Boys of strict regime

Fights, drugs and prayer ... Pavel Merzlikin spent a day in the center, where cooks and veterinarians are made from thieves and drug addicts

We help the center of sotsadaptation sv. Vasily the Great collected 3 962 777 R required 3 956 089 r

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I

On Sunday morning, in the “Center for Social Adaptation of St. Vasily the Great” is restless - yesterday the educators did not read one of the wards. 15-year-old Lazarus is an ordinary difficult teenager. He lived in a very religious Baptist family with six more children, and then he began to walk and drink. Parents did not like this, and they decided to send their son to the social center, established by the Orthodox arrival to help difficult teenagers who have not yet had time to get into prison. There Lazar spent less than a week. At first he complained about strict rules, and then at the concert of organ music he got into the toilet and fled. It was possible to find a teenager late at night - he himself called his mother, and the matter was without the police. Lazarus will no longer fall into the only center throughout Russia, where difficult teenagers live in isolation from the environment in which they grew up - families, friends and streets. He achieved his and returned back - to where you can watch football and meet with girls.

On the day of the escape, the pupils who got to the center by court decision, the commission on minors or parents, went late. Therefore, the next day they managed to sleep for an hour longer.

Center for Social Adaptation of St. Vasily the Great photo: Elena Ignatieva for TD

At about 10:00, Arthur, Vanya, Maxim, Ruslan, Kostya and two Timothy still get up, take turns washing in a tiny bathroom and, yawning, wander to charge after the teacher Kirill Vitalievich. A former basketball player, a certified coach and a recently teacher of physical education works in the center of the third month, receives about 25 thousand, but looks a satisfied life and profession. In appearance, the teacher is no more than 30 - a couple of years and adds a neat beard.

Morning exercise of seven young criminals in tracksuits against the background of submarines - a rare landscape

On the embankment of the Vasilievsky Island, the teacher makes swings and jerks, responding to the jokes of the pupils about his new sneakers and yesterday's trip to the monastery. Charging attracts the attention of tourists walking along the embankment of Lieutenant Schmidt. They carefully observe and, it seems, even take pictures. Indeed, the morning exercises of seven teenagers in tracksuits against the background of the submarine - the landscape is rare.

A few minutes later, teenagers return to the 16th line of the Vasilievsky Island , where the building of the center of St. Vasily the Great is located. It occupies an almost whole entrance to an old three -story building. A “penny” bumper is mounted into the wall, a bicycle hangs from the ceiling, and an inscription flaunts on a dilapidated wall - the center of St. Vasily the Great.

Center for Social Adaptation of St. Vasily the Great.
The pupil draws on the fogged glass of a minibus photo: Elena Ignatieva for TD

Inside, everything is much more modern and rather resembles a hostel than an orphanage or a colony. But the center of St. Basil the Great is also similar to the real house: of cozy trinkets in the beds of the boys - only a small plush dog on one of the beds. Light tones, IKEA-shaped furniture and brickwork. On the walls - reminders of the rules, bars and posters, which the pupils themselves made from Whatman and magazines. It turned out a bizarre mixture of photographs of Islamists, monks and machine gunners, motivating inscriptions and questions like "How not to kill each other?"

Having changed clothes, we find ourselves in the kitchen. For breakfast, the pupils get a pack of cottage cheese and tea. Before the meal, they get up without reminders and turn to the icon hanging above the table, and the 16-year-old stocky Vanya, who got into the center “228*”, is the mature “Our Father”. Half of the pupils carefully listen to him and are baptized several times. The rest are just waiting for the end of the ritual.

*Art. 228 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ( illegal acquisition, storage, transportation, manufacturing, processing of drugs)

II

At the table, the pupils are constantly joking - over the other, over Kirill Vitalievich and above me, calling “video surveillance”, “agent 007” and Cody Banks. The leaders are especially acutely and loud-the same Vanya and the 17-year-old Arthur, nicknamed the “Chinese” for a narrow incision of the eyes. Vanya lives in the center longer than others - about 11 months - and soon must return to freedom. Arthur hit the center after a pre -trial detention center, an educational colony and two conditional terms. The smiling young man, who loves to walk in a bright panama, attacked passers -by with a knife - he took phones for the sake of money, but still earned a little, - he explains with a laugh.

Center for Social Adaptation of St. Vasily the Great photo: Elena Ignatieva for TD

Today is Sunday, and after breakfast, the pupils have a general cleaning. As soon as it comes to it, the word “stuffy” sounds at the table. It expresses almost all negative emotions here - for more capacious expressions, like other misconduct, boys must write explanatory ones. And for the repeated mat, fights or single serious violations of the pupils are facing an administrative protocol, and after it is punishment until the abolition of a conditional term.

The smiling young man, who loves to walk in a bright panama, attacked passers -by with a knife - he selected phones for money for money

Thanking God for the meal, the teenagers pull the lots, who will clean up and where, and begin to seduce to “take out the garbage” with all their might. In English, the polite Timofei M., who fell to the Center for Justice, selected the phone from the gopnik's third schoolchildren, says that this is one of the ways to get around strict rules and smoke.

Center for Social Adaptation of St. Vasily the Great photo: Elena Ignatieva for TD

In general, smoking here is something like a quest - to get cigarettes through relatives, to steal from a personal file in the teacher room or exchange at school, achieve the location of the teacher or just to smile out into the street, fall, write an explanatory and, finally, discuss all this. This topic is not worried about only the 18-year-old Maxim. Although he is still studying in the eighth grade, because of his age he can easily ask Kirill Vitalievich’s cigarette and go out to smoke.

III

Before the general cleaning, boys take turns attacking the educator, an analogue of the secret room from Harry Potter. Personal affairs of the pupils, the only available phone (cellular give only to school) and even poker are stored here. True, pupils are forbidden to play it. For maintaining the spiritual forces of Kirill Vitalievich and other educators in the room, the “Dream Catcher” and, of course, the icon, is responsible to the wall.

Center for Social Adaptation of St. Vasily the Great.
Cabinets of pupils photo: Elena Ignatieva for TD

Under the control of the teacher and higher powers, boys alternately call their relatives. The 17-year-old Timofey K., whom the same relatives sent to the center for the passion for drugs, talks about yesterday's incident with Lazar and boasts of a cross presented in the monastery. “Chinese” Arthur asks her mother to bring new sneakers, but she says that she will not be able to come - the police detained the second son and are going to start a criminal case. Other pupils cannot get through to their loved ones.

IV

The kitchen, and so quite clean, is removed by 17-year-old Ruslan. A tall, thin boy with shaved temples and a “teeth” tattoo on the brush here for only three days. Like many others, he got to the center for violating the rules of a conditional term - he did not study and “walked”. The deadline received for the sale of drugs. Ruslan claims that he tried to earn money, and he was immediately framed. In the center, Ruslan does not really like it-because of strict rules. But in order not to get into the colony, the teenager is quite ready to spend nine months here - the standard life in the center. Moreover, people here, according to him, are less “rotten” than at large.

V

After cleaning, the pupils finally appear free time. There is no Internet here, you can’t meet girls and not even watch TV. Books - in St. Vasily there is both Georges Sand, and the lives of saints - boys are not carried away. In their free time, they finally become similar to real difficult teenagers. Social networks are replaced by rude jokes about each other's wife's vicinity, and hiking in the cinema with fights . They can clash from scratch-sometimes a friendly crush in the corridor develops into fights, sometimes it provokes it by someone who has made his way out of line to the toilet.

Center for Social Adaptation of St. Vasily the Great photo: Elena Ignatieva for TD

Both educators and pupils talk about the absence of a hierarchy and universal equality here, but still most often gets the older pupil-18-year-old Maxim. Due to a small delay in mental development, the rest love to measure the strength with him: in an hour and a half, six explanatory about such brawls appear on the table of Kirill Vitalievich. In free life, Maxim was more often on the side of the attackers - in his track record, a robbery of a tourist from France.

Social networks are replaced by rude jokes about each other's wife's vicinity, and hiking in the cinema - with fights

They do not like in the center and smiling Timofei K. Vanya considers him “the most foolish”: “He was so smoked by drugs that it was stupidly stupid.”

The interests of pupils are not limited to fights and search for their place in the hierarchy. They live in full life when they find themselves outside St. Basil, namely at school. Timofei M. explains that there you can meet a girl or friends and even get everything you want - for example, amphetamines that the pupils recently carried to the center. However, such misconduct in the center does not close their eyes.

VI

After lunch, we go to play football. On the way, the boys constantly ask Kirill Vitalievich: “Can I accelerate?” Finally he permits. Teenagers switch to running, wrap around the corner and smoke eagerly. In parallel, they are discussing passers -by and their appearance: "Good anorax, I would take it off."

We share the teams and start the match. At this moment, the boys are not at all like former and, possibly, future criminals (about 10% of the Center’s graduates still repeat misconduct, despite the many-month work with psychologists and strict rules). They also argue on the field, was a penalty or not, curse for the unknown goals and mistakes in defense. They only push, maybe wider.

Center for Social Adaptation of St. Vasily the Great photo: Elena Ignatieva for TD

On the scale of the football “box” a tall and dried Kostya is a real leader. Abroad, the boy prefers to be silent and watches everything with a stinging smile. An hour later, Kirill Vitalievich hastily interrupts the match: you can not deviate from the schedule, which should turn difficult teenagers into ordinary ones. For each pupil, it is compiled individually and depends on the duration of his stay in the center. Local life consists of school classes, campaigns in the gym, pottery lessons, sections, psychological trainings and a cultural program - campaigns in museums, theaters and films views. At the very end of the course, adolescents are already allowed to spend the night at home, and in the summer they will find a heavy and exhausting two -month campaign on the Great North - to the Arctic Ocean through the Solovetsky Islands.

VII

Today, the program is an “outcast” with Tom Hanks and a subsequent discussion, but, more importantly, five more pupils who live on the 12th line and are considered old people should come to the 16th line.

When the old people finally come, all twelve guests are gathering indoors for psychological trainings. While the educators install the projector, adolescents discuss the latest news and complain loudly that they have already watched the “outcast”: it will probably be stuffy. Before watching, the psychologist gives the boys the task - to think about whether a modern person can survive on a uninhabited island, and what would be needed for this to each of the pupils. “10 grams of buns,” one of the old men answers concisely.

While everyone is watching the film, I go down to the second floor to Arkady Alekseevich. He has been working in the center since 2008, he has been managing the educational process, and once even sold his apartment to hold the center of St. Vasily the Great. But for eight years of work, he did not fully ate his pupils, the teacher is more like a priest of the hippie era. “They have completely different families, friends, interests and values. Everyone has their own story, ”he emphasizes.

Center for Social Adaptation of St. Vasily the Great photo: Elena Ignatieva for TD

The employees of the center - now there are about 30 of them - more in common. At least they should endure financial difficulties and have almost angelic patience. Indeed, all day Kirill Vitalievich communicates with the wards surprisingly calm and politely, despite their jokes, fights and annoyance.

VII

After the film and dinner, the day ends. Pupils fall asleep. Tomorrow, April 11, everyone will discuss the monument to Zhirinovsky, the echoes of The Panama Papers and the “investigation” of Kiselev about Navalny, and Arthur, Vanya, Kostya, Maxim, Ruslan and two Timothy will try to become ordinary children again. Indeed, for example, Ruslan loves animals and wants to become a veterinarian, Vanya - a power engineer on ships, and Maxim dreams of working as a cook and bake buns.

You need your help

The center has not received funding since September 2014. The Help Foundation collects money for salary to 4 educators, 2 social workers, the head of the rehabilitation course and the head of the social service. Any, even the smallest donation, will help the pupils of the center return to society.