Participants of the contest "Person in History. Russia - 20th Century" presented their works on Great Patriotic War (WW II) and Chechen War

The presentation of historical research works prepared by senior school pupils on the topic "Person in History. Russia - 20th Century", which was held on May 4 in Moscow, was attended by pupils from different regions of the Russian Federation.

This year, many works were sent on the Great Patriotic War; there are also some works about participants of the Chechen Wars, Stalin's repressions, and about perestroika. Among the winners are schoolboys from the South Federal District (SFD) - Kalmykia, Rostov Region, Volgograd and Astrakhan.

"My work is entitled 'Three Comrades Served in Chechnya'," Vera Shvets, a contest participant from the Yaroslavl Region, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. "I was shocked by the history told by mother of one of the participants of the Chechen War; this was the starting point of my study."

Anastasia Bondarenko, 16, from the Rostov Region named her work "100 Letters by Private Zaitseva". It is on the fate of a young guy who perished at the Chechen War one and a half weeks before the end of his military service. "During this period he wrote 100 letters to his mother. He wrote the truth about that war. After I read his letters, I understood how little we know about it," Anastasia said.

Kseniya Yakimova from the city of Karpinsk, Sverdlovsk Region, wrote her work on Stalin's repressions of the 1930s. "All my heroes were either dispossessed of their property and exiled, or deported, or just shot dead," she said at the presentation. "My grandfather was among them."

Chairman of the Jury Sigurd Ottovich Schmidt, Academician of the Russian Academy of Education, was happy with the works of the contesters: "The following aspect is pleasant: there are now fewer topics, which try to draw attention by the well-known opposition attitude. The works became much deeper. They correspond to the level of kids' historical knowledge."