Maria Komarovskaya’s brother, Iosif Komarovsky with his friends

My brother, Iosif Komarovsky, on the left, with his friends. The photo was made in 1937 in Kiev. My brother, Iosif Komarovsky, finished school in 1937 and entered the Leningrad Military-Engineering College. Iosif was a very cheerful guy. Very often his friends came together at our house and they always invited me too. I worshipped my brother. I remember how he sent us pictures from his college, how proud he was that he would become and officer. In 1939 he fell very ill and he was sent home for treatment. He spent several weeks at home and then we saw him off to Leningrad again. I remember that seeing-off very well, because I have never again seen my brother. He and all of his co-students were sent to the Finnish war. My brother was killed in January 1940 having not reached even 20 years old. One of his friends from the college wrote about this to his friend in Kiev. That friend went to my father's work because he was afraid to come to our house. Then my father told my mother and me about it. And only later we received an official message that Lieutenant Iosif Yakovlevich Komarovsky died as a hero. We also received some money; maybe it was his salary, as well as his notebook, our letters to him and pictures. So, by the time the war with Germany broke out, my brother had already been dead.