"Thanks to our grandfathers for the Victory!"

In honour of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Republic of Belarus from the Nazi invaders and the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War, pupils of Secondary School No. 3 took part in the republican campaign “Thank you, Soldiers of Victory, for knowing no war”.
A scientific and practical conference “Thank you, Grandfathers, for Victory!” was held at Secondary School No. 3, aimed at the civic-patriotic education of youth, participation in research work, strengthening intergenerational ties, and fostering respect for the memory and traditions of our people.
The conference was attended by representatives of the School Museum Council, members of the “Heritage” club under the guidance of Stalina Nikitina, the “Veteran” club (leader Elena Nagulyan), and young search-historians (leaders Elena Kuts, Natalia Mikhno), as well as invited labour veterans S.M. Klyatkova, Ya.I. Yunatkevich, L.V. Skovorodko, and school pupils.
The event was held in three stages. First, school teachers and war veterans shared their memories of the war. Veterans from our neighbourhood also spoke, and then school pupils talked about their great-grandfathers who went through the difficult paths of the war.
All this was accompanied by a multimedia presentation. An exhibition of military awards and materials about war veterans was presented to the audience.
Information about teachers-veterans of the Great Patriotic War has been collected since the museum's inception by Anatoly Khonyak, Lyudmila Lyakh, Svetlana Klyatkova, and Elena Nagulyan. Our school has eleven veterans of the Great Patriotic War. These are P.A. Schasnovich, A.S. Khonyak, I.S. Karpenko, Z.A. Nisenbaum, T.I. Makeev, I.S. Bas, Ya.G. Payul, M.Ya. Trivashkevich, R.S. Karpenko-Fishkina, D.S. Mastitsky, and others.
School pupils spoke about their combat path in their presentations. The story about veterans from our neighbourhood, A.P. Laptsev, A.M. Polonsky, etc., with whom the school maintains close contact, was very interesting.
Family traditions, memory of ancestors, and one's own genealogy are very important for every person. Katerina Kuts, a pupil of the 11th “A” grade, spoke about her great-grandfather Ivan Prokhorovich Skomoroshchenko, who fought his way to Berlin. The story of Yan Bulukh, a pupil of the eighth “A” grade, about his great-grandmother Anastasia Maksimovna Bulukh, who volunteered for a field hospital in 1941, was very interesting.
Guests of the event listened attentively to the story of Nikolay Brutsky-Stempkovsky, a pupil of the eighth “B” grade, about his great-grandfather Ivan Romanovich Simako, who died in 1944 in battles on the Volga.
Lyudmila, a pupil of the seventh “B” gradeSkovorodka's testament told about her great-grandfather Yafim Dmitrievich Baranov, after whom a field and a tractor brigade are named in Ukraine. Fierce battles with the fascists took place there, and Yafim Dmitrievich was seriously wounded and lost an arm.
 Invited veterans also shared memories of their relatives.
 We must not forget the price at which our victory was achieved, how difficult it was to preserve peace. Our generation should take an example from the living and cherish the memory of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War who have already passed away. They gave us a bright future, the opportunity to study and explore further horizons of life.
Alexandra BURDZILOVSKAYA,
member of the "Spadchyna" club.