“The Living Legend”

In February, the Department of History already traditionally takes part in various events dedicated to the Memorial Day of soldiers-internationalists. This is a regional competition of works “The Pain of My Soul – Afghanistan”, a city event “Open Dialog: Who is he - the hero of our time” under the auspices of the Brest city committee of BRSM.

On February 18, at the residence hall № 2 was held a meeting of student youth with a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, Lieutenant Colonel Vasily Sokolov.

Once again, students have the privilege of touching the events of that terrible war, which we know about from the films they've seen and books they've read. To plunge into the “living history” helped us our ward, as it is respectfully called by students – Vasily Vasilyevich. He told the students about his service in Afghanistan, about his company, about his first days in the war and about the first order that he remembers all his life: “The main task is to keep people alive!”

Students listened attentively to the serious injuries of the then young captain V. Sokolov, about mutual assistance and Afghan brotherhood. About how quickly the most important human qualities are manifested in the war: courage and heroism. How they fought with fear and meanness. Students were struck by the commander's revelation: “Would you go back there?” “Come back!” – without hesitation, he answered.

Vasily Vasilyevich told the guys about how Turkmen soldiers served, how they repeatedly helped Russian-speaking soldiers. The meeting touched upon the relations between civilians and Soviet soldiers, the severity of justified and unjustified human losses, living conditions and such hard topics as the memory of the Afghan war, the break-up of the Soviet Union.

Vasily Vasilyevich encouraged young people to remember those people who fulfilled their duty to their homeland, to meet with them, to take interest in their fate. He spoke about the unique opportunity to communicate with the young generation, future defenders of their Fatherland, which is necessary to be proudly called a man.

At the end of the meeting, our guest advised the guys to make some films about the war in Afghanistan in order to clearly understand and evaluate all the peripetias that fell on the warriors-internationalists.

At the Department of History it has become a good tradition to hold meetings with the veterans of "hot places" of the planet. Such events are important: they help us to dive deeper into history, to revive it.

We express our gratitude to Vasily Vasilyevich for frank and sincere conversation. These were not just living memories of a combat officer - it was a revelation of the real Commander.

Department of History