Alexei Tkachyov finished his portrait of Sergei Tkachyov in 1986. Alexei Tkachyov depicts his brother not as an artist, but as a veteran of the Great Patriotic War. Alexei Tkachyov carefully recreated the medal bar, upon which heroes hang their ribbons, denoting their particular orders and medals. Sergei Tkachyov was awarded with the Order of the Great Patriotic War (Second Class), the order of merit ‘For Merit to the Fatherland’ (third and fourth class), medals ‘For Bravery’ and ‘For Victory Over Germany’.

Sergei Tkachyov went to the front voluntarily in autumn 1941. After three months of training, he was sent to fight near Smolensk, where the Germans were currently bursting through the front line. In one of the most difficult battles near the village of Yezhevitsa, his right shoulder was wounded by a mine fragment.

In an interview with the newspaper “Izvestiya”, Sergei Tkachyov recounted how a surgeon saved him from this fate, “A fragment was lodged between my collarbone and shoulder blade and the surgeon, who was a very intelligent man, said to me: “If we remove the fragment, you will have limited movement of your arm, and as you want to be a painter that won”t do… So we”ll have to be patient. But it will ache in bad weather.”