IN THE LAST DECADE, THE STATE HAS DONE A LOT TO LEGISLATE NUMEROUS PUBLIC INITIATIVES RELATED TO PROTECT HISTORICAL MEMORY, AND PRESERVE HISTORICAL TRUTH FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS.

• The provision on the preservation of historical memory was enshrined in the Constitution of the Russian Federation. According to the results of the Russian Public Opinion Research Center survey, 88% of Russian citizens supported the amendment to the Constitution of Russia on the protection of historical truth and the prevention of historical falsifications.91
• The declared goals of the State Cultural Policy are aimed at preserving historical and cultural heritage as a basis for the following generations' upbringing and education; the transmission from generation to generation of values and norms, traditions, customs, and patterns of behavior traditional for the Russian civilization as the objectives of the state cultural policy.92
• Bringing up a harmoniously developed and socially responsible generation based on the spiritual and moral values of the people of the Russian Federation, along with historical and national cultural traditions has been established as one of the national development objectives.93
• The long debated amendments to the law “On Education” were adopted. It means that from 1 September 2020, an educational component of patriotic education has been returned into the all levels of educational process.94
• New approaches to working with young audience were considered to the maximum extent in the development of the federal project named ‘Patriotic Education of Citizens', which became part of the Education national project.

At the same time, the Civic Chamber noted that the scale and complexity of the set goals and objectives for the protection and preservation of historical memory did not allow them to be implemented solely by ministries and departments and required the active involvement of civil society.

In 2018−2019, important documents were adopted to promote the development of the volunteer movement in Russia, i.e. The concept for Developing the Volunteer Movement Until 2025 and its Implementation Plan,95which provided for the extensive involvement of the volunteer movement in patriotic education and preservation of historical memory.

Today, historical and archival volunteering has become one of the most widespread and actively developing lines of joint work between the state and civil society in this area.

In 2020, the President of Russia in his article “75th Anniversary of the Great Victory: Shared Responsibility to History and Our Future” noted that “it is crucial to rely exclusively on archive documents and contemporary evidence while avoiding any ideological or politicized speculations”.96 The Head of State emphasized the special role of the search, military-patriotic, and volunteer movements in preserving the historical memory, along with the “Pamyat Naroda” (Memory of the People) project.97The latest served as base for a web-portal that granted access to 425 thousand archival documents of the Red Army fronts, armies, and units in a digital format for the first time ever. The web-portal contains information about the primary burial sites of 5+ million soldiers and officers who died in battle, died of wounds and diseases in stationary and field hospitals.

Today, volunteers provide support in restoring the webs of life of Soviet soldiers who went missing during the Great Patriotic War or are absent from local Memory Books, work with archival documents covering the tragedy of the civilian population in the USSR, prepare and hold historical and cultural events and excursions, help with deciphering archival materials, collecting information from libraries, archives, and document stocks. Working with young audiences, volunteers organize All-Russian historical quests based on the key milestones and heroes of the Great Patriotic War,98online lessons, school essay contests.99

Volunteers actively participate in the formation of the Faces of Victory National Historical Depository100 in the Victory Museum (Moscow). The main objective of this project is to collect information about the combat path and awards of veterans of the front, received by them during the Great Patriotic War; each case will attributed with a portrait photograph of the veteran. The collected information is verified through the electronic document bank of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

Also, the All-Russian project “The Fate of a Soldier Online”101 is being implemented with great success, dedicated to the battlefield history of relatives who died or went missing during the Great Patriotic War. In the course of their work, the participants identified 9.5+ thousand names and and clarified fates of the Fatherland’s defenders.

FEDERAL PROJECT “PATRIOTIC EDUCATION OF CITIZENS”

JANUARY 1, 2021 — DECEMBER 31, 2024

DUE TO THE ACTIVITIES UNDER THE PROJECT, THE FOLLOWING RESULTS AND INDICATORS WILL BE ACHIEVED BY THE END OF 2024

An important domain of volunteers' work is public oversight of efforts to perpetuate the memory of those died in defense of the Fatherland, including the fulfillment by municipal authorities of obligations to landscape graves, drawing public attention to the facts of desecration of monuments and graves of soldiers.102

In April 2021, the President of Russia signed a federal law, 103according to which the main forms of perpetuating the memory of those died in defense of the Fatherland are, without limitation, the burial and reburial of their remains, and regional state authorities are entrusted with specific powers in the field of perpetuating their memory.104 An important part of the law was the ban on construction, excavation, roadworks, and other types of activities which may damage or move from their permanent location the unburied remains of the dead or unknown military graves.

The relevance of the law is confirmed by the construction of a number of facilities within the territory of the Telmanovskoye rural settlement in the Tosnensky District of the Leningrad Region in the summer of 2021, which breached the law. 105

In June 2021, the Civic Chamber appealed to the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation with a request to check compliance with the law in the development of the above territory and to recommend to the owners (users) of land plots to eliminate violations of the legislation106 in terms of ensuring the safety of discovered burials, including to suspend any construction activities until the end of measures to perpetuate the memory of those died in defense of the Fatherland. A criminal case was initiated and an indictment was prepared. The case will be referred to the court in the near future.107

The most important initiative of the President of Russia was the establishment on July 30, 2021, of the Interdepartmental Commission on History Education.108This Commission is a coordinating and advisory body under the President of the Russian Federation to ensure effective interaction between state bodies, the scientific, educational and cultural communities in terms of upholding the national interests to protect historical truth and preserve historical memory, to prevent attempts to falsify historical facts, as well as to develop educational activities in the field of history. The Interdepartmental Commission included representatives of the Civic Chamber.109

With the participation of the Civic Chamber, the book “GROWTH CRYSTAL. For the Russian Economic Miracle”110was prepared for publication. The book examines in detail the phenomenon of economic growth in 1929−1955. The authors used archival and previously classified documents to reconstruct and analyze the economic history of our country, offering a unique model of Russia’s economic development.111The book received an honorary certificate of the Economic Book of the Year Award for its fundamental nature, significance, and relevance.112

Vice President of the Civic Chamber Alexander Galushka, author of the book “GROWTH CRYSTAL. For the Russian Economic Miracle” headed the working group on the Russian economy’s history promotion established as part of the Commission on Historic Education under the President of the Russian Federation.

Despite the rich historiography, many aspects and events of the historical past have not been studied in full. Fundamental changes in Russia in the last 30 years with strict ideological limits being abolished, and previously classified archive records being put into circulation have opened up new horizons for an objective study of the most complex and tragic pages of our military history. These facts can be used to objectively reconstruct historical events and discover previously unknown pages of national history.

One example of such a project, demonstrating the scale of the wartime tragedy and restoring the chronological sequence of historical events, is the “Frontiers of Petrozavodsk” project.

For more than seven years, information about four defensive lines near Petrozavodsk has been studied, and it was possible to mark them on the ground and improve some of them. There are three memorial sites and one military memorial complex, where visitors can learn the history of the events that occurred during the Great Patriotic War. In 2021, as part of the project, two milestone events were organized: firstly, the consecration of a chapel at the “Height 168.5” memorial site and secondly, the traditional burial and reconstruction of battles in the “Barrow of Glory” military memorial complex.

The projects to deepen knowledge of the country’s heroic past are of particular importance in preserving historical memory. Russian citizens take an active part in the all-Russian campaigns called “The Immortal Regiment”, “Ribbon of Saint George”, “Without Time Limits”, the “Passing the Torch to the New Generation” and “Child-Heroes of Russia” projects, as well as in the activities of the all-Russian public movement for the commemoration of victims of defending the fatherland “Russian Search Movement”, “Victory Volunteers”, AllRussian Children’s and Youth Military and Patriotic Social movement “YOUNG ARMY”, Russian Military and Historical Society (RMHS) and in a number of other significant historical and patriotic projects.

Such projects are primarily intended to involve participants into active preservation and expansion of the historical memory about the Great Patriotic War, as well as to develop motivation of the young generation to defend the Fatherland and to prepare them for service in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

THE CIVIL INITIATIVE THAT HAS BECOME THE ANNUAL LARGE-SCALE CAMPAIGN “THE IMMORTAL REGIMENT” HAS A SPECIAL SIGNIFICANCE FOR PERPETUATING THE MEMORY OF THE PARTICIPANTS AND VICTIMS OF THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR. NOT ONLY CITIZENS OF RUSSIA, BUT ALSO RESIDENTS OF MORE THAN 80 NEIGHBORING AND DISTANT FOREIGN COUNTRIES PARTICIPATED IN THE CAMPAIGN.

The idea of this public initiative goes back a long way. Since the 1960s, citizens in various Russian cities have shared the story of their family’s experience in the Great Patriotic War and carried portraits of veterans during various events dedicated to the celebration of Victory Day. In 2012, in Tomsk this public action received its official name “The Immortal Regiment”. At that moment, over 6,000 residents of the city joined the event.

THE ALL-RUSSIAN CIVIL AND PATRIOTIC PROJECT “CHILD-HEROES OF RUSSIA” PROVIDES AN OPPORTUNITY TO RECOGNIZE CHILDREN AND TEENAGERS IN OUR COUNTRY WHO HAVE PERFORMED HEROIC AND COURAGEOUS DEEDS, WHO SELFLESSLY CAME TO THE AID OF PEOPLE AND PROVED THAT AGE IS NO BARRIER FOR DARING DEEDS. IT HAS BEEN IMPLEMENTED SINCE 2014 WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE FEDERATION COUNCIL OF THE FEDERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION BY THE ALL-RUSSIAN PUBLIC ORGANIZATION “RUSSIAN UNION OF RESCUERS” AND THE RUSSIAN MINISTRY OF CIVIL DEFENCE, EMERGENCIES AND DISASTER RELIEF.116

A UNIQUE PROJECT HIGHLIGHTING THE FATE OF THE CIVILIAN POPULATION OF THE USSR WHO SUFFERED FROM NAZI WAR CRIMES DURING THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR IS THE PROJECT OF THE RUSSIAN SEARCH MOVEMENT “WITHOUT TIME LIMITS”.

In 2020, the project was awarded the “Victory” national prize in the “Scientific Project” category. During the year, 23 volumes of archival documents on Nazi crimes against the USSR population were prepared, archival documents were exhibited in 22 regions of the country and searches were conducted in seven Russian regions.

Historical memory about the most horrific, but little-known pages of the Second World War was devoted to the International Scientific and Practical Forum “The Khabarovsk War Crime Trials: Historical Lessons and Contemporary Challenges”, dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the International Military Tribunal, held in Khabarovsk from 25 to 30 December 1949.

The forum was supported by the Presidential Grants Foundation and the Ministry of Education of Russia, which once again emphasized that the preservation of historical memory is an integral part of the educational and training process.

The Khabarovsk War Crime Trials is the trial of a group of 12 former members of the Japanese Kwantung Army who were accused of developing and using bacteriological weapons in violation of the 1925 Geneva Protocol during World War II. This unprecedented and unparalleled story of testing biological weapons and mass inhumane experiments on living human beings by special units of the Japanese armed forces in the death camps was exposed to the international community by the Soviet Union.

The forum included a large exhibition of archival materials and documents on the militaristic Japan’s aggression against the USSR and plans for the large-scale use of bacteriological weapons. The Civic Chamber noted the need for this exhibition in all regions of Russia.

CIVILIAN CASUALTIES IN THE USSR DURING THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR

THE RUINS OF THE CITY OF VYAZMA AFTER THE BATTLES FOR LIBERATION FROM THE NAZI INVADERS. 1941−1945 GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR

As a partner of the project, the Civic Chamber stresses the importance of including it in the work programs of educational organizations. With the enormous archival and search work accomplished as part of such projects, today we can no longer speak of the revival of historical memory, but of its preservation and transmission to the younger generations of citizens of our country as part of the historical and patriotic upbringing and education of minors.

Issues of civic and patriotic education of children and youth were the topic of discussion at the All-Russian Social and Patriotic Forum “Raise a Patriot”, which plenary session was held in the Civic Chamber. More than 350 educators, arriving at the forum from different regions of the country, and presented the best ideas of teachers for the promotion of patriotic education in Russia.

ALL-RUSSIAN FORUM “WITHOUT TIME LIMITS”

RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE PARTICIPANTS AT THE ALL-RUSSIAN FORUM “WITHOUT TIME LIMITS” FOR UNIVERSITY PATRIOTIC EDUCATION SPECIALISTS