The oldest resident of the city of Turkmenabat, Ivan Vasilyevich Agupov, is one of those whose youth fell during the war years of 1941-1945. The chest of a war and labor veteran is decorated with medals for military merits and anniversary medals.

As reported in the Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper, he was born in 1927 in the village of Verkhne-Voevo, Levo-Rossoshinsky district, Voronezh region. In 1944, young Ivan, who by that time was seventeen years old, was called up for service and sent to the Far Eastern Front. But first there was military training in the garrison, where future soldiers were trained in combat tactics in desert and waterless conditions. As it turned out later, the experience gained was useful in the arid desert of Mongolia in battles against the powerful Kwantung Army.

Ivan Vasilyevich’s combat journey turned out to be short, only eight months, but difficult. He and his colleagues had to confront one of the most powerful armies in the world. The news of the surrender of Nazi Germany reached the young marksman when there were no serious battles on the Eastern Front. He remembers how everyone rejoiced at the Victory, and hope arose for a quick return home. But not everyone was destined to live a peaceful life; many of his colleagues laid down their lives in the battles for the final defeat of the Kwantung Army. Ivan Vasilyevich was lucky; he was not even injured.

After the war, the unit in which the Voronezh guy served was relocated to Lebap velayat, where he continued to serve until November 1951.

His service in the city on the Amu Darya became fateful. Here he met his future wife Alexandra and after demobilization he remained with her in Chardzhou. He immediately got a job at the Maklovsky poultry farm in the Chardzhou region and worked there for almost a year as a driver. His further fate before retirement is connected with the railway. He started as a senior conductor in the Chardzhou-Kungrad direction, who served the temporary operation department of the railway. At that time, the construction of the railway line beyond Kungrad was not completed. Then he was transferred several times to different areas. He was the head of the track road workshops at the Chardzhou station, a mechanic, and a sawmill. In January 1991 he retired and is on a well-deserved rest.

Together with his wife Alexandra, he raised five children, who gave them fourteen grandchildren, and they, in turn, great-grandchildren. Now her daughter Evgenia, who worked in the post office before her retirement, lives with her father. Every year, on the eve of Victory Day, the veteran is visited by representatives of local authorities and public organizations and presented with gifts on behalf of the President of Turkmenistan, for which Ivan Vasilyevich is sincerely grateful to the head of state, the source notes.