From the beginning of the military aggression in August 2008, a long 14 years have passed. Over the years, a new generation has grown up in peaceful South Ossetia, which has not faced the horrors of war, does not remember the burned streets of its native city and the roar of shells.
Many of these teenagers grew up as orphans. The children of the heroes of the Patriotic War, who did not have time to feel their father's love, all these years collected images of their fathers who gave their lives for a free Ossetia, according to the stories of their elders, according to the recollections of their loved ones, they collected information from documentary sources.
Another daily reminder for all of us of the selflessness of the militias and military personnel are memorial plaques on the streets of the city, which were installed at the places of death of fighters during street battles and skirmishes. There are dozens of them all over the city and regions, and it can be said that the commemorative plates have become a kind of visual chronicle of the tragic days of the war.
According to the established tradition, every year on memorable mourning dates, comrades-in-arms, politicians, relatives and relatives of the dead heroes brought flowers and ritual wreaths to the memorial plates in the absence of a single memorial complex for the fallen heroes.
In the post-war years, the primary task was to restore the destroyed infrastructure. Today, when the sky is again peaceful over the restored Tskhinval, a single memorial complex has been erected in the square next to the National Museum to the fallen defenders of the Motherland in the period from 1989 to 2008.
The memory of every militia member, of all military personnel of the defense department, of Russian soldiers and executed peacekeepers is collected in one monument. North Ossetian craftsmen reflected military actions and destruction in the sculptural composition. The military dedication of the Ossetian defenders and Russian soldiers is enshrined in bronze figures.
The mournful dates of August are approaching, when each of us will again and again turn to our memories in a unifying silence or in an undertone share with each other fragments of terrible pictures that have forever sunk into our memory.
These days, flowers will again be brought to the lonely memorial plates of fallen soldiers. Heroes are alive as long as we remember them. But days pass, and the bouquets are scattered by the wind, the wreaths are covered with a thick layer of dust from passing cars. They fade in the sun, and there is a certain dissonance in this picture. Maybe there is a need to move to the improvement of traditions? For example, to pay tribute to the memory of all the heroes at a single memorial complex, thereby giving the new monument not just protocol symbolism, but filling it with a historical aura. This territory should become a place of national pride and military glory.
Here, in a quiet square, at the monument to the defenders, ceremonies dedicated to the memory of heroes will be held, the elders will tell the younger ones about the exploits of desperate fighters and militias, about the courage of experienced field commanders. It is this complex, as well as the monument to the victims of the Zar tragedy, that should become a venue for patriotism lessons for the younger generation, a guide between military history and peaceful life, a reminder for us, the living, of the need for creative work in the name of the prosperity of our Republic.
