"My name is Perkova Tatyana Andreevna. I was 14 years old when the war began. I was born in the Smolensk region, Novoduginsky district, village of Pontyushino.
The chairman of the collective farm and the village council announced the beginning of the war to us. He had special headphones, and thanks to them, he quickly learned all the latest news from the front. There was a large barrel in the village, and he would bang on it every time he wanted to report some news.
I have a large family. My dad was a military man. My parents had four children, and I am the oldest. The house was located near the forest. That's where we hid during the war.
The Germans arrived on motorcycles – there were five people on each. They immediately went to the houses. They shot the piglets in our barn with a pistol. They killed the chickens, and feathers were flying all over the yard. My father managed to inform us about what was happening, and we hid in the forest. In the summer, we gathered berries and mushrooms there. And the Germans were afraid of the forest; they didn't go there. One day, partisans came from the forest to the village to help; the Germans got scared and ran away. But, unfortunately, they destroyed many houses and burned them”.