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Non-drainable

Special correspondent of Friday spent two nights in the striking RGTEU

Four thousand people were present in the hall. After Professor Gradovsky read the university report, applause rang out. But at this time a voice was heard from the choir: “ Gentlemen! The report is clear: the unanimous demands of all universities were ignored. They listened to us in order to laugh at us?! Along with violence, they want to suppress us with cunning. But we understand the deceitful policy of the government... Down with the vile Saburov!” 4000 voices merged into a deafening roar, in which only one could hear swearing and the drawn-out “ Vo-o-n”... At the same time, 1st year student Podbelsky stands out from the crowd of comrades, approaches the Minister of Public Education Saburov and slaps him on the wrist ..."

1881, “ People's Will”, strikes in educational institutions of St. Petersburg. In my mind, student unrest looks exactly like this. I walk across the courtyard to the huge dark building of the Russian State Technical University, where students are on strike, and am already anticipating angry murmurs, reading news feeds out loud and mass signing of petitions.

The building is warm and quiet. Three young men are on duty at the turnstiles. Green windbreakers with the university emblem have “ Organizer” badges.

— What are you organizing?

“A share,” the young men answer. While one is copying my ID, I look around the corridor. Everything is covered with posters: “ Minister of Education, quit!”, “ Reorganization is a step into the abyss.” On the stand are printouts of articles from the Internet: about the decision of the Ministry of Education and Science to merge the “ ineffective” RGTEU with the Plekhanov Russian Economic University and about the protest of students and the rector of RGTEU Sergei Baburin , who as a result was fired on December 25 by order of the Minister of Education. are underlined in pink marker . The words “ against” and “ strongly”

They take me to the assembly hall, where there is a general meeting. There are two hundred people on strike. Some are dressed in the same branded windbreakers as the guards, others are wearing “ Not for sale” T-shirts and with “ RGTEU Defense Headquarters” badges. Alexander Shaganov , songwriter of the Lyube group, speaks from the stage :

- So that hope does not leave your hearts! - he exclaims. - So that there are no separations! Let's all sing together!

In a pleasant baritone, Shaganov sings: “ There, beyond the fogs, eternal, drunken...” The strikers sway to the beat, sing along and nod in approval. Shaganov is replaced by singer Oleg Makin.

- This is the Russian character speaking in you guys! - proclaims Makin. - Whom everyone is so afraid of and who is so respected. I want to sing you the song “ Guard Major” - about real majors, who are no longer left, as is their education.

Makin hysterically concludes: “ Nobody needs the Guard Major here - like a white lilac under the heel of a boot.” In the front row, five gray-haired elders in identical glasses sit motionless - teachers and vice-rectors.

Break. I’m standing in the hall among some ficus and hydrangeas. Two girls hand out sandwiches with sausage and cheese to students and pour tea into plastic glasses. Next to me is the adviser to the RGTEU student council, Albert Zaripov.

— Who made the decision to go on strike?

— Student Council, at one of the meetings. We came to the vice-rectors with this idea and informed them. They didn't interfere. Then they turned to the students - through their curators and prefects. Now about 300 people are participating in the action.

The strike , Zaripov promises, will end only when the Ministry of Education and Science cancels the order to merge with REU and returns Baburin to his place. , who was appointed instead of him, Andrei Shklyaev from Pleshka will not be allowed into the university until the bitter end. If necessary, the New Year will be spent in the university building. Or maybe they will announce a general student strike in January.

“We don’t want to go to the square yet.” We act outside of politics,” explains Albert, “yes, Udaltsov, Gudkov, and people from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation came to us .” They are promoting us, but they still help us.

By the way, about politics. Even at the beginning of the strike, a leaflet appeared in the Student Resistance group on Facebook, the authors of which claim that the protest action was pre-planned by Baburin himself and his colleague in the nationalist movement, coordinator of the protest headquarters of RGTEU, Ivan Mironov . “ The strike itself,” the leaflet says, “was organized at his [Baburin’s] suggestion, in the hope of using the discontent of students and teachers for its own purposes... The Communist Party of the Russian Federation nominated him [Baburin] for the post of Minister of Education, but the post went to Livanov. And now Baburin has gone all-in - hence the huge banner “ We won’t let Livanov fail Putin’s reform” and the sea of money poured into campaign materials and paraphernalia.”

Zaripov denies this information. You never know, he says, what they write. As for money, they were needed only for making clothes and badges. Guests like singer Makin perform for free, and the food is provided by the students themselves.

Despite the late hour, a support group arrives at the university - students from RGTEU, RGGU , MSU , even Plekhanov Russian University of Economics. Lively voices are heard in the corridors.

- Great! Why aren't you at home?

- It's boring at home. And you?

- I'm like everyone else. It’s my ancestors’ anniversary, and I left.

— Did you see the video? They took two of our girls and asked them what devaluation is ?

- Well, this seems to be... depreciation.

- Yeah. And they kind of hesitated. They were also asked about the root of one hundred and what are the main components of the gold and foreign exchange reserves. They are silent. They let us down, in short.

- You ineffective bastard! Ha ha ha.

I go down to the basement floor. There is a smoking room: a huge empty room, smoke floating in the corners. There's a toilet right there - two holes in the floor. “ White lilac under the heel of the boots,” I remember.

In the classrooms, people are preparing for KVN - it starts at 0.30 ( “We’ll have fun as best we can,” the students explain to me. “Everything is like at home. Then we’ll watch movies until the morning”). Couples are walking along the corridor. " What's there?" — the girl wrapped in a blanket asks languidly, pointing to the door at the end of the corridor. “ The archive,” the courageous friend answers, slightly pushing her towards the door: “Let’s look at it, right?”

I am looking at the wall newspaper Alma Matrix. On the last page there are verses: “ I laid my ashes to rest under the canopy of leaves, by the road, next to a clear stream.” Gloomy. At a nearby stand there are advertisements for students to be hired. Vacancies for a booklet maker, scanner or packer in the friendly family Auchan . It would be better if it were next to a stream.

I return to the assembly hall, where the teachers are speaking passionately. Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs Georgiy Rezgo states that education is run by incompetent people and everyone is already convinced of this. Chief Scientific Secretary Leonid Dobrokhotov calls the situation front-line. He shouts that the monitoring data is a fake, that Baburin wrote to Putin about this, and Putin instructed Olga Golodets to look into it , and the vile Minister of Education Livanov deceived the president and instead of Golodets went to his uncle Dmitry Rogozin , also a deputy prime minister, and he signed everything.

The students listen, looking sleepily through the speakers. Two girls are getting ready for bed: they comb their hair and apply cream to their faces. The fight continues.

Non-drainable

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