"I've loved sports all my life, I played volleyball myself. In 1949, when I came back from the war, I attended the opening of the hockey season. I've been a hockey fan ever since," a 98-year-old WWII veteran Kauiy Khasanov told students of the Volga Region University of Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism today. Student activists, headed by Rafis Burganov, the rector of the university, congratulated the veteran on the 78th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War.
On behalf of Rustam Minnikhanov, Mayor of Kazan Ilsur Metshin, Ilya Volfson, State Duma deputy of the 8th convocation and himself the rector presented the veteran with gifts, letters of thanks and words of gratitude for his courage and bravery.
Participant of the Great Patriotic War Kauy Basyrovich, despite his advanced age, easily and joyfully talked to the new generation. He told how he went through the war, what he did after the war, introduced them to his family and shared the motto of his life.
"You have to be yourself and be devoted to your homeland, love your homeland. If you love your homeland, courage will come to you. This is a saying of a famous general of ours. Devotion to the Motherland is necessary," the aksakal emphasized, with a kind smile on his face.
Khasanov Kauy Basyrovich was born in the Chelyabinsk region, Kunashak village, in a peasant family. In a family there were seven children.
In 1927 his family moved to Chelyabinsk, where he went to Grade 1. Received 7 classes of education. After school he went to vocational school number 9.
In March, 1943 he went to the army as a volunteer. He fought on the 1st Baltic front, participated in the liberation of Smolensk and Belorussian regions.
During the capture of Polotsk he received a bullet wound in his right arm. He spent 2 months in hospital in Ivanovo region, then returned to the front, continued to fight on the Ukrainian front (5th separate communications battalion).
On April, 8, 1945, he was wounded by shrapnel. - On April, 8 1945 I received a shrapnel wound.
At the end of 1949 I demobilized. In 1950 he married, with the wife lived 53 years. Has two daughters. One lives in Kazan, the second - in the Kaliningrad region.
After the war I worked at the "Polyot" Production Association as a fitter, as well as at the Automobile Transport Technical School in Chelyabinsk, where I conducted the practical training.
In 1987, he moved to Kazan.
Kauy Basyrovich is a teacher with a long experience. During all his life he is engaged in saving and perpetuating the memory of the heroic deed of the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, educating the youth and the rising generation.
He was awarded the Order of Glory, the Order of the Red Banner of Labour, the Order of National war of the 1-st degree, medals: for courage, for capture of Vienna, for capture of Budapest, for Victory over Germany.
