Historical essay competition award ceremony takes place in Moscow

The award ceremony of the 5th All-Russian Historical Essay Competition for Senior School Students "A Man in History. Russia - 20th Century" took place at the theatre center Na Strastnom in Moscow on May 6. The competition was conducted by the human rights society Memorial with the assistance of the Open Russia Regional NGO (Russia), the Ford Foundation (the United States), and the Heinrich Boell Foundation.

Students from different regions of Russia are among laureates of the competition. They used real facts in their essays, for instance, the history of their families in the years of repressions. The young researchers often used not only archival documents as historical sources but their family photograph albums. Many of them talked with people who witnessed the developments of those years.

In spite of the fact that the authors of historical essays are not venerable scientists, some of their works take on special topicality today. The matter concerns students from Chechnya and Ingushetia. The editors of the Caucasian Knot agency presented five of them - Maksim Isayev, Khava Gaytukiyeva, Elina Batiyeva, Turpal Yusupov, and Zelimkhan Irbagiyev - with special prizes. Unfortunately, only Khava and Maksim were able to come to the ceremony. Altogether 150 essays from Chechnya were submitted to the competition this year. This figure means much as less then 10 essays were received from this region last year.