Combat heroes of the most peaceful profession. The Presidential Library tells about the war feats of teachers

"September 1, 1941. In previous years, this day was the beginning of the school year. I had to sit at my desk in the 9th grade. But the war has changed everything: partisans are sleeping in classrooms, and students are digging anti-tank ditches. Would the classes of 10th begin? I don't think so, the frontline is too close. But I want to study!" wrote Igor Malakhov, a Leningrad schoolboy, in his diary.

But classes, belatedly, began. They began in the following 1942, despite the fact that there were fewer and fewer children in the besieged city, and many schools were bombed or closed. Students of the 208th school of the Kuibyshev district, for example, celebrated the new school year "in a large and cozy apartment of a residential building on the Moika embankment. The classroom rooms are carefully cleaned, washed... all this was done by the hands of teachers and schoolchildren themselves," it was reported in the September 3, 1942 issue of the Uchitelskaya Gazeta, presented on the portal of the Presidential Library.

Residential buildings, basements, bomb shelters, catacombs, dugouts – schools were located in the most different places during the Great Patriotic War. At the first opportunity, as the same issue of the Uchitelskaya Gazeta wrote, "in the districts liberated from the nazi occupiers, teachers and schoolchildren with their own hands repaired gaps in the walls of the school pierced by shells. ... and finally – the solemn silence in the classrooms is back.; the teacher conducts the lesson. He tells the children about the motherland, its vast expanses and riches, about the heroic struggle of the people against the hated fascist invaders..." The military theme was present in all school lessons. The children wrote essays on the topic "How did I help the frontline?", solved problems by counting the number of tanks and airplanes, studied physics using examples of the operation of engines of military equipment.

On August 27, 1942, a letter from teachers of the Fedyakin School of Ryazan Region was published in the Uchitelskaya Gazeta. The letter ended with these words: "Stop the enemy! Cleanse our land of it. And remember about your families: we will help your mothers, wives and sisters with everything they need, we will bring up your children, as required by the motherland." Starting from the next issue, the Uchitelskaya Gazeta begins to run a column about "Fedyakin's residents in action." "We will not leave children unattended, we will help the families of veterans. Let's keep the orphans warm with care!" – the newspaper urges.

At an anti-fascist meeting of teachers, which took place on October 11, 1942 in the Hall of Columns of the House of Unions, Valentina Lyubova, a teacher at the 105th Leningrad school, told: "Children's parents died. But not a single child felt like an orphan. Teachers made house-to-house rounds, sent orphaned children to children's institutions, and delivered weakened babies to hospitals on their hands. ... We organized orphanages, sewed underwear and warm clothes for children, washed them, cooked food for them..."

Teachers not only taught children and saved orphans, but also fought against the enemy in the temporarily occupied territories. Often at the cost of their lives. From the issue of the Uchitelskaya Gazeta, published on October 11, 1941, the country learned about the feat of teacher Nina Krivoruchko, who blew up a hut housing officers of the fascist army. On January 21, 1942, Uchitelskaya Gazeta told about the teacher Varvara Lyashkova, who sheltered 33 wounded Red Army soldiers during the German occupation of the city of Yeletsk. Already in the next issue of the newspaper it was reported that the hero-teacher was awarded the Order of the Red Star.

Recent schoolchildren who went to the war sent letters not only to their relatives and lovers, but also to teachers. "You've probably forgotten me: you've raised hundreds, maybe thousands, of people like me. But I can't forget you," V. Grigoriev, a graduate of the Secondary Akhtuba School, wrote from the frontline to his former teacher Andrei Baldin. "But I can't forget you."… This confession is sent twice by the medal-bearer, who received several wounds, who survived the terrible news of the death of his parents at the hands of fascist executioners..." Letters to teachers like this were often printed in the Uchitelskaya Gazeta. During the war years, the publication became a link between the front and the school.

In January 1942, the teachers of the 13th school of Kuibyshev city made an initiative to build a tank column "National Teacher". This suggestion was immediately supported by the newspaper. "Let our tanks, built at the expense of Soviet teachers, fight at the frontline... Teachers! All schools, all teachers should participate in building of our tank column "National Teacher"! Pick up the Kuibyshev initiative!" – The Uchitelskaya Gazeta said on February 11, 1942.

Already on July 22, 1942, the transfer of the tank column to the soldiers of the Red Army took place. The entire front page of the Uchiteskaya Gazeta dated July 23 was devoted to this event. "A formidable squad of tanks has lined up in a green clearing. "Death to the German occupiers!“ was written on the cars. "Death to the German occupiers!“ – said the eyes of people going to the front… Everyone was standing closely around the tank commander Ivan Vybornov. He is a teacher. He was in charge of an elementary school in the village of Vladimirovka, Stalingrad region. And now he will lead the tank into battle against the German invaders. ... "I love this job... I love the children," Ivan Vybornov says quietly. – After the war I will teach them again ... and now, now let's go teach the Germans a lesson!" – wrote the author of the reportage "Tanks go to the front." The dream of the tankman to return back never came true. Ivan Vybornov died in one of the fierce battles. Senior political officer M. Kochur wrote about this to the editorial office from the frontline. This letter opens the issue of the Uchitelskaya Gazeta dated September 10, 1942.

"We, the teachers, were people of peaceful labor, representatives of one of the most peaceful and humanistic professions," - so starts the speech of a front-line teacher, senior Lieutenant Baskakov at an Anti-Fascist meeting of teachers, published in the Uchitelskaya Gazeta on October 13, 1942. "Many of us had the most unrealistic idea of the harsh craft. ... Only the humanist, who knows how to defend his ideas and his freedom with weapons in his hands, worths anything nowadays."

Thousands of teachers, having changed the pointer to a machine gun, classes to trenches, fought at the front. Almost every issue of the Uchitelskaya Gazeta told about the examples of courage and bravery shown by Soviet teachers. "The Birth of a Hero" was the title of an essay about the "literacy teacher" Valentin Petrov, published in the first issue of the Newspaper in 1942. "Valentin Petrov and the war," the journalist wrote, "were two poles, two concepts that were difficult to reconcile." He was a quiet, shy man. The children, together with the teacher, grew flowers and medicinal plants. Valentin Petrov said that he wanted to bring out a new amazing variety – the "flower of life", which could stop the blood, heal wounds… After the first battles of Valentin Petrov, a note appeared in the frontline newspaper about the feat of the fearless Red Army soldier Petrov. The fighter crept up to the German dugout, "shot two sentries with decisive shots, and threw grenades at the Germans who ran out of the dugout," exterminating 65 fascists. Valentin Petrov was a fearless Red Army hero. A modest, shy teacher, a lover of flowers and fairy tales.

One can learn more about the exploits of teachers at the front, occupied territories and in the rear during the Great Patriotic War at the digitized and freely available issues of the Uchitelskaya Gazeta for 1941-1945 on the Presidential Library's portal. The Presidential Library and Uchitelskaya Gazeta are developing their cooperation based on an agreement that was signed in June 2023.