5. Interview with a veteran - a way to replenish museum collections.

Different interviews are supposed to held with veterans and people who remember the war. Interviews in the future can be used in the scientific activities of the museum. They could be used for the compilation of texts of excursions and for the formation of exhibitions. The text of the interview could also be used as a historical source with the subsequent introduction into scientific circulation.

To conduct an interview one needs a dictaphone, at least 240 minutes of recording available. It is necessary to take a questionnaire and always a blank paper, so that names and geographical names can be written down on a piece of paper, because the process of decoding from an audio cassette may have errors due to the vagueness of the diction. The interview should take place in a casual form in ordinary conversation.

The first part of the interview deals with the veteran's personal data and must be completed in a written form in the appropriate boxes of the table. These data will be the basis of the search system.

The second part of the interview consists of some open questions to the veteran and is structured in such a way that the received answers shall become personal testimonies about the events and facts of the Great Patriotic War (including acute issues).

During the conversation, we also ask about objects, photographs, personal belongings and rewards, which the war participant or his relatives are ready to transfer to the museum. In case of agreement, the necessary documents and acts of transfer are drawn up. Thus, this project contributes to the replenishment of the museum collection.

Questions for veterans, workers in the rear, children of the Great Patriotic War.

1. Family name, first name, patronymic, date and place of birth, pre-war profession.

2. Describe the composition of the family, his/her relatives, what did they do?

3.How and when did you or your relatives go to war? In which arms of service did they serve?

4.What rewards and for what services do you have?

5.Describe your own feelings before going to front? And your feelings after the war was over.

6. Did you write home (to the front)? What news came from home?

9.Your first encounter with the Nazis, the first battle. What did you feel?

10. Describe the soldier's (rear) life. What difficulties did you face, how did you overcome them?

11. Women in the war. How did you and your comrades treat the presence of women in the army, if they were there?

12. How did they spend their free time/rest in the war. In what conditions and how much did you have to sleep? What were the entertainments? What songs did they sing or listen?

13. Were you religious, superstitious? In what signs did you believe? What did you helpe to survive at the front?

14. The war lasted 1,418 days. Which of these days was the most disturbing, the most difficult, the happiest for you? What was the Day of Victory?

15.How did participation in the war affect your future life? What did you do after the war?

16. What part other members of the family took in the war, at the front and in the rear.

17. Who of the family during the war was killed or wounded at the front, who from the family was excelled at the front or working in the rear?

Literary processing.

The main task of literary processing is to arrange episodes logically (more often chronologically), told by the veteran, while trying to give the text a readable appearance. At the same time, one should unite the answers of the questions in a single story. Correspondent's questions are often invented before the processing to create logical connectives. One must not put into the veteran’s answers his personal political and historical convictions!