Stepan Chikald yaev’s son-in-law Vitaliy, an engineer for refrigeration systems, was sent to Africa for two years.
Stepan, who returned from the front as a young man without a hand, with a fragment lodged under his shoulder blade—and ever since had been unable to do hard physical work—always had time to read newspapers. That’s why he understood that going to the African continent was a matter of state business.