"Wartime stories unite us all": a lecture dedicated to the Day of Remembrance and Mourning was held at the National Centre RUSSIA
A lecture "Riddles of the Front: the artifacts of the Great Patriotic War" took place on June 19 at the National Centre RUSSIA as part of the educational project "Thursday. Development". The event is held in the name of the Day of Remembrance and Mourning.
Participants of the meeting learned about recently discovered historical artifacts and heard amazing stories about the war. The program included speeches by leading historians, an analysis of rare, extant, and recently declassified documents, and an open discussion with the audience on preserving the memory of our country's heroic past. Experts told the public about the exploits of those who resisted the enemy in the most difficult years.
A moderator of the meeting was Yulia Kozlova, the presenter of the live broadcasts of the Russian Society Znanie, the chief moderator of Channel One. The speakers were Igor Permyakov, Director of the Russian State Archive of Modern History; Sergey Sopelev, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Head of the civic and patriotic section of the Moscow Branch of the Russian Military Historical Society, historian, political scientist, Honorary Doctor of the Academy of Labor and Industry History; Yuri Ovsinsky, the author of the projects "Moscow with Yuri Ovsinsky", "Holiday with Yuri Ovsinsky", director of "The most important and needed film".
Igor Permyakov told the story of rare documents that were not widely replicated.
"I presented to our listeners the documents that were found in Kiev, in the safe of the building where the Gestapo was located during the occupation. They contain instructions to the German services on how to organize management on the occupied, that is, our territory. These documents were translated and reported to Stalin. This is a very interesting material," Igor Permyakov noted.
In addition, the speaker mentioned other important papers, starting with the maps of the Operation Barbarossa and the tasks of the fascists, ending with documents on the actions of the Soviet troops.
Sergey Sopelev told the audience about the events that preceded the Great Patriotic War.
"When the war started, the common people were shocked, they had a desire to defend the country. In my stories, I rely on archival, library, and memoir materials. In addition, I had a project which included interviewing veterans, first of all, Heroes of the Soviet Union. Many of them were still alive then. Of course, when you hear these stories firsthand, you learn how these people felt and what they experienced, and you better understand what happened," Sergei Sopelev said.
Yuri Ovsinsky also has worked with veterans of the Great Patriotic War since 2010, and even made a film about them.
"Unfortunately, our veterans are becoming fewer and fewer due to their age. The War stories unite all of us, they have touched every citizen of our country. What I remember most about communicating with the veterans is that they didn't even think about to go or not to go to the military enlistment office. They just went there, and made such important decisions at such a young age — many of them had just graduated from school or university," Yuri Ovsinsky shared.
He stressed that such events at the National Centre RUSSIA are very necessary to preserve and transmit the memory of the heroes, and those terrible historical events, from generation to generation.
The authorial educational project of the National Centre RUSSIA "Thursday. Development' is a platform for live communication and free exchange of ideas, and for spectacular lectures in the format of popular science.
Lectures are free of charge and subject to pre-registration on the website of the National Centre RUSSIA russia.ru. Up-to-date information is published in the "Events" section.
All the past events of the "Thursday. Development" project are available for watching in the "Broadcasts and recordings" section.
