"Child's territory" in the space of the Great Patriotic War (on the materials of Stalingrad battle)

The paper presents the history of "children and war" problem and highlights the tasks of its further anthropologic research. On the basis of recollections of people whose childhood fell on the period of Stalingrad battle, the author gives the general definition to the notion of wartime childhood, reveals its age limits and the main age groups within children stratum. The author also assesses children's conditions during the war (status, role, risks) and determines the peculiarities of war perception by children as well as the ways of adjusting to life in the period of the Stalingrad Battle. The problem of children and war is studied in terms of two aspects: the anthropology of extreme situations (war and catastrophes), and the anthropology of age (childhood). The article covers the history of children and war issue development and formulates the goals of further anthropological research of the problem. The research should be based on interdisciplinary approach. Not only history, psychology and anthropology itself can be valuable in such kind of research. The methods of cultural, ethnographical and even linguistic studies should also be taken into account. The author also formulates the goals of further research such as children's wartime daily routine, child's fears and ways of overcoming them, communication practices with the military (Soviet and German), gender differences in war perception, and children's adaptation to war violence.