Lishin, Oleg Vsevolodovich (18.X.1931 — 3.V.2009) — candidate of psychological sciences, leading researcher at the Psychological Institute of the Russian Academy of Education.
Author of the book «Pedagogical Psychology of Education». He promoted the communist movement.
In memory of a comrade
COMMON SENSE Summer 2009 No. 3 (52)
Oleg Vsevolodovich Lishin became known to us recently — he published two articles in the journal Common Sense, made a report on the psychology of adolescents at a meeting of the Russian Geographical Society … I knew him from our student years, and now, after the funeral, I began to collect information that turned out to be surprisingly interesting , could easily fill the pages of an interesting book! Among the documents, I saw a striking, unique appeal from Lishin the father to his teenage son, dated October 8, 1944 (the Great Patriotic War was still thundering). Here is what he bequeathed: “Intentionally, without any pretense, I wrote in the form of an epigraph the saying of Epicurus — “live unnoticed”. Understand as you wish — whether it is imperceptible to yourself, imperceptible to people, it doesn’t matter. Only easy. Let life flow unnoticed. Perhaps this advice will seem to you, as a citizen, unworthy and inappropriate, but to me, a witness to the beginning of an era of great upheavals, a witness to the terrible misfortunes of the people, only this saying of the great philosopher of antiquity comes to mind, in the form of my last advice to you, written on 46 years of life, when life is already declining.
A strong, dignified character and an analytical mind sound in this parting word, and the son lived easily, willingly, but it was so difficult to look from the outside that few people could have done it in his place. He has always been a leader and never an administrator or a general. He always created and led groups of people. They followed him, as in the footsteps of a good giant, and he stepped forward, towards new interests, creating new groups and unions of people.
Almost from the very beginning, Arkadia Konstantinovna was with him — one would still not turn so much! As students, we called them Ada and Oleg — that’s what we will say. Historical (Ada) and biological (Oleg) faculties of Moscow State University. And solid — for the whole of Moscow — public work — the organization of youth groups near Moscow, historical and educational tourism. My friends and I personally retrained as water tourists — for life, until old age, and Oleg and Ada looked at us condescendingly — they say, are you walking? And here we are… They started by leaving Moscow — the distant Naryn-Kol (anti-plague station), then the Ural Denezhkin Kamen Reserve (organization of a group of speleologists), then — a real vocation for both — work with children in a boarding school. It was this work in various versions (up to serious, generalizing theoretical work at the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences) that made up the content of their lives — in the Moscow region, Moscow and many places where they were thrown by campaigns — educating and uniting children and adolescents. Children — three of their own and many others — were an important part of their lives. They easily took other people’s, not quite prosperous, children into the family in order to «rescue» them. They took it for a while, not officially, and then “released”, considering that the teenager was more or less already “ripe”. And from their children they brought up a shift for themselves — a cohort of future educators.
My best memory of Oleg is a heavy, powerful, smiling he sits in a cramped apartment at the school, surrounded by his family, pupils and with a huge, always hungry dog (they were generally strict with food). And always at the same table sat a visiting teacher — an enthusiast of hiking and other informal methods of education. The Lishins helped in every way they could, they found out what their colleagues were doing (I remember talking about the non-Moscow literary club Brigantina). They were passionately interested in people and events. When the Russian-Chinese conflict began over Damansky Island, Oleg and Ada went to the conflict zone with children and conditional press credentials. We (it was a sin) considered them eccentrics, and they — among other things — were real journalists and wrote books! Here I have before me a review of the manuscript of the scientific monograph «The norm and pathology of personal development (basics of prevention and correction)». The authors of the monograph are O. V. Lishin and A. K. Lishina. This is the fundamental problem that Oleg dealt with in the last years of his life! He taught educational psychology and was surrounded by a huge school of followers and sincere admirers. Their concept «was based on the author’s joint pedagogical activity both with «ordinary» teenagers and with teenagers of the «risk group»». From the usual point of view, teenagers of the «risk group» are those who are scary to approach. Oleg was not afraid — never!
In addition to their usual teaching activities, in the last, I think, 10 years, Oleg and Ada began to actively (and personally) participate in the organization and activities of the Dozor groups. These groups now, half a century after the end of the Great Patriotic War, continue to search for and reburial the remains of soldiers once left in mass graves. Oleg’s eldest son, Nikolai Olegovich, maintains a «dozorov» museum of found weapons and documents, and I met the «dozorovtsy» at the funeral of Oleg, a great teacher who could not and did not want to «live quietly.»
Several dozen amazingly intelligent people of various ages came to the funeral, some with children. And then, in the forest, they arranged a commemoration, which I kept wanting to call a feast. We quickly knocked together a table and benches, got to know each other (the people were from different detachments). A middle-aged woman told me: “Oleg invited me once, twice, a third time, and I came to the “watch”, and my life became different, and I became different!” Oleg knew how to psychologically help out not only teenagers!
Ada spoke with difficulty, their daughter Tatyana exclaimed through sobs — “Let’s go to our beloved Olegova!” And several dozen little-known people stood in a circle and sang: “The songs of our regiment have died down, the sonorous hooves have died down. The bottom of the cauldron was pierced by a bullet, the young canteen was killed” (Bulat Okudzhava). Is there such a memorial? Only with him, with Oleg, there was such a tender, respectful farewell. Well, we will also say goodbye: “Hands on the shutter, head in anguish, and the soul has already taken off like … Why do we write with blood on the sand — these letters are not needed by nature!”.
Farewell, Oleg! Oh, you would have one more life, you would have done so much more!
Goodbye.
Vsevolod Lyashenko