To be proud of the ancestors` glory is the first dignity of each citizen Данилов Александр 8Б СОШ №2 с УИОП г. Улан-Удэ
творческая работа учащихся

Сomposition by Alexander Danilov,

8 “B”, secondary school №2, Ulan-Ude

“To be proud of the ancestors`

glory is the first dignity of each citizen”

(Alexander Pushkin)

       I would like to take part in this competition because I’m sure it is of vital importance  to answer the question  what it means to be  a real citizen. Each of us is a part of the whole mankind.  If to say more precisely, everyone feels the tight connection with Motherland. The very existence of any person is a result of the native history.

      The earliest information about the Slav-tribes  goes back up to  the  5th century. That epoch is called the Great Migration of Peoples. The Old Russian State appeared as a result of unification of the main political centres of the Eastern Slavs (Kiev and Novgorod) in their willing to defend their borders against numerous stepped tribes ( hazars, pechenegs, polovchies ).

       Grand dukes Oleg, Igor, Svyatoslav,  Vladimir, Yaroslav devoted themselves to strengthening of the Old Russia, they developed economic inter-relations with the foreign neighbours  and supported the Old Culture. Masterpieces « The Chronicle of the Premature Years » and « The Word about Igor’s Regiment » as well as «The Sermons » are the documents of the judicial, social, economic and cultural principles of the Old Russian State.

      Devotion to Motherland, courage, fortitude, strength, their willing for being sovereign helped the Slavs to fight against German, Dutch, Swedish knights, Polish and Hungarian feudal-lords in the west and to throw the Mongol regiments  back to the east.

      In spite of the bravery of the Old Russian towns Khan Batyi invaded lots of the Slav-territories. Thousands of people were killed, 49 towns and settlements were damaged and totally destroyed. That period is known as the Tatar-Mongol Igo. The nobility, the clergy, the merchants, the peasantry had to pay hard contribution to the Golden Orda.      

But in 1242 at the mouth of the Neva-river the great Russian duke Alexander Nevsky smashed up the Orders of Tevtons and Levons. That was the start-point for the Russian people to keep their mighty for their future battles against the Golden Orda.

      The Reverend Sergei Radonezhsky  gave his blessing to the Novgorod duke Dmitry Ivanovich: «Go against godless and with God’s blessing you will overcome them!». That happened on the right bank of the Don-river on the 8th of September,1380. Mamay’s forces lost about 200.000 riders. The Russian regiments lost about 150.000 warriors. That bloody battle finished with the shameful stampede of Mamay’s cavalry.

      The Russian people will never forget the glorious pages of their history. Lots of travelers, navigators explored new routes to the South Asia and to the North (up to the Arctic ocean) as well as to the East (to China and Far East).

The grandeur of the Russian people has been tracing through the contradictory inner history which is fulfilled with mass uprisings. We’ll never forget of Sophya Morozova , Yemelyan Pugachev, Stepan Razin. They remained in the Russian history as the symbols of the national willing for freedom, as the manifestation of moral strength and courage, their deeds were glorified in folk-legends and songs.

The outstanding statesman, diplomat, politician, the Russian tsar Peter the First broadened the borders of Russia in the 17th century,  opened the ways to the Black and the Baltic seas, built plants and manufactures n the Urals and in the West Siberia, organized cultural and public-service institutions in the honour  of the state’s glory. Peter the Great «cut the window into Europe» (Alexander Pushkin). Russia became a sea-state.

       The Patriotic War of 1812 is another unforgettable page of the Russian heroism when all civil estates united to banish the Napoleon’s invaders away. The Battle of Borodino took place on the 19th of February in 1861. Since that time Borodino became the saint place of everlasting glory of the Russian army and people.

We should remember the best noble families of Russia whose representatives in the 18th century organized the secret political societies against the Russian Emperor Alexander with the idea of improving social style-life and reforming the system of ruling in Russia. Uprising in the Senate Square in Saint-Petersburg was suppressed with horrible cruelty. The December leaders were sent in the Siberian prisons and penal servitudes. They lost their noble privileges. Nowadays European  historians  justify that if December uprising had been successful it would have been possible for the Russian state to develop much more rapidly and to be more democratic and prosperous. Maybe!

      The History of the Russian state in the XX century is also dramatic and bloody:

• Revolution of  1905-1907;
• Revolution in February 1917;
• the Civil War;
• the formation of the USSR.

      Russia suffered terribly from starvation and damages, from mass repressions and camps, epidemic diseases and crimes. People overwhelmed all that chaos, oversuffered the thrilling things in their life and became wiser and much stronger and united.

  The Soviet peoples’unity, viability, unconquerable will, moral beauty, talent saved our country and the whole world from the German fascism during the Great Patriotic War. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya said to the village people of Petrishevo before her execution: “It’s impossible to put us down to the knees because we don’t want to be slaves. I’m proud to meet death in the name of my people!”She was the first-year student of the Leningrad University…

Times went on… Since the Velvet Revolution of 1992 we’ve been living in a quite different world, in the Russian Federation. Everything has changed. Our planet is enveloped with conflicts and local wars. In Russian mothers mourn over their dead sons who gave their lives during the first and the second Companies in Afghanistan. Nobody is forgotten, nothing is forgotten… We want to live in a free, mighty, democratic and opened state.

To study, to work, - that’s how we understand our civil duties. Dignity and strength we’ll take out of our history with its hardships, contradictories and glory. I’m proud of the Russian Federation′s history. I feel myself as if I’m a young green leaf at the top of a huge tree. Above me there are only my everlasting heavens and the bright Sun. I’m sure everything will be OK! Indeed, to be proud of our ancestors’ glory is the first dignity of each citizen.

Prince Alexander Nevsky1

Battle of Kulikov

Morozova , Theodosius Prokofievna

Russian conquest of Siberia

The Battle of Borodino

Uprising at Senate Square

Flag over Reichstag

Flag of the Russian Federation

The Kremlin

V.V. Putin