p September 28, 1942

... 158th Division ... 259th Regiment. Whoever finds this letter will know that we died for our country. September 28, 1942, in the town of Lisichansk. Seryozha Blinov from Leningrad, 24, wounded Vanya Kharitonov and I, Styopa Mukhin, 26. We swear we shall fight for our country to the end. Please send this to Leningrad, 24 Chapayev Street, District Military Committee. Death to the fascists! Good-bye. We shall die. Avenge us....

p In the summer of 1960, some boys found an old cartridge case in a ravine near Lisichansk, where the town slopes down to the Northern Donets. There was a small sheet of paper from a school notebook in the cartridge case, on which the vow of the three soldiers had been written in indelible pencil.

p The note was in bad shape and it was impossible to make out several words. The surname Blinov was difficult to decipher. It might have been Blitov. But the date September 28, 1942, was fairly clear.

At that time Lisichansk had been a long way behind enemy lines. In July 1942, Hitler’s forces had passed farther on to Lugansk and Rostov. In September the fighting had raged up to the Volga. But here is evidence that two and a half months after the fall of Lisichansk fighting was still going on, apparently underground. This trio, like many others, fell defending their native soil, but never surrendered.