From August 28 to 31, 2020, the conference “Loyalty to the memory of the defenders of the Fatherland: preserving the historical truth about the great Patriotic war” (hereinafter-the Conference) was held in Sevastopol as part of the International historical and Patriotic program “Week of Memory” - a project of the Crimean Eurasian School of the Partnership. The conference was held in order to preserve the historical memory of the Great Patriotic war of 1941-1945, to unite efforts for Patriotic education of young people and to counteract the falsification of history.
Researchers, employees of archives, museums, libraries, search organizations, teachers of universities and institutions of secondary professional education, postgraduates and students, public figures were invited to participate in the professional discussion.
The Conference was organized by the Sevastopol regional branch of the all-Russian public organization “Assembly of peoples of Russia” and the Representative office of the international Union of non-governmental organizations “Eurasian Peoples’ Assembly” in Sevastopol.
The conference delegates discussed:
- historical subjects related to the Great Patriotic war of 1941-1945;
- the problem of preserving military graves and memorials of the Great Patriotic war of 1941-1945;
- the problem of falsification of historical facts about the Second World War as a way of manipulating public consciousness;
- pedagogical technologies that allow the most effective transmission of the memory of the Great Patriotic war to the younger generation.
The participants of the Conference noted the fact that at present the country does not have a unified system to counteract the distortion and falsification of national history, and this is detrimental to the national interests of Russia. During the discussion, there was a consensus on the need to further improve the state policy in the field of youth education, which is the key not only to the effective assimilation of young people's knowledge about the Great Patriotic war of 1941-1945, but also to the formation of emotional involvement.
The participants discussed the task of further developing closer interaction between teaching staff of educational institutions of different levels, archives, museums, libraries, and search organizations in order to form the interest of the young generation in the Great Patriotic war as one of the key events in the historical memory of our people; to jointly preserve and transmit the truth about the War and the contribution of the Soviet Union to the common Victory over the enemy; to make young people aware of the meaning of this Victory.
Summing up, the conference participants:
- identified the danger of the current trend in our state of systematic reduction of classroom hours of social and humanitarian module disciplines in favour of specialized disciplines. Humanitarian knowledge is a component of fundamental education that forms not a narrowly trained professional, but a person with a broad view of nature, the world, and man. One of the Central elements of the strategy for the development of higher education in the Russian Federation should be the strengthening of the social and humanitarian component in the organization of educational, research and educational work with students. Based on this, the attitude to teaching history should be radically revised, not only in terms of adding new methodological tools to the teacher's luggage, but also by increasing the number of hours allocated to students and teachers to master the discipline. History is the foundation for the formation of a person's worldview, his moral guidelines, belonging to the nation, the people. It is history that allows a person who is in the process of becoming to choose the right life values and attitudes and realize their responsibility for the fate of the country;
- recommend to expand the knowledge about the events of the Great Patriotic war in educational extracurricular work, because of the small number of classroom hours spent in educational institutions on teaching this key period of our history. More actively use in educational work the historical heritage associated with the participation of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic war of 1941-1945 and the Victory over fascism. To recommend educational institutions to consider humanity in war, love for the Motherland and comrades, friendship, heroism as objects of study;
- identified the need for further improvement and expansion of the state policy on preserving and perpetuating the memory of the Great Patriotic war of 1941-1945 as a factor in the ideological and moral education of young people;
- highly appreciated the training and educational potential of the all-Russian project “Immortal regiment of wartime letters”; therefore supported the proposal to request the Governor of the city of Sevastopol on: 1) financial support for the project in terms of site organisation with the objective of enhancing the implementation of the project in the post-Soviet space; 2) assistance to involve local history museums of Sevastopol in the project in terms of providing pupils with letters of the Great Patriotic war of 1941-1945 that are stored in museums.
- recommend the civilian educational institutions to use the experience of military department in creating and implementing a system of continuous military history education that contributes to the formation of knowledge in the field of military history. In particular, annually conduct inter-school and inter-university Olympiads on the history of the Great Patriotic war of 1941-1945; military-historical dictations (timed to Defender of the Fatherland Day and Victory Day); organize historical societies in schools and universities; organize and conduct military-historical trips to places of military glory, inter-school and inter-university conferences, where Russian scientists will bring to the general public the state point of view on the main events of Russian history during the Second World war and the Great Patriotic war.
- all participants shared the same belief that the all-Soviet consciousness was one of the factors of the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic war of 1941-1945. Currently, the formation of Russian identity is required, The achievement this long-term goal requires the analyses of the state ideology of the Soviet period in the history of our state, identification and application of rational approaches in modern conditions, in particular, focus on the formation of community, collectivism and pan-Eurasian patriotism. It is important to preserve the commonality of the peoples of Russia and the former Soviet republics, as well as other Eurasian countries that fought together to defeat fascism and Japanese militarism.
- recommend that people should be more active in everyday life, using the full range of modern means of communicating information, to educate the population about the contribution of our state to science and culture. This is necessary for the formation of a general civil identity: the ability to answer the question “What am I?”, to take pride in their country, to reveal the essence of the feat of the defenders of the Fatherland and the meaning of the great Victory in 1945 in various information formats.
- recommend to take into account the context of the material’s presentation when publishing new data about the Great Patriotic war of 1941-1945, remember the educational function of this information especially for a young audience. The Great Patriotic war is a page of pride in our historical consciousness.
- recommend that the Soviet experience of educating the younger generation should be understood and rationally applied to modern conditions as part of state policy. In particular, use the content, forms and methods of political education in the USSR, proposed by the Soviet teacher A. S. Makarenko. The essence of political education in any society and state is to form and develop a certain attitude of the individual to the political system and to ensure such a degree of human involvement in political relations (in the present and / or future), which is desirable from the point of view of the socio-political force acting as the subject of political education. Political education is designed to harmonize the relationship between the individual and society by instilling love for the Motherland, respect for its history, which meets the strategic interests of our state at the present stage. The current Strategy for the development of education in the Russian Federation for the period up to 2025 emphasizes that in the face of civilizational challenges, the Strategy is aimed at strengthening the unity of Russian society, rethinking such values as civil identity, patriotism, and a responsible life position. The Strategy is designed to consolidate the efforts of the state and society aimed at solving the problems of forming the Russian identity of the younger generation.
- Based on the content of paragraph 9 of this Resolution, we recommend to include in the “memos” for teachers and educators working with young people, the following instructions in the field of education:
- accept children, first of all, as citizens of the Russian Federation, whom the future of our country depends on;
- involve in everyday pedagogical and educational work formation of a set of ethical ideas among young people that are aimed at consolidating not only in student groups, but also at consolidating of the entire Russian society: respect for each other, appeal to the best qualities; the need to be honest, efficient, attentive and thoughtful in each specialty; a sense of duty, understood as an awareness of their responsibilities towards the team; responsibility (official, business, legal); discipline (understood not as a ban, but as a discipline of moving forward and overcoming obstacles, especially such obstacles that lie in people); condemnation of laziness; formation of the philosophy of creators in work, not consumers, formation of a creative attitude to any business that you do (study, then work); honesty towards the team, conscientiousness in the execution of assignments; social activity with the aim of making a positive contribution to the development of the team as a norm of life;
- form a respectful attitude to the authorities; to learn by heart the national anthem of our country; to lay down the desire to become worthy citizens of the Russian Federation, to make a positive contribution to its development through their work;
- make a list and regularly introduce young people to the monuments, burials and memorials of their Native land related to the Great Patriotic war of 1941-1945 and other periods of history significant for our country; in general, in everyday work, form an educational interest in the past of our state; involve parents in this work;
- in everyday pedagogical work, to form the desire of young people to have a broad outlook, to be able to reflect, to think systematically; to involve parents in this area of children's development;
- promote the strengthening of school and student groups as opposed to the ideology of individualism;
- involve students in the care and maintenance of monuments, burials, and memorials.
- recommend to use materials about the fate of children and teenagers who suffered from Nazism in work with students;
- recommend actively implement such a form of work as photo exhibitions dedicated to the monuments of the Great Patriotic war, graves, and memorials; prepare excursions to photo exhibitions;
- recommend stimulating and maintaining a lively interest of children and youth in studying the events of the Great Patriotic war, directing them to the path of patriotic self-education, and involving parents in this process;
- supported the proposal to apply to institutions that train the diplomatic corps to dispatch an international mission including for the protection of the cultural heritage associated with the Great Patriotic war and the Victory of the Soviet people in it. Pay special attention to the deplorable state of monuments, military graves and memorial sites in the Baltic States.
APPROVED BY THE CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS