good at the time. We had to use hand hair clippers to serve new recruits. The hairs were up to our knees but we were performing our service ”.

Boris and his family were evacuated to Voronezh, where Boris found work as a barber on a nearby collective farm. He was soon drafted and sent to a military academy in Ashkhabad before being stationed on the front lines in Ukraine. Boris was an infantry soldier in a “breakthrough unit” made up of shock troops that would typically attack an enemy’s rear position or communication infrastructure. He was primarily responsible for guarding the unit’s colours and command centre.

“Most of the time we were part of the second echelon, as ours was a break-through division. Once we had captured an area we were withdrawn to the second echelon. Afterwards fresh forces used to come to our positions. As I was with the regiment’s colours, it meant that most of the time I was guarding the HQ and the regiment’s colours. ”.

Later in the war, Boris was shot in the arm by a sniper.

“A sniper wounded me. I was put on a truck and taken to the home front. I was admitted to a hospital that was in a catholic church. After recuperation I arrived at Novozybkov. The medical commission found that I was a group 2 invalid. I was unable to perform my usual job due to the hand/arm injury”.

Boris spent the remainder of the war in an administrative role at his unit head quarters.