Heroic Chronicle: Polytechnic Students Create a Virtual Museum of the Great Patriotic War

Translation. Region: Russian Federal

Source: Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University –

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August 23 marks one of the days of military glory of Russia – the day of the defeat of the Nazi troops inBattle of Kursk in 1943. More than 3,000 Soviet tanks took part in this grand battle, including the legendary T-34, designed by Polytechnic graduate Mikhail Koshkin.

The Polytechnic Institute made a significant contribution to the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. Many students and teachers fought at the front or worked in the rear, developed new types of weapons needed by the army and navy. The memory of their feat is passed down from generation to generation of Polytechnicians. And it is gratifying that today's students do not forget this heroic page in the history of their university, honor the memory of their ancestors and create projects dedicated to this topic.

Thus, one of the most interesting works prepared by 2nd year students of the Higher School of Biotechnology and Food Production of the Institute of Biomedical Systems and Biotechnology in the discipline "Fundamentals of Project Activities" was "Virtual Museum of the Great Patriotic War and the Siege of Leningrad".

The team of students was led by second-year student of the Biotechnology program Egor Bobin. Katarina Petrova, Evgeny Volzhonok, Luka Boriskin, Danila Gurov, Ilya Borisov, Ekaterina Kosko participated in the work. Their mentors were associate professors of the Higher School of Business and Public Administration Elena Belokurova and Ilona Pankina.

The students collected and analyzed historical materials, prepared scripts for videos, and shot videos in museums. They paid special attention to the accuracy of historical facts, emotional delivery of information, and the use of modern visualization tools. The result was three thematic videos: “Mikhail Koshkin — the creator of the T-34 tank,” “The Road and Cable of Life,” and “The Life of a Soldier According to the Diaries of a Polytechnician.” The students also designed a thematic booklet, where they included a brief summary and links to the videos. One of the project participants, a second-year student majoring in “Technology of Public Catering Products” Luka Boriskin, has been working as a tour guide at the Polytechnic Museum for the second year. Last year, Luka’s team won first place in the “Do You Know the History of Alma Mater?” competition andwas awarded a trip to Kazan.

"We decided to use two key locations — the SPbPU Museum and the Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad. For us, emotionality and clarity of presentation, inclusion of details (music, archival footage), creation of infographics, as well as competent final layout of all collected materials were important," said Yegor Bobin. "An equally important thing was the clear distribution of roles for all participants, where everyone was busy with their own thing: developing a script, searching for suitable materials in the library and museum of the Polytechnic, writing the text, editing and voicing the video. We worked the entire second semester. The team approach helped us act in a coordinated and effective manner."

"In 2025, we celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Victory," emphasized the teacher of the "Fundamentals of Project Activity" discipline, the project mentor, Associate Professor Elena Belokurova. "Our students were born in the 21st century and know about the events of more than half a century ago only from books, feature films, and stories from their grandparents. Therefore, I was happy to support the desire of Yegor Bobin's team to take part in such a significant project, to shoot a number of thematic videos, including about the chief designer of the T-34 tank Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin, a graduate of the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. This is also a story about the contribution of the Polytechnic Institute employees to the victory. While working on the project, I realized that our modern polytechnic students understand and appreciate this, which is very important. I believe that the tradition of filming video materials about memorial sites associated with the Great Patriotic War, which was once started, will be continued and, perhaps, will take a worthy place in the Polytechnic University Museum.”

The second mentor, Ilona Pankina, last year became a prize winner of the “Best Teacher through the Eyes of Students” competition in the “Keeper of Polytechnic Traditions” nomination, and she considers it her special mission to preserve the memory of outstanding Polytechnicians and the traditions of Polytechnic.

“I was very pleased when our students responded with great enthusiasm to the proposal to create a virtual museum and prepare a series of thematic video stories,” shared Ilona Anatolyevna. “In fact, in our Higher School a project to create graphic and video content dedicated to the Great Patriotic War, dates back to 2020. Then, during the pandemic, we began to form the Alley of Military Glory, where information was collected about the relatives of our students and teachers who were at the front. During the pandemic, in-person mass events were prohibited, so this project aroused great interest and response among our students and teachers. The first video was also filmed and edited, where students read poems about the war, talked about the exploits of their ancestors, and teachers told students about their teachers who contributed to the victory in the Great Patriotic War. It is joyful to realize that our youth, students, treat the historical heritage and heroism of our victorious people with great respect and pride. Through such projects, students acquire deep knowledge of past events, developing the ability to think critically and analyze historical facts.

In order to share the results of their project and attract the attention of students from other Russian universities, the Polytechnic students took part in the 6th International Scientific Conference of Promising Developments of Young Scientists “School of Young Innovators” in Kursk and took first place.

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