By the decision of the executive committee of the City Council of People’s Deputies No. 37 dated January 15, 1988, Shkolnaya Street in Plekhanov was renamed Kovalev Street, in honor of Vasily Yakovlevich Kovalev. When Vasily went to war, there were no streets in the village as such, there was just house 34, in which he lived with his family. Then the street became a Shkolnaya street, and when the name and house number were changed. Now the house where the Kovalevs live is numbered 42. A square with an obelisk stele in honor of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War is organized on the same street. It was opened in November 2005.

Vasily Yakovlevich Kovalev was born on January 13, 1910 in the village of Bachelino (now it is the Yarkovsky district). There, in 1922, he graduated from four classes of the parish school. When he came to Plekhanov, there is no exact information, as well as about his father. It is only known that his father’s name was Yakov Georgievich. Vasily was the youngest in the family. He had a brother, Ivan, and a sister, Anfisa, who moved to Tyumen, and the most recent was their mother, Vassa Fyodorovna, nee Aksarina, born in 1889. Vasily stayed in Bachelino before the army; On August 24, 1933, he was drafted into the 27th Artillery Division, the 76-mm cannon artillery crew. After being demobilized in October 1935, he returned immediately to Tyumen, to Plekhanov. The only thing is an accordion…

Vasily Kovalev was conscripted into the war in 1941 in the 656th separate sapper battalion of the 368th Infantry Red Banner Division, with which he went through the entire war with the rank of sergeant major. He took the oath of office on September 29, 1941, and was demobilized on October 16, 1945.

The book "From Tyumen to Kirkenes" was published in 1976 about the combat path of the 368th Pechenga Red Banner Rifle Division, formed in Tyumen. Born in the harsh autumn of 1941, the division went through a long and glorious military path. The defense of the southeastern coast of Lake Onega, intense fighting, daring attacks by scouts and snipers on the Oshta line, forcing the Sviri and other water barriers, storming long-term fortifications, the invincibility of which the enemy was firmly convinced. More than four hundred settlements of Karelia, liberated from the Nazi invaders, including its capital — Petrozavodsk. Participation in the liberation of the polar port of Petsamo (Pechenga) and the Norwegian Kirkenes. These are the main milestones of this difficult journey. The recognition of the military merits of the Siberian soldiers was the highest award of Russia — the award of the division of the Order of the Red Banner and the awarding of the honorary name Pechenga to it.
Vasily Yakovlevich Kovalev was awarded the gratitude of the Supreme Commander along the way for crossing the Svir River (order dated June 24, 1944), for the liberation of Petrozavodsk, Petsamo (Pechenga), Kirkenes, and for the complete liberation of the Pechengo-Petsama region. His awards were: two Orders of the Red Star, medals "For the Defense of the Soviet Arctic" and "For the victory over Germany" and two badges "Excellent miner", received in 1943 and 1944.

One of the exploits that Vasily Yakovlevich performed was listed in the award list.: "I prepared a means of crossing, organized a crossing and transferred a reinforced company to the right bank of the Svir River. Personally, he was one of the first to land on the enemy’s shore and cleared the landing site of mines, removed 29 anti-tank and 69 anti-personnel mines, thereby ensuring a rapid pursuit of the enemy."

One day, a group of sappers was given the command to mine a camp where there were children of different ages. They were kept in this camp in order to take blood for the Nazi infirmaries and hospitals. During the retreat, the Nazis mined the entire area around the camp, and our sappers set to work, trying not to be discovered by the captured children. But no matter how hard they tried, they were noticed. The children already knew that the fascists were gone, and they tried to free themselves. When they saw our soldiers through the cracks in the boards, they broke down the doors and rushed towards them right through the minefield. The sappers shouted at them: "Stop," "Get down," "Don't you dare," but the children continued to run. They were blown up by mines, but they couldn’t stop, they wanted to be free so much. Arms and legs flew up, and the fighters stood and cried because they couldn’t do anything… It was the scariest episode in Vasily Yakovlevich’s life, and even years later it was hard and bitter for him to talk about it, and if he did, he wiped away a tear every time.

…One day in autumn, when our troops were advancing, an order was received to clear a bridge over a small river. There were swamps all around, and there was no way around it. And the bridge was controlled by a suicide bomber chained to a rock. The Finns left such people to hold back the offensive. The suicide bomber had a supply of ammunition, water, food and alcohol. Knowing that he was doomed, he fired back to the last round. It was impossible to approach him unnoticed by land. The fighter Kovalev went down the river, undressed and swam across the icy river with a bayonet in his hands. Then he stealthily crept up to the "cuckoo" and defused it. In order not to get sick after the icy water, he drank alcohol from Finn’s reserves and took care of the bridge over which the battalion went on the offensive. For this act, he later received the Order of the Red Star.

…Somehow the soldiers decided to heat up the bathhouse, steam up, wash up properly, and do their laundry. The frost was at minus 50 degrees. They started heating the bathhouse early in the morning, and when the bath was ready, as expected, sentries were posted, they went in, undressed, but they took their weapons with them. They began to bathe and steam, and at that time the white Finns suddenly went on the attack. Hearing the shots, the soldiers grabbed their weapons and rushed out of the bathhouse naked. Steam was coming off their bodies, and their hands were frozen to their guns, but they didn’t feel it: they were yelling, running, and shooting. The dead and wounded fell, but the rest continued to run forward, and the attack was repulsed. However, they didn’t have to wash in the bathhouse and all of them had skinned hands and   feet almost frozen off. They often remembered this bathhouse later and laughed their heads off. It was easier to fight with such stories.
Vasily Yakovlevich brought a leather mask from the war, inside of which there was a label so as not to freeze his face. The mask had a hole for eyes, nose and mouth. The children played with her, scaring each other.

Returning home, Vasily Yakovlevich continued to work on a collective farm, then went to Plekhanovo airport, and then, just before retirement, he got a job at the Tyumen Philharmonic. Together with his wife, they ran the household, raised six children.

After the war, a maple tree grew at every house in Plekhanov, where veterans gathered on May 9, right on the street. They brought what anyone had and celebrated their main holiday, Victory Day.