Thank you for your heroism and hard work: Akim of Pavlodar region continues meetings with veterans
Abylkair Skakov continued his detour of the districts with congratulations to veterans. On May 4, the head of the region visited Yefim Petrenko in the village of Sharbakty, Kuzma Chuikin in the village of Mikhaylovka of the Zhelezinsky district and Maria Matyushina in the village of Sychevka of the Pavlodar district.
Yefim Petrenko retained clarity of mind and a good memory, despite his venerable age. On the twenty-fifth of October this year, he will be 104 years old. Abylkair Skakov wished the veteran good health and good spirits.
- I want to thank you on behalf of all residents of Pavlodar region, - said the head of the region. - Thank you very much for your heroism in the war and work in peacetime.
Efim Petrenko was born in the village of Novoselovka in the Tsuryupinsky (Shcherbaktinsky) district. In the early thirties of the last century, his family, fleeing from hunger, moved to Magnitogorsk. In the thirty-second year they returned to the Shcherbaktinsky district.
After being drafted into the army in 1939, Yefim Petrenko was trained as an artillery topo-geodetic scout. He participated in the Soviet-Finnish War. In May 1941, he was sent to the Kiev Military District as part of the 471st Artillery Howitzer Regiment. Yefim Petrenko said that people of different nationalities served in his department.
- There were Kazakhs, Georgians and Tatars in our topographical survey, - said the veteran. - We were very friendly with each other, helped in every case.
Since June 1941, Yefim Petrenko participated in the battles near Vyazma, in the defense of Moscow. In March 1943, he was invalided out. Upon returning home, Yefim Yemelyanovich worked as an assistant to the head of the Shcherbaktinsky communications office. The skills of a topographer will be useful to him in the work of a land surveyor. From 1946 to 1977, he planned land plots and organized state farms in his native area.
Kuzma Chuikin, a resident of the village of Mikhaylovka and an Honorary citizen of the Zhelezinsky district, turns 100 next October. Since 1942, he participated in the liberation of the Kalmyk steppes, Rostov, Kharkiv and Donetsk regions. In peacetime, he worked as a tractor driver and agronomist. The veteran noted that work makes a person beautiful.
- If everyone works well, then they will live well, - said Kuzma Chuikin. - I wish all people on earth health and goodness.
Maria Matyushina performed important work on the construction of defensive fortifications at the front. As a sixteen-year-old teenager, she enrolled in military camouflage courses in the city of Novomoskovsk. In February 1943, she and her comrades were sent to the front line, where they dug trenches and strengthened bunkers. Maria Alekseevna celebrated Victory Day in the Murmansk region. In Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, she met her future husband, George Matyushin, who went through all the stages of the Second World War. In Kazakhstan, the Matyushin family raised virgin soil in the village of Oktyabrskoye of the Urlyutyubsky state farm of the Zhelezinsky district. In the state farm, Maria Alekseevna winnowed and dried grain on the current, worked as a calf and a sacristy. The veteran's sons Alexander, Valery and Victor worked for many years as drivers of a road train, grader and other heavy equipment. Daughter Galina graduated from Pavlodar Pedagogical College and worked as a primary school teacher until her retirement. Maria Alekseevna has 11 grandchildren, 28 great-grandchildren and 2 great-great-grandchildren.
The press service of the akim of Pavlodar region
Photo by Valery Bugaev and Konstantin Muzalevsky