Fire at the youths

Education bosses launch campaign against 'destructive forces'

There is no exact sociology of the March 26 rallies, but the explanation for the unexpected political mobilization through a youth riot has become the most sought after. In this sense, we have a self-fulfilling prognosis. The young people were told that they were already rebelling, and the education authorities that something had to be done about it. So in the near future we are waiting for a series of incredible bureaucratic initiatives aimed at restoring order among unbridled schoolchildren and students who dared to resent corruption. Everything that can be twisted here will be twisted by the department of Minister Vasilyeva and sympathizers.

Immediately after the rallies, the Ministry of Education issued a statement that drawing minors into political activity is unacceptable. And this despite the fact that the politicization of schoolchildren, the imposition of a "patriotic" ideology on them, their mobilization to support "state projects", and in fact, to support the activities of a specific political course, has been growing in recent years. The Ministry of Education puts the wrong diagnosis: young people are interested in opposition politics, not because they are not brought up enough at school, but precisely because a heavy spirit of incense hangs in educational institutions. But now there is simply no one to correct the course taken, surrounded by Medvedev and Vasilyeva: they will continue to educate them as best they can.

In particular, a bill on labor education was promptly submitted to the State Duma. It is quite possible that he was preparing for some other reason, but now he came in handy - and turned out to be acutely political. The current legislation prohibits the involvement of students in labor without the consent of their parents, and Russian legislators believe that this is too liberal. So the law, most likely, will be adopted. The idea that labor service can distract young people from interest in anti-corruption investigations must inevitably come to bright legislative heads.

Young participants in the rallies say that their parents are under pressure from the security forces and officials of the commissions on juvenile affairs: investigators call their parents, summon them to give explanations, and threaten them with problems with their studies. Young people, who until recently were generally recognized as apolitical, if not completely loyal to the course of the party and government, suddenly became an enemy of the state.

In Samara, students from local universities are being forced to participate in a public forum called No to Extremism!, urgently convened on March 30. The event is officially dedicated to "counteracting destructive forces" and "political radicalism". In order for them to have the opportunity to listen to the thoughts of Governor Merkushkin on this matter, students are removed from classes.

On the Internet, the genre of video recording of lessons is gaining popularity, during which teachers agitate students or schoolchildren not to support the opposition. Two of the most famous cases of this kind are the discussion of Bryansk schoolchildren with their teachers and a seminar on "Fundamentals of State Cultural Policy" at the Moscow Conservatory, during which teacher Farida Kulmukhametova forced students to read out a list of "enemies of Russia" (Kulmukhametova was fired from the conservatory after this scandal) . In total, at least nine such episodes filmed on phones are being discussed on the Web: students are less and less fond of attempts to agitate for the current government during classes.

On March 27, Anton Tsvetkov, deputy head of the Public Council at the Moscow Main Internal Affairs Directorate, proposed introducing criminal liability for adolescents from the age of 12. There are no comments here.