Victor Totfalushin, Associate Professor of the Department of Russian History and Archaeology, has been associated with Saratov University for almost half a century (if you add student years). He met his future wife at the university, and both his daughters studied here. Almost 45 years of continuous service as a teacher have also played a role for the inner circle. All family members are connected with pedagogy. We decided to start the story about this dynasty with a blitz interview.
– Viktor Petrovich, who are the teachers in your family name, and who should be considered the "ancestor" of the dynasty?
– The teachers in our family are me, my wife and our eldest daughter. The younger one, not being a teacher, also works at school. I consider my wife to be the ancestor, who, upon entering SSU, already wanted to become a teacher.
– As a historian, do you have your own idea of what forms professional dynasties and how?
– I think that first of all, the family has an influence on the choice of profession, and then the environment and society as a whole.
– If people in the family are engaged in the same business, does it help mutual understanding or, conversely, creates the ground for discussions and disputes?
– It is impossible to give a definite answer. On the one hand, it brings us closer, allows us to exchange information and opinions, but sometimes it also creates the ground for disputes.
– Is the appearance of people of another profession in the dynasty a frightening anomaly or a reason for joy? What is the reason for such an event?
– The reason may be, for example, the conclusion of a marriage union with a representative of another profession. And this is, of course, a joyful event! If your child wants to go the other way, then you need to help him in this, and not indulge in sadness.
– Is it right to wish your children to follow the path already trodden by the older generation?
– You can wish the children to repeat the choice you once made, but let them do it themselves!
Far-reaching decision
Viktor Petrovich considers his wife to be the founder of the pedagogical dynasty. That's who really always wanted to be a teacher! Larisa Anatolyevna is his former student. Accustomed to precise wording, he adds: "the age difference is 10 years and 20 days." But he did not set himself the task of becoming a teacher. I went to university because I liked history. And I also read in the advertisement about the opportunity to go to archaeological excavations. I did not foresee that first I would have to work out the allotted time as a teacher – in schools in the village of Rybushka and the village of Krasny Oktyabr. However, in his first year of work, he had more hours in German than in history, because there was no one to lead inyaz, and he had the temerity to tell that he spent five years in Germany when his father served there, and learned German at school, then at university. But here we were lucky – the Rybushan school had all the extracurricular methodological developments! And well-learned conversational skills generally put him at an unattainable height in relation to the students. And yet, in order to defend the right to teach my core subject – history, I had to rebel. In Red October, he already worked as a historian. From there, on a Komsomol ticket, he got into the camp of the Komsomol Central Committee "Orlyonok" and worked for almost two years as a professional pioneer counselor.
In the autumn of 1978, Viktor Totfalushin unexpectedly received a letter from SSU professor Nikolai Alekseevich Troitsky with an offer to enroll in correspondence graduate school, although, as a student, he specialized in a completely different department – the history of the Ancient World. Why he was invited by a leading expert on the history of Russia in the 19th century has remained a mystery... However, in the letter the professor allowed himself to joke: our department does not need red girls, but good fellows!
And since November 1979, Viktor Petrovich became a university lecturer. If you add up almost 45 years of continuous service (next year is the anniversary) and 5 years of study at SSU, then he has been associated with the university for half a century!
history and discoveries
Viktor Petrovich Totfalushin explains the diversity of his scientific interests in the fields of military history of Russia and the history of the Saratov Region by the fact that he created a family quite late and the birth of children fell at a turning point in the life of the country. It was necessary to earn money, so I had to take on a variety of projects: write articles in encyclopedias, school textbooks, do administrative work. At the same time, he notes with regret: "Maybe this spread and the need to support a family at a difficult moment led to the fact that there were a lot of books and articles as a result, and the doctoral dissertation never took place." But then, not without pride, he admits that his books on the history of the Saratov Volga region are very popular. For one of the last – "Saratov Land during the Crimean War" – the author received the All-Russian N.G. Chernyshevsky Prize, and the book sold out in a matter of days. In addition, his monograph on Saratov province in the era of the Napoleonic Wars is recognized as one of the best studies in Russian historiography on the Russian province during the great confrontation between Russia and France.
It is impossible not to mention two significant discoveries in the history of the war of 1812 made by Viktor Petrovich. One is connected with the Battle of Maloyaroslavets in October 1812, after which Napoleon lost his strategic initiative. The Saratov scientist proved that Peter Bykov, the mayor of Maloyaroslavets, managed to delay the crossing of the enemy by destroying the bridge and dam, and not Savva Belyaev.
The second discovery is connected with the personality of Saratov old-timer Nikolai Saven. V.P. Totfalushin and his French colleague Yves Gauthier managed to dispel the legend of the 126-year-old "officer". It became clear that Saven was a native of the lower classes, an ordinary participant in the campaign to Russia, who did not commit any exploits, and he lived for 103 years.
An essay on V.P. Totfalushin's scientific achievements can be read here.
pedagogical dynasty
Among Viktor Petrovich's relatives, his great-aunt, his mother's aunt, Kapitolina Fedorovna Zlatogorskaya, was a teacher. But, unfortunately, he didn't communicate much with her, since his father served in the army, and they lived in Georgia, then in Germany, and in Saratov they only visited.
His wife, Larisa Anatolyevna Totfalushina, consciously entered the profession of a teacher. She started working back in 1981 as a pioneer teacher at Saratov school No. 29 (now gymnasium No. 5), studied at the evening department, and a year later transferred to the full-time department of the SSU Faculty of History. After graduation, Larisa became a history teacher at the 49th school of the Leninsky district, and today she has been heading School No. 60 named after Hero of the Soviet Union P.F. Batavin for 15 years.
According to Viktor Petrovich, pedagogy is a matter of life for her. She always wanted to be a successful teacher, and she became one. She wanted to develop, and she succeeded – today she is the creative director. For her great personal contribution to the development of education, Larisa Anatolyevna was listed on the "Board of Honor of Educational Workers" of the Leninsky district, awarded the badge "Honorary Worker of General Education of the Russian Federation".
Not every school principal is also a candidate of pedagogical sciences. "Is this a family matter?" I ask Viktor Petrovich. He agrees that he motivated his wife to write a dissertation, instilling in her that she had good training, wonderful practical experience, why not try? And she has prepared a decent job. It was a time when innovative educational institutions were just opening in Saratov. The PhD is based on a comparison of pre-revolutionary lyceums with their updated version, taking into account practical work at the Lyceum of Humanities, where she was first a history teacher, then a head teacher.
Today Larisa Anatolyevna is the author of 13 scientific and methodological articles, a member of the author's teams of the manual "Constitutional foundations of the state and Law: for secondary educational institutions" and the textbook "The history of the Saratov region from ancient times to the present day."
Of course, she uses her husband's research potential to develop her school. He definitely attracts Viktor Petrovich as an expert and a member of the jury when competitions or conferences are held at the school. At one time, he even worked as a teacher here for a whole year, taught two special courses in high school – "The History of the Saratov Region" and "Fundamentals of scientific work". That year, everyone noted how unusually many successful school reports there were! But what did it cost the teacher, who, with his usual scrupulousness and pedantry, forced them to prepare. And what can we say about constant consultations at home, when you need to pick up some information, literature for events, etc.
By the way, Larisa Anatolyevna's younger sister became a teacher under her influence. Natalia Anatolyevna Chulanova teaches Russian language and literature at the Saratov Lyceum of Humanities. She was the winner of the competition of the best teachers of the Russian Federation in 2008 and 2010. She was awarded the honorary title of "Honored Teacher of the Russian Federation". Following the example of her older sister, she also defended her dissertation, becoming a candidate of pedagogical sciences.
But the Totfalushins' daughters, Ksenia and Anastasia, did not become fans of historical science. They are very different, and Viktor Petrovich, ironically, connects this with the fact that Ksenia was born under Soviet rule, and Anastasia immediately after the Soviet Union disappeared.
Larisa Anatolyevna and Ksenia in the Kremlin Palace, 2018; Anastasia in the Muzeon Park, 2023
Ksenia Viktorovna did not become a teacher immediately and not exactly because she wanted to become one. First, she graduated from the Russian State University of Tourism and Service, then from the Faculty of Law of the SSU. She even made a career in the restaurant business, reaching the management of the institution. But fate nevertheless took the pedagogical path. In 2015, she completed the professional retraining program of the Saratov Regional Institute for Educational Development in the specialty "Teacher of a foreign language", fortunately she is a graduate of the former "English" school (now gymnasium No. 3), where fundamental knowledge was laid. She was also motivated to teach by her victory in Moscow, where she became the Winner of the All-Russian competition "Pedagogical Debut". She was also a recipient of the Presidential Award "Talented Youth".
Ksenia has always wanted to live in Moscow. For more than 7 years, she has been teaching English in the elementary grades of Moscow school No. 2070. He is the head of several groups of additional education, including the association "Theater in English". I have now passed the exams and applied for the assignment of the highest teacher category. Probably, it is pleasant for parents-teachers to read a description of their daughter, which says: "Her pedagogical principle is to be active in all manifestations of a diverse and complex life, to approach the matter creatively and with inner conviction, to deeply respect the personality of each child, to be sensitive and caring to him, to benefit people as much as possible".
The youngest daughter Anastasia graduated from the law Faculty of SSU with a degree in Customs and Commodity Science, but has been working for the sixth year ... at school, as a human resources specialist. She treats her business responsibly and professionally, for which she was awarded a Certificate of Honor from the Leninsky District administration.
One of the favorite activities of the Totfalushins is traveling. At various times, family members were able to visit a number of countries – Armenia, Belarus, Great Britain, Hungary, Vietnam, Germany, Greece, Georgia, the Dominican Republic, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Finland, France, Sweden, Estonia.
The trip to Hungary, the homeland of our ancestors, was especially valuable and informative! After all, the paternal grandfather, whom Viktor Petrovich found alive and knew as Andrei Lukyanovich, in fact, was the Hungarian Ambrush Totfalushi (with the Hungarian accent on the first syllable), a participant in the First World War on the side of the Quadruple Alliance, who was captured and settled in the Stavropol Territory. More recently, thanks to the Internet, Totfalushin was found by his second cousin Denesh Kovacs. With his help, Viktor Petrovich was able to trace his family tree to the middle of the 19th century, finding out that its roots go back to Transylvania. And in 2019, Viktor Petrovich and Larisa Anatolyevna went to Hungary, met with their relatives and visited the grave of their ancestors.
Relatively recently, the Totfalushins built a nice cottage where there is enough space for everyone. However, the family can gather on it only during school holidays.
archimedian thrust
In his teaching activities (and Viktor Petrovich teaches general and special courses, conducts seminars, and educational practices), he professes the principle of Archimedes' law. His interpretation is that the harder you push, the more you will get a return. Therefore, he admits, "maybe not everyone likes me, I am a very strict teacher, but this does not bother me." He works with freshmen and understands perfectly well that among modern students not all come to become historians, teachers, there are other motives.
We have to make students out of them, teach them to love their native history. "In this regard, my colleagues who work in senior courses are much happier than me," Viktor Petrovich is sure. – By that time, those who are not able to learn have already fallen away, the rest have been taught order. Colleagues can be said to thrive on my labors."
"But there are also asterisks! – He continues. – I have two talented graduate students in my fourth year now. And their topics are interesting: "The Decembrists and the Caucasus" and "Military-patriotic education of students in a modern school (using the example of studying the Patriotic War of 1812)."
Tamara Korneva
Translated by Lyudmila Yefremova
