The publishing house “Udmurtia” published the book “Italmas - the flower of peace. Children of war, children of victory." The collection is a joint project of children and adults from different regions of Russia - participants in the humanitarian project “Eurasia Kids. Ambassadors of Peace” of the Eurasian Peoples’ Assembly. The initiators of the publication are students of the Zhuraveynik+ Center for Support of Creative Initiatives.
The book includes stories of people whose childhood was during the Great Patriotic War and the post-war period. The uniqueness of the publication is that the real stories of people have not been edited, they have been preserved in order to pass on to the reader the way they were told.
The book consists of two parts. The first is interviews with people about childhood, the second part - essays by children on the topic “Why children grew up early during the war.” These are the works of participants in the competition “Stories of the Great Victory in the Life of Every Family,” which was held by the Eurasian Peoples’ Assembly.
“The memory of the war is something that remains in every family. There are heroes among those who work at defense enterprises today and those who take part in the Special Military Operation. Our book contains unique memories. For example, the story of a twelve-year-old girl who, in order not to die of hunger, came to work in a hospital. Then she became an opera singer, married an artist and became the first motorcycle racer in Izhevsk. Or the story of a girl who worked in the field with the bull Rassvet. He didn't listen to anyone except her. A very touching story of two boys - a Tatar and a Kazakh. They met during the summer holidays after the war and played together. They have kept their courtyard friendship to this day. A Tatar boy became one of the leaders of the city of Mozhga, and a Kazakh boy, Talagat Musabaev, became an astronaut, Hero of Russia and Hero of Kazakhstan. And these are not all the stories included in the book,” - Olga Chirkova, Head of the project “Eurasia Kids. Ambassadors of Peace" - President of the Udmurt regional public organization "Center for Support of Creative Initiatives Zhuraveynik+", Head of the ANO "EURASIA KIDS", member of the Union of Journalists of Russia.
The book was published with the support of the Head of the Udmurt Republic. There are plans to make a film adaptation of the book.
Humanitarian project of the Eurasian Peoples’ Assembly “Eurasia Kids. Ambassadors of Peace" took place during 2023 and consisted of a series of events aimed at involving children of different ethnic groups of the Eurasian space in transmitting knowledge about cultural values, spiritual and moral traditions of the peoples of Russia and world Eurasian cultures. During the year, the children participated in a series of creative online workshops, learned how to develop and produce creative media projects, and attended the educational internship “Expedition to Holiday,” which took place in Udmurtia.
The project resulted in a map with more than 50 media projects in the field of developing children's diplomacy and strengthening Eurasian partnership in the information environment.
Prepared by Diana Mamontova
photo by Eduard Karipov