Stalin Line Historical and Cultural Complex at the Zubryonok National Children’s Centre

During the Year of Historical Memory, staff from the Stalin Line Historical and Cultural Complex visited the Zubryonok National Children’s Centre for the second time. On the first day, they gave lectures on the Great Patriotic War, the First World War and the war in Afghanistan.
 
 
Timur and Yegor Grishkevich described the combat history of the Dnieper Military Flotilla, from its role in the liberation of Belarus to the storming of Berlin. They then held a history quiz, with special certificates awarded to the winners. Sergei Opeikin discussed the origins and development of historical reenactment. Boris Prokazov spoke about the role of the complex in preserving historical memory and the actual contribution made by the defensive Stalin Line in disrupting Hitler’s plan for a lightning war, which led to the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany. At the end of the lecture, those who wished could have their photograph taken with the reenactors.
 
 
Andrei Oralin and Pavel Petrukhin discussed the First World War through the examples of the Russian Imperial Army of Nicholas II and the German Army of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
 
 
Dmitry Kovalevsky spoke about the Limited Contingent of Soviet Forces, which conducted combat operations in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989.
 
 
Sergei Zakharov gave a lecture on the development of small arms, displaying examples ranging from a replica of an 1798 rifled Jäger rifle to a Kalashnikov light machine gun.
 
 
The following day, the children took part in practical firing sessions using blank-firing weapons. As was customary, their camp counsellors tried on a body armour vest and a covered steel helmet, and posed for photographs with their groups while holding a Kalashnikov machine gun.
 
 
The history quiz winners, who had received certificates, were given a safety briefing and used a gas-powered shooting system to simulate explosions.
 
 
They then moved on to the photo area, where they dressed in Red Army uniforms and took souvenir photographs holding weapons, either with one another  or with reenactors portraying sailors of the Dnieper Flotilla.
 
 
Everyone who attended, including the quiz winners,  had the opportunity to fire  blank-firing weapons.
 


Those interested in the Kalashnikov machine gun and the SVD sniper rifle posed for souvenir photographs with them.