On the 80th anniversary of the Victory: Andrei Egorovich Begunov, a veteran and educator

The article examines the pages of the front-line and post-war biography of Andrei Egorovich Begunov, whose life path can be considered typical for the generation of winners. Based on archival sources and materials of personal origin (memoirs, letters, documents), the military path of the officer from June 1941 to the end of 1943, the history of awarding the medal «For the Defense of the Caucasus» and the Order of the Patriotic War I degree are reconstructed. Using the example of one participant in the Great Patriotic War, the image of a generation of Soviet people is recreated, for whom values such as «Homeland», «family», «honor», «duty», «conscience» were not an empty sound, but were perceived both by the heart and mind, became part of the worldview and life guidelines. It is shown that this moral foundation, laid in the family and the pre-war education system, helped to endure the hardest trials of wartime. A.E. Begunov's post-war biography was connected with the education system. For several years, he headed the trade union of workers of education, higher education and scientific institutions of the Kuibyshev Region. The article analyzes the activities of the trade union and its leader during the important period of transition to universal eight-year and then secondary education. The article examines the work of A.E. Begunov as Vice-rector for Distance Learning at the Kuibyshev State Pedagogical Institute. It shows the activities of its rector's office and teaching staff to increase the enrollment of rural teachers in the correspondence department, efforts aimed at improving the quality of education and reducing the dropout rate of part-time students, and interaction with public education authorities. It is noted that by the mid-1970s, a positive result had been achieved. It is emphasized that an important stage in the biography of A.E. Begunov was his work at the Department of History of the USSR.