VITEBSK, 7 May (BelTA) – A Medal of Valor of a Russian soldier, who fell liberating the Vitebsk Oblast, was passed to his relatives at the Combat Glory Museum of Vitebsk vocational school No 19 on 7 May, BelTA has learned. Penetrated by a fragment, the medal was found near the village of Zaronovo, Vitebsk Oblast, by tourists and passed to the Vitebsk public association “Military and Patriotic Club Poisk”, which operates under the aegis of Vitebsk vocational school No 19. According to president of the association Anatoly Burdo, the medal still had its number, which helped Russian archives unearth that it had been owned by Mikhail Alekseyevich Lukashenkov, sniper of the 51st Guards Rifle Regiment of the 18th Guards Rifle Division. Virtually all the personnel of the military unit fell in battles near Losvido Lake near Vitebsk. After about nine years of searching for the soldier’s relatives across the entire Russia up to Vladivostok and Novosibirsk where he was drafted and stationed, the medal has found its way. A while ago it turned out that relatives of the fallen soldier had been busy searching for him, too. His nephew Alexander Prokopchenko and his son Aleksei traveled from Tolyatti on 7 May to receive the medal of his heroic uncle. According to Alexander Prokopchenko, their search was triggered by the condolence letter and the soldier’s last letter from the frontlines. “He served in Vladivostok for four years, then stayed to work at the shipyard there. He went for the frontlines on 23 June 1941,” said the nephew. The relatives started searching for the grave in 2001. Thanks to the archive service of the town of Gorodok, Vitebsk Oblast, and local lore experts they managed to ascertain the grave and contact activists of the searching for the fallen movement to get the award of their uncle.

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