“NAPOLEON”

This response will be in Stepan’s style (callsign “Napoleon”). Why “Napoleon”? Because there are many Stepans, but Napoleon is one. He is a man of an era, someone who etched himself into the ages—and our Napoleon has already left his mark on history. YOU are the true champions of all heroes, because right now you are doing the most important thing possible: you are writing heroes into history, and they remain there forever. First of all, you asked where he studied. I’ll answer: he studied not only at school, but also in books and in real life. There’s a saying: “Education doesn’t add intelligence.” And indeed, many people—even with diplomas—are frankly foolish, and sometimes even laughably illiterate. After turning twenty, Stepan began reading a great deal and working on his own self-development. He had an excellent grasp of history, geopolitics, economics, and human psychology (though he had probably long forgotten that the square of the hypotenuse equals the sum of the squares of the two legs). What did he dream of becoming? Well, even a book wouldn’t be enough to describe it all… If I put it as briefly as possible—he dreamed of becoming a truly good person. He always wanted to give; he strove to change the world for the better and did everything he could to make that happen. Napoleon worked very hard, grew his business abroad, and in his not-so-young company there were about ten people. He reinvested all the money he earned and tried to give as much as possible to his family. He dreamed that, at that time, only Vlad would become the Champion of Ukraine. He dreamed that his Yulka would find her calling and grow, enjoying what she did. He dreamed of taking his mother-in-law to Morske Oko (it’s incredibly beautiful—without question his favorite place in the world). As we can see, his main goals (not just dreams, because a goal—unlike a dream—is specific) were about his loved ones. At the same time, Stepan was always working on his body. He trained even when he had a fever. He never liked backing down. He never gave up—never. Yes, he lost; everyone loses. But later, after working on his mistakes, he came back and won. As for the personal side: he had a goal of becoming the Champion of Ukraine in armwrestling, achieving financial independence, and becoming someone who would change this world—even if just a little—for the better. At the beginning of the war, Napoleon was in Poland. He respectfully finished the project he had taken on, closed all the legal and financial matters with the company, and went to Ukraine with a firm intention to defend OUR country. They did not take him right away—given the number of volunteers in the first days, getting into service was not easy. Napoleon was mobilized only after three applications for mobilization. First, he went to training in Yavoriv, where he lived through the tragic missile strike on March 13, during which about 60 warriors were killed. He said that the blast wave alone on the parade ground literally pinned him to a wall. After training (again submitting applications three times), he was taken to the “zero line,” where he gained his first combat experience. It was there that he was deeply inspired by the feats of several brigades, including the special unit “Kraken,” which rapidly liberated incredible areas of Kharkiv Oblast during the counteroffensive in September 2022. Probably even then he firmly decided he would be among the best. The road to “Kraken” was not easy. No commander will release a disciplined, intelligent, and physically outstanding fighter without serious reasons, so Napoleon had to use certain “levers of influence” to pass the selection for “Kraken.” At that time, the selection was difficult: only a few out of dozens made it through. Many were injured during selection, and some lost consciousness during the trials. Stepan passed it—not easily, I won’t say that—but years of training bore fruit, and he was among the best by the results of the selection.