Barnaul schoolchildren took part in international project "Monument of the Great Victory"

On April 23, 2025 the Presidential Library Regional Center in Altai Krai, operating on the basis of the Shishkov Altai Krai Universal Scientific Library, became a participant of the international teleconference Monuments of the Great Victory. 

The event was organised by the Regional Centre of the Presidential Library of Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous region, functioning in the State Library of Yugra.

The issues of preserving historical memory of the events of the Great Patriotic War through the study of monuments erected in different cities of Russia and Kazakhstan were discussed during the teleconference.

Teams of school activists gathered in the main libraries of Murmansk, Barnaul, Ufa, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Simferopol and Karaganda to talk about the city monuments dedicated to the events of the Great Patriotic War.

The war, which began on 22 June 1941, became the heaviest test for the entire Soviet people. Barnaul was not affected by the hostilities, but the contribution of the townspeople to the Victory was no less great.

The Altai Territory became the area where industrial enterprises were evacuated during the war: equipment of more than 100 enterprises, including 24 plants of all-Union importance, was delivered here. 14 enterprises were located directly in Barnaul.

A significant contribution to the Great Victory was made by military units and formations formed on the Altai land. During the war years, 572,574 men were drafted from the Altai Territory into the Red Army.

Thanks to the developed transport system, Barnaul became a convenient place for hospitals. There were 16 hospitals with 5000 beds.

Today in Barnaul there are 117 monuments and memorial signs dedicated to the events of the Great Patriotic War, 30 streets are named in honour of the heroes of the Fatherland. Many schools during the war years housed division headquarters and hospitals, and today these educational institutions have museums that carefully collect and preserve the memory of the heroism of the Soviet people.

On the site of the Regional Centre of the Presidential Library in Altai Krai gathered students from four educational institutions: Mikhail Butakov (Gymnasium № 42), Rimma Semina (School № 64), Kirill Gorshkov and Vyacheslav Login (School № 126), Kirill Zakazov and Semyon Grabelnikov (School № 89). The children represented educational institutions where museums were created, which reveal the history of famous military formations created in Altai Krai.

Schoolchildren presented the history of the 56th Guards Smolensk Red Banner Rifle Division, 42nd Independent Rifle Brigade (later the 226th Glukhov-Kiev Red Banner Order of Suvorov Rifle Division), told about the famous T-34 tank, the engines for which were produced at the "Barnaultransmash" plant, about the bust of Hero of the Soviet Union Alexander Matveyevich Matrosov, the memorial sign to Alexei Skurlatov, the stele with the memorial inscription: "Here at height 133.4 stood to the death fighters of the 42nd Red Banner Brigade. 7-17 September 1942".

The event was complemented by a book and illustrative exhibition "And the rear was the front" dedicated to the contribution of the Altai Territory workers to the victory in the Great Patriotic War.

On the website of the Presidential Library you can get acquainted with the materials of the large-scale collection Memory of the Great Victory. It includes official documents, photo and newsreels, wartime newspapers, books, propaganda publications, collections of articles, biographies, testimonies of participants of military battles and home front workers, their personal documents, images of military and labour awards, monuments and memorial complexes.