40

p January 28, 1942

p Dear comrades,

p I’ve done all I could. I took over command of the battalion after our commander had been wounded, and I continued the attack according to orders. I proudly looked death in the face because I have a Bolshevik heart. I am not afraid to die. I have fought hard because I love my people, my country and my Party.

p As I die on the field of battle, I want to tell my comradesin-arms that I have never known cowardice or panic.

p My dying wish is that you destroy fascism once and for all. Be heroes of war so that history will remember you as valiant defenders of Russian land.

p I hope that you, courageous Russian soldiers, will avenge my death.

p Let my folks know how I lived and died.

Farewell, dear comrades-in-arms,
Ivan Balabanov

p On January 28, 1942, Junior Political Instructor Balabanov led a group of soldiers in an attack on an enemy post in the village of Gusevo.

p The enemy had firmly dug in. Every house, every barn had been turned into a stubborn nest of resistance. With the cry "Death to the nazi swine!" Balabanov, under heavy fire, rushed ahead of his soldiers to the nearest barn.

p Though seriously wounded and losing blood, Balabanov forced his way into the barn. Stunned by the audacity of the attack, the enemy machine-gunners fled in panic.

The battle died down. As his strength began to ebb, Balabanov sensed that his hour was near. With shaking hands he took a sheet 41 of paper from his map-case and wrote a few words to his comrades. Again the fighting flared up. The Soviet soldiers rushed forward again and again. The enemy was pushed back. His friends found Ivan Balabanov dead. In the cold hand of their beloved leader, the soldiers found a small sheet of paper-his last note.

Ivan Balabanov