Biography

Born in Kushugum, Zaporizhzhia Oblast. His father was killed, and his mother died of starvation in 1933. He struggled to survive as best he could at an early age. During the war, he was captured by the Germans, but he and a friend managed to escape.
After the war, he went to work as a lathe operator at the Zaporizhzhia Abrasive Plant. He met Nina Shepeleva, and they soon married. They had a son, Vitaly, in 1950, and a daughter, Tatyana, in 1953.
They built a house. In retirement, he and his wife tended their vegetable garden and orchard.
He died on the morning of March 9, 2004, at home.
He is buried at the Pervomayskoye (Southern) Cemetery in Zaporizhzhia.