Lydiya and Gordey Sobolev celebrated 70th anniversary of their living together.

   "Love and respect for each other - that is a secret of our family happiness", the Sobolevs told.

   They got acquainted at the Road Technical University, when they both entered it in 1932. He is a son of a legendary divisional commander Fedor Sobolev, who fought together with Voroshilov. And she was a thin girl with big brown eyes and long black hair. That time they were both 16.

   "She was very responsible and accurate", he recalls. "Her copy-books always contained the fullest answers on all the questions".

   And she was charmed by his amazingly beautiful voice. The whole four years they had been sitting at the same desk and got married right after getting diplomas. Gordey submitted his documents to the Military Engineering Academy. But when he came to the military service he was told the following:

   "You have already got an engineering education. Your motherland needs Stalin's best pilots".

   And Sobolev was sent to Katchinsk Military Flying School. That time Vasilyi Stalin - the son of the USSSR leader had been studying senior course. "Cadet number one" differed from the rest. He lived in a separate room, but not in a casern. Even instructors and officers were a little bit afraid of him.

   Having graduated from the School, Gordey Sobolev was sent to Moscow, to a group, preparing test-pilots. His friends felt some jealousy of him - he got an opportunity of testing new planes, driving a plane that nobody had flown by it before, and fight. A brilliant career. One could only dream of it. That time names of test pilots were famous all over the country. And their portraits were printed in each newspaper.

   But a young wife protested.

   "I need neither fame nor medals, everything I need is you".

   And he stayed with her. A young promising graduator (he graduated from the School ahead of schedule - in a year and four months) was given an order to go to a standard air unit. In a year he was ordered to go to a place called Skomorohy, near Zhitomir - a center, where prepared pilots for rendering aid to a revolutionary Spain.

   Pilots tried to calm down their wives, saying they would come back with medals very early. Of course, they had more privileges before the rest, but not everybody returned from that unknown war.

  G-d saved her husband. By the time their group was prepared, war in Spain had finished. Nazi soldiers won and nobody needed help. They returned to their standard air unit. Lida had a sigh with relief.

  Their daughter was born on June 8, 1941. In two weeks …

   He went to war and she, together with her daughter, mother and mother-in-law were evacuated to Siberia.5 years of letter-writing had started. Gordey fought in Voronezh. She had been waiting for him, listening to radio news and waiting for letters.

  Lydiya worked at a plant, producing shoes, barely making ends meet. But she didn't mention that in her letters. "We love you and wait for you, come back as soon as possible".

   "What had helped you that time? What had saved you?" - I ask him now.

  "I hoped and knew that they had been waiting for me", - the veteran told. "And of course, letters".

   Lidyay Mikhailovna saved all the letters he sent her from the front. There are more than 200 of them.

Dmitryi Matveev