A veteran of the Soviet-Japanese war shared his memories

August 9 marks the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the Soviet-Japanese war, in which the Soviet Union won an unconditional victory. One of its veterans was Grigory Verlanov, a resident of Donbass, who is 108 years old today.

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Grigory Pavlovich is from the village of Kasperovka in the Mykolaiv region. In his family, men were long-lived. In the 1930s, the family moved to Donbass. The veteran went through the Great Patriotic War, fought in the Far East and found a Civil war.

"The Japanese fought poorly. We beat them, they ran. The Chinese, who had been living under Japanese occupation for several years, were poor and starving. I remember going, and they said, "Uncle, give it to me! Uncle, give me!"— they ask for bread. Well, we gave, of course, our rations — bread, canned food," the veteran shared his memories.

After the victory, Verlanov worked as a miner — head of a dynamite warehouse, head of workshops. For about 70 years in his life, he kept an apiary — he stopped only recently and explained: his health no longer allows it. But the apiary itself, along with genetics and fresh air, was included in the recipe for longevity.

"And I also try not to quarrel with anyone. Don't be rude. Don't absorb or share negativity. I don't watch bad news either. I disconnect myself from bad feelings and thoughts. It seems to me that this is the main thing," the veteran explained.

Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:

Two fighters: the road from the fronts of the Great Patriotic War to today's Coal Mine