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Representatives of all factions submitted to the State Duma a draft law on the creation of an all-Russian movement of children and youth. This happened on the day when the pioneer organization celebrates 100 years. The authors promise voluntary participation in the movement, but at the same time estimate its potential number at 18 million people. The goals of the organization are the formation of a worldview based on traditional values, love for the motherland and hard work.
Why is movement necessary?
The movement will be called “Big Change”, according to the bill, which was introduced by a group of deputies and senators, including Nina Ostanina, chairman of the committee on family affairs, and Olga Kazakova, head of the committee on education. The stated goal is to promote public policy on children and young people, participate in the upbringing of children, create opportunities for self-fulfillment and prepare for a fulfilling life in society.
Participants in the movement, as follows from the document, can be children from six years old, and their mentors are young adults who have graduated from school, technical school or college. Several times in the bill it is repeated that “foreign agents” will not be allowed to work with children. .
What exactly will be taught to children, the bill does not say. The explanatory note to the bill contains vague wording: the movement allegedly will contribute to “the formation of their worldview based on traditional Russian spiritual and moral values, the traditions of the peoples of the Russian Federation, the achievements of Russian and world culture,” and will also help develop “socially significant and creative activity, high moral qualities, love and respect for the Fatherland.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will be offered to become the head of the movement’s supervisory board, wrote Meduza (the publication is included in Russia’s register of “foreign agents”).
Joining the “Big Break” will be voluntary, the bill says. It also mentions that the movement’s work programs will be implemented “in non-state educational organizations, as well as non-profit organizations.” However, one of the co-authors of the bill, Olga Kazakova, has already announced that the movement will be represented in all schools in Russia and could include about 18 million children.
Are they new pioneers?
“Big change” evokes associations with the Soviet pioneer movement – especially since the law was submitted to the State Duma on the day of the centenary of the pioneers. The leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Zyuganov has already spoken about the new movement: he believes that the “Big Change” has a future only if it inherits the traditions of the pioneers and the Komsomol.
“If they again sit and invent just to show off, nothing will come of it,” Zyuganov said on the radio “Moscow speaking”.
It is impossible to call the “Big Break” a tracing paper of the pioneers, although the experience of the pioneer organization will be taken into account, RIA Novosti quotes the head of Rosmolodezh, Ksenia Razuvaeva. And the press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov stressed that no one is going to revive the pioneers. “Big Break” is a unified, informal social movement of schoolchildren and young people, he said.
On the day of the centenary of the pioneers in Russia, solemn events were held. A festival was opened in Kirov in honor of the 100th anniversary of the pioneer organization: the head of the government of the Kirov region came there in a pioneer tie. In St. Petersburg, on the deck of the Aurora cruiser, schoolchildren were tied with scarlet ties and accepted as pioneers.
Lessons on sanctions and singing the anthem
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the indoctrination of children increased in schools. The action “Write a letter to a soldier” was held with schoolchildren, they lined up in the letter Z and danced with tricolors. The Ministry of Education conducted special all-Russian lessons: they explained that a “special operation” was needed to protect the inhabitants of Donbass, and Western sanctions would only strengthen the Russian economy.
Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov recently announced that every school at the beginning of the new week would raise the Russian flag and sing the national anthem.
It is planned to make it mandatory only from September 1. But in some regions, schools have already introduced this ceremony without waiting for the new school year. In May, this “tradition” became mandatory for all schoolchildren in the Leningrad Region, local media reported . The ceremony with the flag has already been introduced in the schools of Ugra: only excellent students and members of the Yunarmiya paramilitary organization are allowed to raise the flag.
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