The Space of School Events in Nizhny Novgorod Dedicated to the 80th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War

This article presents the results of a study examining the sociological aspects of school events dedicated to the 80th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War. The authors used E. Erikson's theory of socialisation, J. G. Mead's significant other theory, J. Urry's ideas on social and physical space and "mobility capital," as well as P. Nora's historical concepts of "places of memory" and commemorations as the theoretical and sociological basis for their analysis. Based on a content analysis of interviews with Nizhny Novgorod school principals conducted in April of this year, 12 factors were identified that reflect the formats of patriotic education for schoolchildren, as well as the specifics of events during the 80th anniversary of Victory Day (general frameworks for patriotic education, permanent patriotic education structures, in-school cultural events, specifics of school formats, the role of teachers, the school museum as a special space, engaging veterans in schools, district and city formats, family memory research, the Immortal Regiment as an all-Russian event, thematic trips, and inter-country interaction). A sequence of places of memory at different levels was constructed: school – district – city – all-Russian – international. Places of memory ensure the inclusion of schoolchildren in the social and physical space of the corresponding level and the development of their mobility capital. Inclusion in social space occurs through the formation of a group identity (school student, city, district, or country resident) and interaction with social institutions (education, family, professional institutions). The family, as a social group and institution, acts as a kind of mediator in the student's interaction with other social institutions, and family memory reflects and concretises historical memory. The importance of emotional characteristics in the patriotic education process is noted: emotional identification with significant social groups, the experience of empathy, and a subjective interpretation of historical events. An analysis of the lexemes comprising these factors allowed the authors to interpret festive school events as an integral part of patriotic education for schoolchildren, consistent with the current challenges of the socialisation process (overcoming crises characteristic of school age, forming a group of generalised others as the basis of social identity) and contributing to the growth of mobility capital. The study is part of a longitudinal study of the historical memory of the Great Patriotic War, conducted by sociologists in Nizhny Novgorod in collaboration with universities of the Volga Federal District from 2005 to 2025.