The memorial item presented in the museum is a notebook of 12 sheets with songs and aphorisms of the war years. The notes were handwritten in blue and purple ink, as well as a graphite pencil.

25 songs are recorded on the first pages, including “Smuglyanka” (“The Swarthy Moldovan Girl”), “Dark Night”, “On the Hills of Manchuria”, “In the Frontline Forest”, “On the Big Raid”. They conveyed the atmosphere of that period and were about love and loyalty, war and comrades-in-arms, and, of course, the Motherland.

Aphorisms are written on the last pages. There are 36 in total, most of them are about friendship. Alexey Ivanovich Zabolotsky filled out this notebook himself in 1947. In 2009, it was donated to the Museum-Reserve “Prokhorovka Field” by his wife.

Alexey Ivanovich Zabolotsky was born into a peasant family on March 20, 1920 in the village of Sagaydachnoye, Prokhorovsky district. He was drafted into the Red Army on October 26, 1939. From the first to the last day of the Great Patriotic War, Alexey Zabolotsky fought on its fronts.

Alexey Zabolotsky began his military career as a technician-lieutenant of the 145th Separate Reconnaissance Company of the 145th Tank Brigade, which was formed on September 6, 1941 on the basis of the 104th Tank Division. The next day, September 7, in the Shatkovo district of the Smolensk region, it became part of the 43rd Army, which took part in the Battle of Moscow.

In 1943, Alexey Zabolotsky was sent to study at the Tula Tank School. He finished the war in Romania with the rank of lieutenant. For his services to the Fatherland, he was awarded the Orders of the Red Star and the Patriotic War, 2nd class, as well as the medals “For Bravery”, “For Battle Merit”, and “For the Victory over Germany”. The veteran’s medals are also presented in the exhibition of the museum “The Third Battlefield of Russia”.

Alexey Zabolotsky recalled,