Students of the Institute of History and International Relations of SFFU Ruslan Zharkikh and Anna Pukh, as well as the head of the museum, associate professor of the Department of Russian History of the XX-XXI centuries of the Institute of History and International Relations of SFFU Maria Bratolyubova. Students of the Institute of History and International Relations of SFFU Ruslan Zharkikh and Anna Pukh, as well as the head of the museum, associate professor of the Department of Russian History of the XX-XXI centuries of the Institute of History and International Relations of SFFU Maria Bratolyubova.
May 18 is International Museum Day. In 1977, the 11th global conference of the International Council of Museums took place in Moscow. At the conference, a decision was made to establish International Museum Day.
Almost every structural unit of the Southern Federal University has its own museum.
In 2022, a new exhibition space “Student Historical Patriotic Museum” opened at the Institute of History and International Relations of Southern Federal University . The museum opened within the framework of an agreement between the Southern Federal University and Pyatigorsk State University, with the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation.
The student museum is not only a place for presenting museum exhibits, but also a methodological resource for organizing project activities, research and educational work of students.
“Every shelf, every exhibit that you see here is the result of student research work. There are many different museums: merchant, technical, museum of the history of a university or some event, etc. Our museum is called historical and patriotic for a reason; it covers a variety of periods of history that students study. In addition, students take an active part in creating new exhibitions. The museum is located in a classroom, so students can work with exhibits both during and after lectures,” says Maria Bratolyubova, head of the museum, associate professor of the Department of Russian History of the 20th-21st centuries at the Institute of History and International Relations of SFFU.
The topics of exhibitions change periodically; here you can see unique archival documents dedicated to the history of Rostov-on-Don in the pre-revolutionary period, the history of the Southern Federal University since the move of the Warsaw Imperial University to the Don capital.
The most important place in the exhibition is occupied by finds from trips and expeditions to the battlefields of the Great Patriotic War. Most recently, the collection was replenished with new exhibits provided by the Mius-Front search team.
representative of the search movement “Mius-Front” Rostislav Lysenko. representative of the search movement “Mius-Front” Rostislav Lysenko.
“We are happy to share our findings with the historical museum of the Institute of History and International Relations of SFU — it is important that students do not forget their history and honor the memory of the heroes of our country. The collection that we donated to the university includes ammunition and personal belongings of both Russian and German soldiers. There is a bayonet-knife that every Wehrmacht soldier had, an RGD-33 grenade — every Soviet soldier had this, an incendiary mixture called the Molotov Cocktail, a cap for ammunition, a mine shank. In addition, there are fairly well-preserved aluminum cans from German canned food, where you can even see the inscription,” said Rostislav Lysenko, a representative of the Mius-Front search movement.
Students of the Institute of History and International Relations of SFU take an active part in the “Discover Rostov” project, where they conduct excursions around the museum, as well as around Rostov-on-Don. Anna Pukh, a 4th year student, spoke about the history of SFU during the war years.
“Here is a transcript from a rally in 1941, at which teachers and students say that they are ready to defend the Motherland. In 1942, when Rostov-on-Don was occupied, it was decided to move the university to Makhachkala, they were given special passes, and some of them were preserved in the archives and are presented here in the museum. The employees continued their work, and the students studied; in addition, the students were engaged in socially useful activities, for example, they ran a wall newspaper,” explains the student.
The museum presents a variety of documents that literally piece by piece collect the history of the university during the war years, some are in the originals, some have already been digitized by students.
It is worth noting that Annaconducts extensive research work on the activities of the student movement “Search”, she successfully presented it at a scientific conference and continues her research.
“In the 60s, the dean of the history department of the Russian State University, Pavel Chernopitsky, and students created the “Search” group, which was engaged in restoring gaps in the history of teachers, students, graduate students and university staff during the war. We have preserved documents, correspondence with relatives, letters from sons to mothers, grade books from 1945 and 1946, orders that described how lost data was restored. In the archives, I went through about 15 personal files, where there are many documents that helped restore a person’s fate: draft cards, certificates of admission to the Russian State University, diplomas. In our museum there is a separate shelf, which is dedicated to the history of the graduate student of the Russian State University, here we can see his diploma with honors, personal correspondence. In addition, among the exhibits you can find Chernopitsky’s correspondence with museums about the delivery of part of the land from the battle areas where students and teachers of the Russian State University fought,” says Anna Pukh.
Ruslan Zharkikh, student at the Institute of History and International Relations of Southern Federal University. Ruslan Zharkikh, student at the Institute of History and International Relations of Southern Federal University.
Students of the Institute of History and International Relations of SFU begin research work from the first year, for example, Ruslan Zharkikh also takes an active part in creating exhibitions.
“The building of the Faculty of Law, which is located on Gorky, was converted into experimental workshops, thanks to the materials of the “Poisk” group, we learned a lot of new information, for example, we now have one of the most valuable documents presented — these are negatives of RSU employees who worked in these laboratories, creating special incendiary shells,” notes the student.
“For us, this museum is much more than an exhibition space, it is a large communication platform for communication, education and popularization of the history of our country, city and Southern Federal University,” concluded Maria Bratolyubova.
