Ivan: Grandfather’s WWII Memories

While showing me around Kursk, Ivan, a foreign languages graduate student, shared with me a memorable conversation he had with his grandfather. He said his grandfather, a native Azeri, didn’t like watching WWII films because it brought back bad memories. “He told me war was pure hell, watching your friends die.” Like many of his generation, his grandfather lied about his age to fight. When they were celebrating his 80th birthday a decade ago, he was actually 79.