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Employees of IDGC of Centre – Kurskenergo division congratulated Ivan I. Cherdak on his 95th anniversary, who is a participant of the Great Patriotic War, and a power engineer with years of experience. Representatives of HR Office, the Veterans’ Council, and the Youth Council visited the honoured veteran and gave him gifts from the staff of Kurskenergo and administration of the city of Zheleznogorsk, where he lived before moving to Kursk.
The fate of Ivan is similar to the one of thousands of simple, honest and surprisingly humble people, who The Great Patriotic War left the imprint on. He went front roads from the western border of the Soviet Union to Stalingrad, and during the offensive operations of Soviet troops - from Stalingrad through the Kursk Bulge to East Prussia. He ended the war in Lithuania. He was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the II-nd degree, Red Star, the Medal "For Courage", "For defense of Stalingrad" and others.
After the war Ivan got a job at the power plant in Siauliai as head of the electrical laboratory, he graduated from the power engineering college by correspondence. In late 1958 he was invited to the Kursk grid. There he led a group of substations of the High Voltage section of the Kursk TPP-1, and when Dmitrievsky Electric Networks were created, he became director of the company. In the late 50s the economy of the region was rapidly developing, which was in need of powerful new feeding centres. The experienced executive was appointed to the post of Head of the then under construction 330 kV substation "Zheleznogorsk", at which he worked for more than ten years before retirement.
Being retired, Ivan has not lost interest in the events taking place around him. He had many lectures in schools, enterprises, telling young people about the war and its heroes. After seeing recently a story about how people live bad in the Crimea without water and electricity, he sent 40 thousand rubles to assist residents of the peninsula from his small pension savings.
One of the programs of the central television spoke of his noble deed. The question of the host, maybe it would be better for the money to buy a voucher and go to improve your health, the veteran answered: "First, let's cure Crimea, and then I will receive medical treatment." The patriotic act of the war veteran was noticed and appreciated at the highest level. He was handed a watch from the Russian President.