On the eve of the Victory Day celebration, Natalia Topal, candidate of historical sciences, lecturer of the Russian Society “Znanie”, addressed the students of the Volga Region State University of Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism. She became the first civilian in the Republic of Tatarstan to receive a veteran of combat operations certificate for her work in the Special Military Operation zone.
In two years, she has conducted more than 105 lectures for seven thousand people across Russia on the history of the Great Patriotic War and traditional values. In addition, she organized more than 50 lectures for 1,500 soldiers in the Special Military Operation zone and border territories as part of the agitation and propaganda brigades of the Russian Society “Znanie”. In 2024 Natalia Topal was short-listed for the prestigious Russian award “Znanie. Prize”.
- We are on the threshold of a very important date. Important not only for our country, but also for our identity and the preservation of memory - the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The memory of the Great Victory is very important, it is the core and cornerstone of our public consciousness. It is necessary to preserve the memory in order to prevent falsification of history and glorification of Nazi collaborators, - said Natalia Topal.
She said that since 2022 she has periodically visited the liberated territories and Kursk region. There she meets with fighters, including those from Tatarstan. Natalia Topal visited Kherson region, Lugansk region, Zaporizhzhya region, Donbass and Mariupol.
Thanks to the historical lecture, students plunged into the years of the Great Patriotic War and learned more about the General Plan “Ost” - plans to entrench Nazi Germany in Eastern Europe. On the example of historical references Natalia Topal told about the genocide of the peaceful Soviet population by the Nazis, special attention was paid to the heroism of the inhabitants of besieged Leningrad. The students also learned about the origins of neo-Nazism.
The meeting was not only informative, but also inspiring. Thanks to the historical facts they realized why it is so important to preserve the memory of the events of the Great Patriotic War, because its distortion can negatively affect the consciousness of the younger generation.
Text: Adelina Khramova
