Translated material
Uma tent
The pro-presidential youth movement “Nashi” continues to master camp aesthetics
The “Nashi” movement is holding the second all-Russian rally of its commissars and supporters “Seliger-2006” from July 18 to 29. For the first time, “ourists” set up a tent camp on Lake Seliger in the Tver region a year ago. Then their number was smaller - 3 thousand people versus the current 5 thousand, but the public perceived this event with much greater interest than now.The explanation is simple: a year ago, Nashi had no equal among pro-Kremlin youth organizations. Vasily Yakemenko’s falcons clearly demonstrated their power in May last year by organizing an event called “Our Victory” on Leninsky Prospekt in Moscow, which attracted about 60 thousand people. After such a demonstration of force, some experts expressed the opinion that the authorities, out of fear of color revolutions, were preparing stormtroopers to fight the opposition. Then, at the end of May, “Nashi” suddenly announced that they themselves were going into the opposition - to fight the bureaucrats. The leader of the movement, Mr. Yakemenko, demanded that all officials over 35 years of age be replaced with “young, nationally oriented managers” from among his activists.
Throughout its existence, “Nashi” never ceased to bestow its love on Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. And the president responded to them with fatherly attention, even meeting with activists twice after the first Seliger.
This time, activists even doubt that Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Vladislav Surkov will come to their camp. “Ours” are no longer the force they were at the beginning of their journey. They have a number of competitors. The stunted youth "Unity" was transformed into a more vigorous and toothy "Young Guard", the radical pro-government movement "Young Russia" appeared, "political ecologists" "Locals" - the organization of the governor of the Moscow region Boris Gromov - raised their heads. In addition, Ksenia Sobchak’s movement “Everyone is Free” arose - albeit with unclear goals, but with very significant sources of funding.
Last time, the "Nashists" were spoiled by activists of the "Defense" movement, who sent agents to the camp to find out secrets - in particular, whether the government was really preparing stormtroopers to fight the opposition. However, now the “defencists” themselves are going through hard times after the split; they have no time for “Nashi”. This time it was our own people who rebelled. Some camp activists distributed a letter in which they complained about poor sanitary conditions in Seliger 2006, the lack of showers and dirty toilets. However, the press service of the movement claims that all this is a provocation of enemies, and you can wash yourself in the camp.
A year ago, famous pro-Kremlin political scientists and journalists Gleb Pavlovsky, Vyacheslav Nikonov, Sergei Markov, Mikhail Leontyev and others came to Seliger to give lectures to activists. Mr. Pavlovsky honored the rally with his presence now. The president of the Foundation for Effective Politics began his speech to movement activists with a compliment: “I want to say thank you to Ours for their idealism. Last year you had to be an idealist to join Nashi. (The political strategist explained his opinion by the fact that a year ago, it turns out, the ideas of the “Orange Revolution” were especially popular among young people.) “I value Nashi and distinguish them from other movements precisely because Nashi goes against them. This is great!" - assured Mr. Pavlovsky. He called on activists to continue not to be afraid of being branded black sheep and to follow the example of President Putin, who, without fear of being branded unpopular, did what he considered necessary and earned the respect of the people.
“Nashists” were also given lectures by a member of the Public Chamber, Alexey Chadayev, and Father Andrey Kuraev. The first is about Putin’s ideology, the second is about Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita.”
The camp also opened a fortune-telling salon called “The Third Eye,” which is very popular among Nash girls. But esotericism should not distract the commissars from the main task, voiced by Mr. Yakemenko at the Nashi congress in April of this year - “a wholesale change in the generation of defeatists.” For this purpose, “ourists” are going to supply personnel to “United Russia” and large companies. To identify the most worthy, the leaders of the movement gave each “Nashist” a record book, which recorded their attendance at lectures and other events of Seliger-2006. Subsequently, the most active commissioners will head regional branches, and will also go on internships at RAO UES, Gazprom, LUKOIL, the State Duma apparatus and the presidential administration.