NOVOSIBIRSK STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY
February 2 is a great date not only in the history of our country and also in the world history. This is the 80th anniversary of the “Uranus” operation which resulted in the defeat of the 6th German Army in the Great Patriotic War. It was a radical turning point for our people who fought and at the cost of many lives of Soviet soldiers held back the onslaught of Wehrmacht soldiers and defeated the enemy near Stalingrad.
Nikolay Lukyanovich Kationov, the father of Oleg Nikolaevich, took part in the battle. He was baptized by fire on the right bank of the Don in military outposts. After being wounded, he kept fighting in the battle of Rzhev. Nikolay Kationov graduated from the sniper school in Akmolinsk (Kazakh SSR). He joined the army from there and killed 79 German soldiers and officers. Oleg Nikolaevich illustrates these events in his father's biography not only from his memoirs, but also based on numerous archival sources.
- This work is designed to give approaches to study and systematization of data from various sources. The main idea of the study guide is to help students develop their skills in working with historical materials, and then use them in teaching other students as part of their pedagogical activity. Today, due to numerous scientific works, memoirs and open access to archives, almost everyone has opportunities to learn something about their ancestors - participants in the Great Patriotic War, - says Oleg Nikolaevich.
Working on a biography, searching for the facts and real archival documents starts from the website project “Memory of the People”. This is a state information system that helps to get the most complete documentary information about the participants in the Great Patriotic War using new interactive tools.
Moreover, in order to present an overall picture of hostilities, Oleg Nikolaevich recommends that researchers should study memoirs of the participants in the Great Patriotic War, as well as combat journals of battlefields, armies and divisions, records of documents on awards, historical maps, diagrams, etc.
It’s worth remembering that a year ago we published a special NSPU podcast "Professor's Online", dedicated to the end of the Battle of Stalingrad. In the podcast, Oleg Nikolaevich told the audience about the exploits of his father, stories about miraculous salvation and about what really helped to survive in the wartime. The professor also shared his ideas about how to describe military events in memoirs and his future study guide.
For reference:
More than 70 employees and teachers of the Novosibirsk State Pedagogical Institute took part in the Great Patriotic War. They fought in the war in different time and made a significant contribution to the Great Victory of 1945.
The NSPU museum has a permanent exposition of information boards dedicated to teachers, staff and students who fought in the Great Patriotic War. Every year, on Victory Day, the university organizes meetings with veterans and civilians of the wartime and holds expositions of documents, newspapers, letters, photographs, memoirs, books about the war.
In order to remember the names of the front-line soldiers, the NSPU website has a special section where you can find biographies and photos of the heroes and trace the history of the country and our university.
Eugeny Grishukov
