The museum "Lopasnya-Zachatievskoe Estate" received a request fr om the museum of Fort No. 11 "Dönhof" in the city of Kaliningrad, to help in the search for relatives of the fallen hero Anatoly Alekseevich Elizarov, a native of Lopasnya district, who died and was buried on the Kaliningrad land.

During the Great Patriotic War on 7 April 1945, during the assault on Königsberg, units of the 11th Guards Army took Fort 11 "Dönhof". Before the start of the military operation, a reconnaissance of the area was made, in which Sergeant Elizarov Anatoly Alekseevich participated. The scouts came under fire. Sergeant Elizarov was mortally wounded. Posthumously he was presented to the award - the Order of the Great Patriotic War of the I degree. He was buried on the territory of the fort.

Employees of the Estate "Lopasnya-Zachatievskoye" during search works established that Anatoly was a native of the village of Lopasnya, Lopasnya district, Moscow region, born in 1923. He was conscripted on 21.01.1943 by Lopasnya RVC, Moscow region.

At the moment of conscription Anatoly added two years to himself, in fact he went to the front as an eighteen-year-old young man. His father, Aleksey Konstantinovich Elizarov, was the chairman of the collective farm "Voroshilov", located at that time on the territory of the Vasilchikov-Goncharov Estate (now the Estate "Lopasnya-Zachatievskoye").

In October 1943 Anatoly Elizarov registered his marriage with Antonina Koltsova. At that time he was training at the junior lieutenant courses in Podolsk.

Classmates Anatoly and Antonina studied at the same school in the "house of the Goncharovs". Young people fell in love with each other and at the end of school got married. And how could not fall in love with the young beauty, who for excellent studies were awarded a voucher to Artek - all-union children's health resort, known throughout the country.

Soon Anatoly went to the front and died in battle in Königsberg on the 7th of April 1945, never knowing that he had become a father three days earlier. On the fourth of April 1945 his son was born.

We managed to find relatives of Anatoly Elizarov, in whose family the memory of the hero was kept. Postwar destiny scattered Elizarovs and Koltsovs in different cities, some family ties were lost. Those who managed to find and communicate were extremely surprised and touched by the fact that the story of their dead relative after many years reminded about himself, his feat is not forgotten, they tell about him in the city located on the westernmost border of Russia, wh ere in the harsh years of war the life of a young fighter was cut short.

Thanks to the search work of the staff of the Lopasnya-Zachatievskoye Estate Museum and the collected material, our colleagues from Kaliningrad managed to complete the story of Guards Sergeant Elizarov and tell about the immortal feat of Anatoly and his friend Konstantin Timofeev, with whom in April 1945 they made a reconnaissance before the decisive assault on Fort No. 11.

We are glad that we managed to do this difficult search work and bring it to the end. On the Days of Remembrance of Heroes of the Great Patriotic War, we will certainly tell this story in our museum.