“This is not for children”: why pioneers are being revived in Russia

On May 19, 2022, on the day of the 100th anniversary of the Soviet pioneers, a bill was submitted to the State Duma of the Russian Federation on the creation of a public movement for children and youth "Big Change", which should become the largest in RUSSIA. According to the document, the structure of the new organization will resemble the pioneers - the authorities will create regional and local branches of this movement, "primary organizations" - in schools and youth organizations; the composition of the top-level council of the movement will be approved and changed by the president of the Russian Federation.

RBC Petersburg asked experts why it was now in the State Duma that they decided to revive the All-Russian youth organization, how it will differ from the pioneers and the Komsomol, and how this idea will be perceived by society.

Daniil Aleksandrov, sociologist, professor at the National Research University Higher School of Economics - St. Petersburg:

www. 00:00 Advertisement 00:00 00:

“This is not the first attempt to organize work with schoolchildren in Russia. Some projects are very successful because they cover small towns and villages of the country, where there is a catastrophic lack of additional activities for children. Such movements are in demand in Russia, and a state policy is needed here. For example, participation in local competitions, which are held everywhere, creates a feeling in remote regions that we have one country. Extracurricular life, including social and volunteer work, is of great importance for the formation of sociality among adolescents. But children in different cities of the country often need their own initiatives and directions for development, and not uniform blueprint events for the whole country. Because in different places certain initiatives are implemented differently.

“Children in different cities of the country often need their own initiatives and directions for development, and not uniform blueprint events for the whole country.”

This is very clearly seen in the example of the cadet classes. In St. Petersburg and Moscow, they are created for children from privileged families, for example, employees of law enforcement agencies who want to isolate their children from real society. And in small towns of Russia, on the contrary, children from dysfunctional families are assigned to cadet classes. They are given a uniform and asked not to fight, so as not to tear it. And paradoxically, uniforms reduce school aggression. In schools in metropolitan areas, the introduction of strict uniforms can cause parental rebellion because children are well socialized and study well. They do not need uniforms as a means of socialization, but in the outback they do, because the school has no other means.

"Paper Souls"

The fundamental question is how the work of the children's movement will be organized. Our officials, even those who think well, of course, will try to create it in the most transparent and unified way - so that it seems to them that they can see directly from the Kremlin what is happening on the outskirts. This is a classic myth about a transparent power vertical. It does not exist, never existed, and never will, simply because the country is too big. Any public organization of this magnitude in the Russian Federation easily becomes a meaningless and bureaucratic project. With a vertical of power, all levels of leadership are interested in portraying to their superiors that nothing bad is happening to them and simply fake activity. This is a general mechanism that has nothing to do with children - it works in all areas. In addition, Russian people are highly inclined to to hide from the watchful eye, simulate activities and supply paper reports in response to paper orders. There are countries that are much smaller, and people there tend to follow the orders of the government. We saw this with the example of covid. The whole story with some idiotic CORONAVIRUS measures in Russia shows us the inability (even if transferred to the regional level) to do it in such a meaningful way that people accept it.

Read on RBC Pro Pro Employees steal at work:what 10 measures will help to avoid this Instructions Pro Onusaa recession is coming.How George Soros and Ray Dalio workPro "Now I'm poor again":what is behind the collapse of stablecoinsAn employee moved abroad: 4 options for how to arrange a job Instructions Pro Illusion of control:what you need to know about the dangers of time management Instructions Pro Some will even raise their salaries:short-term forecast for the labor market Forecasts

“With a vertical of power, all levels of leadership are interested in portraying to their superiors that nothing bad is happening to them and just fake activity.”

All educational institutions today are inundated with paper reports. And I believe that the new movement will have a myriad of paper dead souls. There is a lot of this in existing projects - there really can be one child from the school to participate in the competition, but they will write that there were 15 of them at the school level. The creation of these circulating "paper souls" leads to the fact that at some point the children will become it is clear that live activity is really not needed, because all responsibility is only for correctly drawn up papers. Government officials believe in the false idea of ​​creating unified national programs that would work from Kaliningrad to Kamchatka, because the process can be controlled. But this is a myth that gives rise to paper dead souls and mortifies the living.

"Freedom is important for the children's movement"

Of course, they will try to have some kind of political or social ideology and “correct” patriotic propaganda there. There is no doubt about this, and this should not be feared, because all youth movements are an instrument of patriotic education. Compare with the practices of education in France or America - there is a lot of patriotic education there. But the bureaucratically meaningless creation of paper activity will not form patriotism, but will have a devastating effect on the socialization of children and the formation of their civic identity. If you walk in formation, say chants and do nothing really, children will only learn to say certain words and think something completely opposite at the same time. If the idea of ​​an all-Russian children's movement is subjected to the bureaucratization that is characteristic of Russian life,

“If you walk in formation, say chants and do nothing really, children will only learn to say certain words and think something completely opposite at the same time.”

Freedom is important for the children's movement, and local organizations need to provide some methodological recommendations with examples of what in business are called “best practices”. But I am inclined to think that this movement will develop according to the principle of holding events by certain dates and reporting. This is the reality of our government, not freedom, enthusiasm and opportunity. This was a common problem at the end of the Soviet Union, and now, it seems to me, it can be implemented in an even more diluted form.

Konstantin Tkhostov, DIRECTOR of Lyceum No. 369, member of the regional headquarters of the ONF in St. Petersburg:

“We have a certain kind of generation gap. Parents of modern schoolchildren and older generations grew up by participating in children's organizations: pioneers, Komsomol. In the 1990s, we almost lost an entire generation, depriving them of any opportunities to unite. Then came informal organizations that almost plunged the country into very dubious vectors of development. Fortunately, all this stopped in the 2000s - and then traditional values ​​​​successively began to return. I want to remind many that not everyone could become a pioneer, and it was a great honor. It was also almost impossible to join the Komsomol just like that.

I have nothing against the word "ideology", because the lack of ideology sometimes leads to the fact that the child begins to look for answers and does not always find the truth. The child is so arranged that he takes at face value what cannot be. The absence of clear, open, understandable arguments and facts for the younger generation can lead to a deplorable situation for society as a whole.

"The lack of ideology sometimes leads to the fact that the child begins to look for answers and does not always find the truth."

It is important that there is no coercion. The current generation of young people does not tolerate coercion and will not allow themselves to be drawn into some nuances. This is where dialogue with children is important. None of the adults can determine exactly what children really need without their direct participation in these processes.

Such organizations allow the child not to depend on his geographical location - everything must be integral in some way. As the president positions the unity of the educational space, in the same way, the opportunities for extracurricular activities for children should be sufficiently homogeneous and allow them to develop according to their needs.”

Alexey Semenychev, teacher, writer, author of the educational project "Alternative education in Russia":

“The state is creating a replica of a pioneer organization. Now this is a trend: they are reviving the Moskvich car, returning red flags, and so on. But this is just a replica. By and large, the youth social movement is not created for children, but for a very specific category of voters who would be happy to return to the pioneers. The bulk of Russians went through a pioneer organization, and people aged 40 to 70, as a rule, retained vivid and emotional memories of their pioneer childhood. Therefore, they like the idea of ​​reviving such an organization very much, they strongly support it. And in this way the state solves its electoral task, supports the nostalgia of those who miss the Soviet Union and the idea of ​​its reincarnation. No one understands why children need it.

“By and large, the youth social movement is not created for children, but for a very specific category of voters who would be happy to return to the pioneers.”

I would like to note that, at the same time, the new all-Russian movement is far from being an All-Union Pioneer Organization. She was part of a large hierarchical system in which the Octobrists, Komsomol members and the CPSU still existed. For its time, it was relevant, hierarchical systems in general were popular not only in the USSR, but also in the West. Nobody liked the hierarchy, but everyone lived in it. And, by the way, this hierarchy allowed, conditionally, to go up the career ladder from an October kid to the General Secretary of the CPSU. But today the ideas of hierarchy have become obsolete, even in CHINA. And in the created children's organization there is no idea that would unite everyone. What problems can the All-Russian youth movement solve today? I suppose, only questions of promoting certain theses among children. You cannot solve the problem of school toilets with the help of "pioneers", selection of teachers, repair, creation of circles. And this is a global problem for Russia today. In small towns with a population of up to 200 thousand people and in villages there are no normal sports halls, sports schools, computer clubs, preparatory classes, or extracurricular leisure in general. And these problems are not solved because of the lack of money, and not because of the lack of pioneer cells there.

“You cannot solve the problem of school toilets, the selection of teachers, repairs, the creation of circles with the help of the “pioneer”.

I believe that if anything should be taken from the Soviet Union, it would be a network of houses of technical creativity, circles, art, music and sports schools, which would be free. Previously, one could come to any palace of pioneers and enroll in any section, try different classes. And there really interesting ideas matured, excellent teaching staff, children received invaluable experience. And everyone had access to them. In the pioneer organizations, only party functionaries matured.

On the creation of a large youth organization, someone will make a career, they will probably invest a lot of money in it, they will buy ties, pennants, medals. But it won't do anything. I assure you that the children of million-plus cities will not join any movement of their own free will, because it was not created for them. Through this system, they will try to pass certain ideas (they can change), the organization will only distribute them.

“Children don’t need to be taught how to live right. Children today are interested in things that are very far from ideology.”

If we are talking about education and development, then today it is impossible without communication, which is built on horizontal connections, and not on vertical ones. Children do not need to be taught how to live properly (and the organization will be created for this). Children today are interested in things that are very far from ideology. I see children who willingly go to exhibitions of contemporary art, attend discussion clubs, actively communicate with scientists and writers. A great way to develop is through public spaces. In St. Petersburg there is Sevkabelport, New Holland, where you can come with children, there is a place for activities, at the same time music plays nearby, master classes are held, meetings with designers, artists, poets - this makes the life of children more interesting . They mature when they are involved in what older people create, who are 20-26 years old, who create new music, write poetry, make designer shows of their clothes. This is the environment in which the child really develops, which makes a person truly adult.

Prepared by: