Exeter Yaroslavl Twinning Association

Project of the Orphanage "Solnechniy" ("Sunny Home")

"Remember the Glorious Deeds" (2020)

 

  Studying the history of our Motherland and preparing for the 7th Anniversary of the Victory of the Russian people in the Great Patriotic War, we, the children of the orphanage met with several Veterans of the War who told us about their life and activities during 1941-1945.

 

  One of the most active veterans is Kozyrev Victor Vasilyevich, a citizen of Yaroslavl. We used to listen to his exciting stories with our mouth open.

 

  Once we travelled to Gavrilov Yam ( Yaroslavl Region) to meet with one more veteran - Onegina Lyubov lvanovna. We were crying listening to her story about the difrculties of life during the war.

 

  But the most memorable event for us was a trip to Leningrad ( now St. Petersburg)

 

  In the years of the GPW the city was called Leningrad and the goal of our visit there was to meet with Vera Nikolayevna Brovkina who lived in the besieged Leningrad with her mother and her elder brother . Her father was fighting with the fascists at the front. She was only 6 years old but she remembered how her brother took her to the roof of the high building where they lived to watch how the German planes were throwing bombs at their city. It was so dangerous ! Of course,they did it secretly from their mother . She told us how they had no food to eat and the only rescue from starvation was dried bread (sukhari) : long before the war started, their mother dried bread which which was left from their meals. In fact this saved their lives.

 

  We also visited the Museum of the Siege of Leningrad and were shocked by many scenes there. The Peskaryovskoye cemetery struck us by its size and the number of the Soviet soldiers who perished defendirg Leningrad .We put a wreath to the monument.

 

  These meetings will stay in our memory forever.

 

 

  Thus there appeared an idea of making a film about the children who under ex- tremely different circumstances had to become participants of the most cruel war in the history of mankind.

 

  We made a proposal to give the name to the future film «Little Heroes of the Great Patriotic War»

 

  We took part in selecting the material and voiced the text provided by one more veteran of combat operations in Afganistan, Alexander Vasilyevich Schukin who was a frequent guest of our home.

 

  The film was produced by us - a group of creative students Aleskerov Ruslan, Ganchev Egor, Pushnyakova Alena, Fomina Carolina under the guidance of one of the teachers of the orphanage Berestova Irina and of the Director of the orphanage Kuznetsova Elena.

 

  The Yaroslavl Regional Department of Education gave recommendations to use this film at the Lessons of Courage in the Yaroslavl Regional educational institutions.