«Before You There Stands a Monument to a Peer, a Favourite Hero»: Participation of Soviet Youth in Installation of Monuments to Those Who Died During the Great Patriotic War Based on the Example of the Novgorod Region)

Abstract

In the second half of the 1950s there was a gradual increase in the number of new forms of military-patriotic education such as games «Zarnitsa», «Orlenok (Eaglet)», lessons of courage, meetings with veterans of the revolution and wars, the Red Pathfi nders movement, campaigns to places of military glory. One of the types of youth activism in this period is the installation of monuments, memorial plaques to those who died during the Great Patriotic War. On the basis of the documents stored in the State Archive of Modern History of the Novgorod region, the volunteer initiative of pioneers and Komsomol members, aimed at installing monuments to the participants of the Great Patriotic War, is analyzed. The following questions are considered: for what purpose was this form of activism popularized? How did the youth interact with the Soviet authorities? How was such initiative encouraged? Why did young people participate in this volunteer movement? It may be assumed that the installation of new monuments and memorial plaques contributed to the formation of local patriotism among Novgorod youth. The way the local youth chose the participants of the Great Patriotic War, whose names were to be immortalized, somehow refl ects local specifi city and uniqueness among other regions of the RSFSR.