovko, Valentina Dobina, Raulya Islamova, Sergey Pavlov, Natalya Bogdanyuk and Oleg Dedov have greatly contributed to selection of materials. The project is curated by Anna Dubrovskaya ("Sobranie" Fund). 

Publishing and printing company COSTA (St. Petersburg) made the book layout, design and proofreading, printing house IPK BIONT (St. Petersburg) did the printing. 

Not only the book will become a gift publication, but it will also be transferred to city and school libraries, museums, the archive of the district, and, of course, to relatives and friends of the heroes.

The Alley of Heroes of the Soviet Union in the Square of Glory is created on initiative of Magnezit Group President S.P. Korostelev. First four busts were installed in 2017 and 2018, another four – in 2019. The final two ones will be installed in 2020 for 75th anniversary of the Great Victory. Their author is sculptor of monuments, Honored Artist of Russia Ivan Korzhev.