Yuri Ryabinkin
Living with his aunt alone until he was 7, he and his aunt moved in with his mother. In 1933, he began to attend school, and by the age of 15, finished eighth grade. In 1938, whilst sill in school, Yuri began to study the sea in Kuybyshev for one year, and, in 1941, began to study history in the House of Pioneers of Leningrad. Yuri lived with Irina, Antonina, and his aunt in Sadova Street (today named the July 3 street) in Leningrad. When the Ryabinkins learned about the invasion of the Soviet Union, they preferred to stay in Leningrad (because Antonina was a member of the Communist Party). When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, Yuri suffered from poor eyesight and lung disease, which is why he never made any attempts to join the Red Army. During the siege of Leningrad, in the fall of 1941, his mother Antonina advised him to go to a navy school, so that Yuri could be in better conditions and be evacuated from Leningrad, but Yuri did not pass the test and was rejected from the Navy.