History lessons by a young teacher from Verkhnedvinsk recognized at the Union State level

A joint expert and media event was held in Moscow, dedicated to the final of the competition for the best history lesson "The Great Patriotic War: Lessons of War and the History of Common Victory," organized by the Standing Committee of the Union State and the International Media Group "Rossiya Segodnya." 10 finalist teachers, whose methodological developments were selected by a professional jury from the total number of submitted works (incidentally, there were 202 in total: 120 from Russia and 82 from Belarus), as well as experts in military science and education, representatives of authorities and media from both countries, were invited to participate.

War Information Freely Available

The program of the three-day tour began with a visit to the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War, which is also the main part of the Victory Memorial Complex on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow. In addition to the excursion, participants were shown a short film about the museum's creation, its operations, and joint projects. Among these was the organization of the large-scale international exhibition "In the Fight Against Nazism, We Were Together," which started on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Soviet people's victory in the Great Patriotic War and became one of the landmark events in a series of anniversary celebrations.

Mikhail Mikhalchev, Deputy Director of the Central Museum for Cultural and Educational Work, told journalists that thanks to cooperation with colleagues from the former Soviet Union countries, an exhibition of 15 displays has been created, each dedicated to a separate republic and reflecting the contribution of its citizens to the common Victory. He specifically noted the participation of the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War in the project, which provided unique exhibits from its collections. This allowed for a more comprehensive account of the partisan movement, as well as the main events that took place in the republic during the war years. "The section on Belarus is one of the best in this exhibition," summarized Mikhail Mikhalchev.

In the evening, history educators, scientists, and journalists met with Igor Permyakov, Head of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. He presented documentary materials on the formation and reform of the Soviet Army in 1941-1945, declassified archival data on armaments and military equipment of the Great Patriotic War period, as well as on the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

He also spoke about online resources where similar information is freely available. In addition to the official website of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, where electronic collections on the most interesting stages of combat operations, timed to coincide with specific dates, are periodically posted on a special page of the Central Archive, there are three main websites: "Memorial," "Memory of the People," and "Feat of the People." The latter resource provides digitized materials from the fund of the Main Personnel Directorate regarding awards for all participants of the Great Patriotic War from 1941 to 1945. "Memorial" is a consolidated database containing information about the defenders of the Fatherland who died or went missing during the war and the post-war period. The "Memory of the People" website will publish documents and maps of combat operations of formations, fronts, armies, regiments, and divisions in electronic form. Employees of the Central Archive are currently working on digitizing this data, and it will begin functioning soon.

Igor Permyakov emphasized that while not all information is yet concentrated on these resources, they already provide colossal volumes of interesting and important data that can engage not only history enthusiasts but also educators and their students.

For example, thanks to the efforts of the archive's researchers, information was confirmed that on May 9, 1945, camels were present in one of the units in Berlin. Order No. 98 dated May 22, 1945, states that 139 officers, 171 sergeants, and 535 privates were to be supplied with provisions. Additionally: 6 riding horses, 37 artillery horses, 231 transport horses, and 1 camel. A photograph of the two-humped pack animal has even been preserved. Furthermore, a newspaper dated May 1945 reports that the camels arrived in the German capital from Kalmykia.

The Teacher as a Figure of Social Responsibility

The culmination of the expert and media tour was the announcement of the results of the young educators' competition during a round table discussion in a Moscow-Minsk video bridge format titled "70 Years of Peace: Lessons from War and the History of a Common Victory." Participants included State Secretary of the Union State Grigory Rapota, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Belarus to the Russian Federation Igor Petrishenko, Chairman of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation Vladimir Churov, Deputy Head of the Institute of Military History of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Nikolay Nikiforov, Academician-Secretary of the Department of Humanities and Arts of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Alexander Kovalenya, Director General of the Belarusian Telegraph Agency Dmitry Zhuk, writer and host of the program "Smart Ones and Clever Ones" Yuri Vyazemsky, head of the regional patriotic organization "Immortal Regiment - Moscow" Nikolay Zemtsov, Dean of the Faculty of History of Belarusian State University Sergey Khodin, and his colleague from Lomonosov Moscow State University, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Sergey Karpov.

In his welcoming remarks, Grigory Rapota spoke about the significance of the event not only for the teachers themselves but also for the development of history and the education of the younger generation as a whole. The theme of the current competition for educators was not accidental, and it became one of the important projects of the Union State implemented in 2015 under the sign of the 70th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War.

The State Secretary of the Union State presented awards to the winners and laureates of the competition for the best history lesson. It is gratifying that among those whose works, according to the expert jury, were the best is our countrywoman, history teacher at Secondary School No. 2 in Verkhnedvinsk, Dina Tomashevich. Dina Nikolaevna has been working in the education sector for 4 years and took part in such a large-scale competition for educators for the first time. She chose the theme of a person's personality during the war for her lesson, telling about her fellow countrymen who participated in the Great Patriotic War. Using multimedia tools, she was able not only to convey information about important events and historical facts to the schoolchildren but also to create an appropriate emotional background for the lesson. The teacher awakened in the children feelings of patriotism, respect for their Motherland and the heroes thanks to whom the Great Victory was won and the foundation for a peaceful, independent life for future generations was laid. High-quality methodological preparation and a thorough approach to the selection of materials for the competition lesson allowed Dina Tomashevich to take an honorable third place. The best among young history teachers in the Union State was Konstantin Diyanov, a teacher from the Omsk region (Russia); the second place was taken by Nikita Bilenko from Tula (Russia).

Grigory Rapota congratulated the other laureates — Aida Agaeva (Republic of Dagestan, Russia), Victoria Babchuk (Krasnodar Krai, Russia), Anastasia Bondareva (Grodno Region, Belarus), Oksana Vernigora (Mogilev Region, Belarus), Andrey Knizhnikov (Minsk, Belarus), Gleb Likhobabin (Smolensk, Russia), and Alexander Samokhin (Minsk Region, Belarus). He noted that, despite their young age, all finalists have proven themselves to be true professionals, capable of not only imparting in-depth subject knowledge but also teaching independent thinking and reasoning, and comprehensively developing students' creative abilities. All participants received sets of literature on the Great Patriotic War as gifts, and the winners were also presented with tablets.

The discussion of innovative methods for teaching history in schools, which would aid in military-patriotic education, took place at expert-media seminars with the participation of leading specialists from the scientific field, the education sector, and mass media covering the work of educators, as well as leaders of search parties and associations. Igor Karachev, Chairman of the All-Russian Public Organization "Association of History and Social Studies Teachers" and Director of Gymnasium No. 166 in St. Petersburg, and Lyudmila Budanova, a history teacher at Construction College No. 30 in Moscow and organizer of the "Burevestnik" patriotic education club, shared their practical experience at master classes with young teachers. The finalists of the competition also took part in an open discussion on the topic "The Historian in School: A Figure of Social Responsibility."

Natalya Kamleva, "Vitebskiye Vesti".