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p February 20, 1944

p As I go into battle, I swear to do my sacred duty for my homeland and put all my hatred into my fighting skill-it will treble my strength!

p Even when I’m gone, my feat of arms will not be forgotten. I would have liked to have lived but I have to sacrifice myself so that my happy country may live and prosper, so that others may live.

p My dear country, accept my modest gift for your good, and remember that I, brought up, fed and reared by you] have repaid you with everything I had.

p I, your son, was devoted to you right up to my dying days and I have carried out my duty as a Communist and soldier with a pure heart.

p I have died so that you may live. I loved you fervently, my homeland, and I hated your enemies.

p ... The final salvoes will die away and the dark war clouds will disperse to reveal a free homeland, a free nation. And whoever of you will live to see that great victory day, that clear and joyful day, remember and pass on the story of those who did not spare themselves to bring that day, who gave their lives for it, to bring our triumph near.

p You know, I, too, wanted to be with you on that day.

p On that day I want you, Natasha dear, to remember the man who used to live for you and, dying, used to think of you, my unforgettable sweetheart.

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p Dearest mother, Lyalechka, Pavlik and Lyonechka, don’t grieve and weep for me, lighten your grief with the thought that I was true to my duty to the very end, to my soldier’s job and shed my blood to hasten victory day.

p Dear friends, I ask you for the last time to let my comrades-in-arms know about this pledge. Then send it to my family and write about me to Natalya Sergeyevna Ivanova, born 1927, living at 1/4 Sovietsky Lane, Anzhero-Sudzhensk, Kemerovo Region.

My mother’s address: Valentina Nikolayevna Usova, Lednevo State Farm, Nebylovsky District, Ivanovo Region.

p Vadim Usov was born on November 24, 1923. In 1941, he finished secondary school in Leningrad and gained admission to the Dzerzhinsky Higher Naval-Engineering College. His dream was to study and join the Navy.

At the end of 1941, he was sent with other cadets to the front. Right from the start the young cadet scorned death and fought where the fighting was at its hottest. He became a battle-hardened N.C.O. in no time. His comrades liked him for his modesty and his fearlessness, for his sensitive, kind heart.

Vadim Usov

p He fought his last battle on February 20, 1944, in Karelia. From a bunker on a hill, the nazis had raked with fire just about every foot of ground and it would have been risking mass suicide for the Soviet men to have attempted an assault of the hill. Then the unit commander ordered Vadim Usov, a gun crew commander, to push his gun as close as possible to the bunker and blast it wide open. It took Vadim’s crew eight shells to set the bunker on fire. But by this time enemy shells from two gun batteries fell so thick and fast around Usov’s field piece that it was a miracle they did not make a direct hit. Vadim Usov gave the order for his men to take cover in the trenches while he made a dash for his gun. But a shell got there first and he was killed by shrapnel.

When the battle was over, Vadim’s comrades found his “Battle Pledge" among his documents.