How to pass on the memory of war and Victory to the next generation?
For a child to be able to truly feel all the tragedy and heroism of the history of the Great Patriotic War, a fertile soil is needed in which these seeds will be sown - a developed cultural layer. Culture is not given to a child upon birth; it is inculcated through proper upbringing. Therefore, it is necessary to make every effort to bring up a real person in a child - a thinking, empathic, kind …
The story left in the heart
This story-true story about the events of the Great Patriotic War was told to me by my grandmother - for the only time in her life and only to me.
Nazi military formations, including Italians and Romanians, settled on the territory of the occupied Donbass. Settling up in the occupied territory, they drove civilians out of their homes. No one stood on ceremony with the locals - the dwellings were seized, and the modest belongings of the owners were simply thrown out the windows. As a result, people were forced to huddle in several families in one room, separated by curtains - such housing was called "corner".
Grandfather went to the front at the beginning of the war, grandmother remained the family's only breadwinner. The family was poor, and soon all the more or less decent things in the house were exchanged for food, because the famine began. We ate quinoa and potato peelings … My mother was three years old when the war broke out, and her little sister was recently born. Having lived until the middle of the war, she never learned to walk because of systematic malnutrition … Once, having gone in search of at least some food, my grandmother could not return: during a raid she was caught by policemen and sent to a concentration camp. The children remained in the care of the old mother-in-law.
After three months of work in a concentration camp in inhuman conditions, a dispatch to Germany was scheduled. Grandmother begged to leave her, gesturing that she had two children. And they took pity on her (and her younger brother, who was with her in the concentration camp, was sent to Germany, where he disappeared without a trace). But only when she returned home, it turned out that there were no longer two children - the youngest daughter died of hunger, not waiting only three days before her mother returned …
Crushed by grief, the mother went to the cemetery and began to dig the frozen ground of the grave. She took out the coffin, opened it and began to mourn her lost child. It is almost impossible to get over the pain of losing a child. It was even more bitter because, leaving, the grandmother promised to return soon and the baby had been waiting for her mother for long days, shuddering at every slam of the front door. But it did not wait …
History is not for the faint of heart, is it? Now imagine that I heard this story as a little girl. I was born under a peaceful sky, watched a considerable number of heroic films about the war, and this story of my family told by my grandmother seemed so strange and scary to me … But as an adult, I discovered that my grandmother's story forever remained in my memory as a scar on my heart who starts to get sick whenever it comes to that terrible war.
Today, when I watch my children eat, I think about what a horror it is for a mother when your hungry child asks for food, but there is nothing to give him. And it hurts inside me very much, although I was born after the war and did not know hunger. And sometimes photos of children tortured during the war come up in my memory - and I shudder with horror.
Someone may say: "Well, why all these negative emotions in our, today, peaceful life?"
Perceiving the pain of war as one's own is an inoculation against the distortion of history. Let there be scars on your heart from the pain you have experienced, but this will not allow anyone to knock your inner moral compass, never make you doubt the heroism of grandparents! Having passed the pain of war through yourself, you begin to perceive the history of your people the only right way and identify yourself with it. And the desire to leave the distant lands in search of happiness disappears, but on the contrary, there is a desire to give all their talents and skills for the benefit of their native country and the Russian people.
To be in time not to be late
While the child is small, we protect him from too cruel information about the world and people. But we must remember that the basis of a person's upbringing is the age before puberty. Having entered a difficult transitional age, the child ceases to be a child - he gradually turns into an adult and breaks away from his parents. Adolescents form their own "flock", in which the opinion of their peers, and even more so the leader, becomes much more significant than the opinion of adults - parents at home, teachers at school.
It seems that it is finally possible to speak on an equal footing with a grown child. But it may turn out that he will refuse to listen to you, moreover, he will express his opinion, which may turn out to be diametrically opposite to yours. Teenagers can be stubborn and difficult to communicate, so the foundation of parenting needs to be built before entering a difficult age. Of course, the educator himself must possess all those wonderful qualities that he seeks to instill in his pupil.
The continuity of generations
In recent years, numerous attempts have been made to rewrite the history of World War II and revise its results. We can say that the balance in the world that arose after the victory of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War has been shaken … Therefore, it is especially important today to pass on to children and grandchildren real knowledge and memory of Victory in the most terrible war in the history of mankind, of the heroism of our ancestors, to which we owe our present and future, life itself.
However, in the modern world, the psychological, intellectual, spiritual gap between generations is so great that society, perhaps for the first time in history, is faced with a situation where it is very difficult to pass on the experience of predecessors and the historical memory of the people to the younger generation. Let's take a closer look at how best to transfer the memory of the Great Patriotic War to our children.
Our heroic story
A very important question: how to teach history to children? Factual history always contains betrayal, treachery, and a sea of blood … However, in order for children to want to be a part of the people, to identify with them, it is necessary to show the most heroic pages of history that cause real pride in their ancestors. This is exactly what they do in different countries of the world, and even if there is nothing to be proud of, they come up with legends. All the best is concentrated in one hero.
The history of the Russian people and state is truly heroic. However, today, when there is no state ideology, and an incessant information war is being waged against our country, they are trying to present us with a completely different version of our history … This state of affairs has been going on for the third decade and as a result, it has led to the fact that even at school children are not told about the heroism of our ancestors, but about the weakest and most difficult moments in history: about the hardest losses and mediocre military leadership in the first days and months of the war, about detachments that drove soldiers into an attack on pain of death, etc.
Such incorrect presentation of information, when the facts of history are sometimes distorted beyond recognition - some important things and events are kept silent, while others, on the contrary, are presented in an overly exaggerated form - as a result, leads to the fact that children do not have pride in the victory of the people, but desire to justify. In the worst case, schoolchildren do not identify themselves with the victorious people at all and are ready to renounce their Motherland and leave the country.
Therefore, raising our children in the spirit of love for the Motherland, passing them on to the historical memory of the Russian people is the question "To be or not to be?" for the entire Russian world! Today we all need to make every effort not to lose a whole generation, because today they are children, and tomorrow - the Russian people. How to help them feel pride in the deeds of their heroic ancestors with their whole being? Knowledge of the true undistorted history, the formation of historical memory of the exploits of our people.
A holiday with tears in your eyes
Of course, we must start with a holiday - the great Victory Day. Even young children, starting from preschool age, can be actively involved in this important event. On the eve of the holiday, introduce your kid to the history of the St. George ribbon, purchase flags and badges with the symbols of May 9th. Show photos from the family archive and tell about relatives who participated in the Great Patriotic War, adapting these family stories for the perception of them by a young child.
Currently, schools and kindergartens organize festive concerts, parades of military equipment, meetings with veterans, where everyone can come - be sure to take part in them. Together watch the Victory Parade on Red Square and the festive fireworks, which are broadcast throughout the country.
The last few years, on Victory Day, the Immortal Regiment has been marching along the streets of Russian cities and around the world - take part in the procession with your child, preferably the whole family. The memory of this significant event will remain for a long time, perhaps for a lifetime. Photos and videos of your participation in the procession will help you with this. But even more important is that special feeling of unity, when, following in a large column of people carrying portraits of heroic ancestors, you can feel like a part of a large whole - the Russian people.
Tell your child about the meaning of the Eternal Flame, together lay flowers at the Eternal Flame and the monument to the Unknown Soldier, what you can do near your home. When the child grows up, you can organize an excursion to Victory Park on Poklonnaya Gora in Moscow, to the memorial complex "Panfilov's Heroes" in the Moscow region, visit Mamayev Kurgan and see the majestic sculpture "The Motherland Calls!" in Volgograd and other monuments dedicated to the heroism of our people, who won the Great Patriotic War.
But if we stop at this, then Victory Day will remain only a holiday for children born decades later. And we will not see the very tears in their eyes that are sung in the song "Victory Day" … To pass the Great History of the Russian people and their Victory through the heart, you need to get sensory impressions - to get involved emotionally, to feel the pain of heavy loss, pride in heroism and the joy of the long-awaited Victory as your own.
Sacred pain
No matter how much we give children information about the Great Patriotic War and no matter how we involve them in various events dedicated to Victory Day, this information often remains formal. Without genuine involvement, without sensual living, it is impossible to instill in children the historical memory of the people. Flags, St. George ribbons, tunics and garrison caps with red stars, tricolor balloons are beautiful, joyful and pleasant. And it should "cut to the bone", wound in the very heart, become an inoculation for life - from atrocities, from fascism, from the horrors of war. This means that it is necessary to go through mental trials, to see and hear what to look and hear is unbearably painful, but absolutely necessary.
Offer the younger schoolchild to read a series of books "Pioneers-Heroes", which tells about the exploits of children during the Great Patriotic War. Find other books about the war that tell the truth about it without distorting the story. Listen to war songs together that will leave few people indifferent. Watch films about the war with your child - both old and new, discuss what you saw. About how massively they volunteered for the front, how they caught spies and saboteurs, how teenagers stood at the machines, making parts for tanks and aircraft … How the whole huge country lived with one hope, one goal - Victory! How everyone gave as much of themselves as possible in order to bring victory closer.
Introduce the older child to documents from the Second World War - photos, videos, texts. In recent years, archives of the times of the Great Patriotic War have been opened and made publicly available. Take a look with your child on these sites - read the descriptions of the heroism shown during the battles in the submissions for the awards. Look with him into the faces of children of war in documentary photographs - hungry, frightened, deprived of parents and shelter, tortured to death. Read the blockade diary of Tanya Savicheva or the diary of the Jewish girl Anne Frank together. Read the letters of the front-line soldiers.
With older children, who are already mentally mature and ready for the perception of adult information, you can watch documentary footage of the military chronicle, testifying both to the bloody battles to liberate our cities from the Nazis, and to the cruel abuse of the Nazis and those who supported them over the civilian population …
The film "Come and See" is a shock film that is very painful to watch, but necessary. For anyone who sees this film and plays it through themselves, life is divided into before and after. The film is a vaccine against cruelty, Nazism and the horrors of war.
Today we live under a peaceful sky, our children do not know hunger and hardship - they eat sweet cakes and watch American cartoons. However, genuine knowledge about the most cruel and bloody war in the history of mankind, in which our people managed to win, is absolutely necessary: at least - to preserve themselves, at the most - to respect their roots, love their Motherland and create the future together.
For the seeds of education to sprout
Having engaged in the patriotic upbringing of a child, modern parents may face problems … A child may not want to hear about the war - this information feels difficult, painful for them, requiring a way out of their comfort zone. Or even if the child listens and looks, he remains indifferent, not involved in what is happening on the pages of a book or on the screen. He does not identify himself with the heroes of this war and the Russian people. But don't despair.
For a child to be able to truly feel all the tragedy and heroism of the history of the Great Patriotic War, a fertile soil is needed in which these seeds will be sown - a developed cultural layer. Culture is not given to a child upon birth; it is inculcated through proper upbringing. In a small child, the cultural layer is not yet developed - familiarization with culture continues until adolescence. Therefore, it is necessary to make every effort to bring up a real person in a child - a thinking, empathic, kind person.
This happens mainly due to the reading of classical fiction, which creates psychologically very healthy and correct associative rows, gives the correct guidelines in life, builds up and strengthens the inner moral core. After all, culture is the unconditional value of human life, it is an internal prohibition on manifestations of cruelty towards other people. "Girl with matches" by Hans Christian Andersen, "Children of the Underground" by Vladimir Korolenko or "Without a Family" by Hector Little - such works are selected in accordance with the age of the child and the level of his emotional development, and thus the child's soul works and develops.
If a person's cultural layer is developed, then over time the seeds of upbringing will sprout. And then you will find that "nobody is forgotten and nothing is forgotten." And our children and grandchildren will also cry on Victory Day.
If we really take care of our children, only in this case we will have a future: we will be able to pass on to our grown children the country and the state with confidence that Russia is the real Motherland for them, that they will preserve our great country and confidently lead her into the future.
