Zinaida Portnо́va was a resistance fighter who was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), and moved to the Belarusian SSR right before the Nazi invasion. The Nazis then began the Siege of Leningrad, which was one of the most brutal blockades in history, and lasted 900 days.
When she joined a resistance group, she sent this letter to her mother in the besieged and starving Leningrad: «Мама, мы сейчас находимся в партизанском отряде. Вместе с вами бьём немецко-фашистских оккупантов.»
"Mama, we are now in a partisan brigade. Together with you, we are hitting the German-fascist occupiers."
Just replace the nationality and ideology of the occupiers, and this could have been said by a resistance fighter yesterday.
Start of schooling was 8yo at the time. Methods of education and more specifically the start of schooling were a very contentious topic in the USSR. My mother once recalled to me that she published research that supported starting from 5 or 6 just because that was what the politickers supported.
Also found this while searching your question, which is an overview of education policy over time.