The Great Patriotic War knocked every house in the village of Karmaly of Yantikovski district of the Chuvash Republic. The Afanasievs was not an exception.
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«Афанасьев Н.»
The Great Patriotic War knocked every house in the village of Karmaly of Yantikovski district of the Chuvash Republic. The Afanasievs was not an exception.
Afanasiy Illarionovich and Agafiya Andreevna had 6 children: 4 daughters and 2 sons. Nikolai, the third child in the family, was born in 1923. Kolya was one of the brightest pupils at school. He was a clever, industrious and honest boy. Nikolai wanted to become an accountant.
In July 1942 Nikolai was called to the Red Army. He was directed to the Kalininsky front. Kolya served in the 178th rifle division located not far from Rzhev.
On Junuary 28, 1943, the group of secret service men under the command of a senior sergeant Nikolai Afanasiev received a task to annihilate the enemy’s machine gun. Near the village of Kondrakovo the soldiers got under strong machine gun fire. It was impossible to make the gun silent. Then Nikolai began crawling towards the point. He threw a grenade and the machine gun stopped firing. But in a minute it revived again. Then Kolya rose, rushed to the point and closed the embrasure with his body. At the cost of his life he helped his friends to advance.
Kolya fell near the fir- trees and he was buried under them. His friends put up a monument crowned with a red star to him.
Nikolai Afanasiev made Alexander Matrosov’s deed. He was awarded posthumously the Order of the Red Star.
The villagers of Karmaly and all Chuvash people will never forget their countryman.
On October, 29, 1975, Afanasiev’s bust-monument was set up in his native school (the sculptor is Mairaslov Alexei Petrovich). In May 1976 a beautiful square named after the Hero was laid out. And on the both sides of it there are fir-trees planted by schoolchildren and his relatives, exactly as under Rzhev.Since 1967 his native street is called Afanasiev Street. And I am, Avtonomova Ekaterina, proud of living in the street of the Hero.
Eternal glory to Nikolai Afanasiev!