An awarding ceremony of the winners of the 2021 contest “Family History – National History” was held in the House of the Russian Historical Society in Moscow.

The all-Russian student research contest “Family History – National History” of 2021 was organized by the National History Fund, the Sobranie Fund, Moscow Pedagogical State University and the Russian State University for the Humanities. The Organizing Committee of the contest included the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Sobranie Cultural Initiative Supporting and Preservation Fund Sergey Pavlovich Korostelev and the Director of the Center for Socialization, Family and Asocial Behavior Prevention at Moscow Pedagogical State University, Head of the Faculty of Educational Psychology and Prevention of Deviant Behavior at Moscow Pedagogical State University, Academician of the Russian Academy of Education, Doctor of Psychology, Professor Artur Aleksandrovich Rean.

This contest is aimed at increasing the interest of students in family history, the formation of personal historical culture, the strengthening of the civic identity of young people; the development of skills in setting research tasks and independent work with historical sources.

High schoolers of 8–11 grades of general educational institutions of Russia and students of 1–2 courses of technical schools or colleges were allowed to participate if admitted to such an educational institution after the 9th grade.

The contest was held in two stages:

• during the first stage, the participants of the contest sent their research works to the expert council of the contest. The expert council evaluated the works according to the established criteria;

• during the second stage, participants who successfully passed the first stage of the competitive selection presented videos on their works for evaluation by the expert council. Based on the results of the second stage of the contest, the organizing committee summed up the final results of the contest.

The participants were guided by the following thematic areas when writing their works:

- The commencement of the Great Patriotic War in my family history (on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the start of the Great Patriotic War);

- My family contribution to my country development;

- Family traditions as a reflection of the national history;

- Act of labor bravery in my family;

- Family dynasty on service of the homeland;

- Unique pages of my family chronicles.

In 2021, the Organizing Committee admitted and registered 210 applications satisfying the requirements of the Contest Regulations for participation in the contest. The applications were received from 59 regions of Russia. Most of the contest works were received from the Stavropol and Krasnodar Territories, the Penza Region, the Republic of Crimea and the Chuvash Republic. 3 winners and 19 laureates were selected by experts out of 210 applications.

The winners were awarded a study trip to Moscow with a visit to the House of the Russian Historical Society, excursions to the Central Children’s Library, the State Historical Museum, the Museum of Contemporary History of Russia.

The Chairman of the Russian Historical Society Sergey Naryshkin made a speech for the winners. The First Deputy Minister of Education of the Russian Federation Alexander Bugaev congratulated the winners.

Konstantin Mogilevsky, the Executive Director and the Chairman of the Board of the History of the Fatherland Foundation, Chairman of the Board of the National History Fund, Candidate of Historical Sciences also made a congratulatory speech.

During the event, the winners of the contest “Family History – National History” presented their research works.

Igor Kuritsin, the contest winner and a student of the 10th grade of the Nizhny Novgorod Cadets School of the Volga Federal District named after Army General V.F. Margelov, the Samara Region and his supervisor Anton Alekseev presented the work “Peaceful Wings for My Family” under the topic “Family Dynasty in the Service of the Fatherland”; find the video presentation at https://youtu.be/4AhrdKvT0lY.

Ekaterina Vakhrusheva, a student of the 8th grade of Mukshinskaya Secondary School in the Udmurt Republic, took second place with her supervisor Galina Vakhrusheva and the work “Defenders of the Fatherland of the Ivanov-Vakhrushev Family of the Village of Mukshi” under the topic “Unique Pages of the Family Chronicle”.

Anastasia Radaykina, a student of the 9th grade of School No. 220 in Zarechny, the Penza Region, took third place with her supervisor Tatyana Ryabchikhina and the work “Comparative Analysis of Civil Status Certificates (Birth Certificates) on the Example of my Family” under the topic “Unique Pages of the Family Chronicle”.

Sergey Naryshkin presented awards and memorable gifts to the winners.

More photos from the award ceremony may be found on the website of the Russian Historical Society.

Award documents for the laureates of the contest were sent by the organizers by post to the addresses specified in the cover letters of the participants.

Announcements of other contests are always available on the website of the History of the Fatherland Foundation, and we invite everyone to participate.

Photo: Alexander Shalgin.