Vadim

Vadim's childhood was difficult in the early days of the USSR. He was born in the village of Kalinovka, somewhere in the Tambov outback. When Vadim was three, his father passed away, leaving him alone with his mother. From the age of six, Vadim worked in the fields with his mother. By the age of ten, he was drawn to tractors (the first tractor models were just beginning to be produced then). His Uncle Mitya, his former neighbor, worked on a state farm and told him about the tractor he used and gave him engineering books about them to read. Vadim graduated from high school by age 17, and at 18, he was drafted into the army. When Vadim returned from the army at 19, he enrolled in the Tambov Agrotechnical Institute and graduated at age 24. Two years later, at age 26, he received his driver's license and returned to his native village, where he learned from friends and his mother that Uncle Mitya had passed away of old age. He lived there for two months and went to work on a state farm. It was 1947.