Translated material
"I will not be silent." MGIMO teacher quit due to anti-war views
Anatoly Kanev, a 35-year-old teacher of the Department of Foreign Languages of the Odintsovo Branch, resigned after he was called to refrain from any statements and discussions with students of the current situation, "it was about the fighting, which the Russian army has been conducting in neighboring Ukraine for the second month. “We are an official Midovsky university, and your point of view should not be regarded as official,” Olga Poleva wrote to Kaneva by Kaneva. Immediately after that, he brought a dismissal application, but he was immediately told that he did not understand everything and just "must be silent."
- I was never silent and I am not going to be silent, I did not go with a poster on the institute and did not impose this topic on anyone, but I condemned the war unequivocally, the students from the very beginning of the "special operation" came up to me and asked what I think about all this. And, of course, I honestly answered them, ”Kanev tells the correspondent of the North. Realiy.
Kanev was born in Pechora of the Komi Republic, studied at the Muzuccal in Vorkuta and at the conservatory in Petrozavodsk, then moved to Moscow, where he graduated from university and graduate school. To teach French and Italian in MGIMO settled in September last year. He says that there were many plans: to protect the candidate, to get a promotion, to make a concert lectures (in the first specialty he is a musician), but after the start of the war it became clear that all plans came to an end.
- My country is no more, it's over, there is nothing to do here. This is the same as building something on a sinking "titanium", seeing how he was going to the bottom. There is no motivation to create something good and bright in our country. I never pretended that I support this power, I am a supporter of Navalny and always went to protest promotions. After the start of the war with Ukraine, he was also on the arena twice. I had a modest poster “no to war”, but I did not have time to expand it: people were screwed around me and dragged them into a car gut, so I did not get it, otherwise I would be with them. The next time, when the mass raid began, I just managed to run away ... It has long been clear that we are going into the abyss, even before this nightmare, even before this war, but now this is just an unlimited horror. And after photos from Buchi and other liberated cities of Ukraine and there were no words left ...
Students from the first day asked me about the "special operation", they are smart, 90 percent do not support the war, but they do not advertise it in any way so as not to fly out of the university. That is, they did not say the word "war", they did not say "Russia attacked", everything was very veiled, but it was clear that they were monitoring what was happening and in the course of all events. And this despite the fact that they are constantly washing their brains, explaining in pairs that Russia did the right thing and did not violate any international treaties, well, laurels in its pure form, and inspire them all this for hours. Most do not believe in it, although the ultra-patriots, of course, are also, but against the general background they rather look like sort of city crazy ones. I did not quit immediately after the start of the war, because I considered it important to discuss such topics with students when they ask about it, hoped that this would also help them to crush in what was happening. Well, after I was advised to "be silent" at the department, there was no other way out of the dismissal: it is clear that no dialogue is impossible, I will not be silent and I will lie.
“Do you know who brought the management to you?”
- I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter. I led language groups to 12-15 people, the guys are mostly intimidated and try not to speak out. Many, however, were upset when they found out that I was leaving, there were those who were delighted - but this was not related to politics, they were just too lazy to study, and I am a demanding teacher. On the part of the teachers, I did not notice either support or conviction, however, we talked little before. Now it is clear that I will not teach in Russia anymore, I didn’t leave MGIMO for a compromise later - it is clear that in Russia not a single university who at least kept neutrality, and did not support the actions of the country's leadership, simply did not remain ...
- What will you do now?
- Most likely, we will be with our wife and young children (the eldest daughter of 3 years, the youngest year) to leave Russia, where it will work out and if possible.
It is possible that I will not be able to get a specialty in a new place, but I'm not afraid of this, I will go to study something new. I have already been doing a lot in my life: tutoring, and musical instruments, and I was at a musical school, in Petrozavodsk. Imagine, there was a salary of a music teacher then 3900 rubles a month, and the line of those who wanted, because there are many unemployed musicians. Northern allowances did not pay extra to them, and people were not indignant, they knew that there were people who wanted such pennies, it was 2006. I was born in a poor family in Pechora, we never lived well, rather made ends meet, so I am not afraid of poverty. And many in Russia are not afraid of economic sanctions for the same reason. But for the children it’s scary, scary that in the end they will go to a school where an aggressive ideology is imposed, this is, to be honest, the main reason why my wife, who is also a teacher, is now thinking about leaving ... I can’t imagine how all this can end and when, most likely, our country will have to go through the whole way of humiliation, the collapse of Russia and payments of all reparations, as it was with fascist Germany. And while this mournful path will not go, the war will continue - open or hybrid. I was greatly surprised by the actions of the Russian authorities, who, having unleashed the war, were driven by themselves and the whole country into a corner. This is a path situation, no one has yet managed to achieve victory, fighting the whole world.
My great -grandfather Benkit Ivan (Yang) Petrovich, Latv by nationality, was arrested in 1937 in Siberia as an “enemy of the people” with the removal of all documents and photographs from the family, this is his only photo that the great -grandmother hidden. Shot on February 23, 1938. Rehabilitated in 1957, but the family was never informed about this. They lived with the stigma of the enemy of the people to the end of the "scoop". My grandfather, instead of studying at the university, worked as a tractor driver all his life, because the "son of the enemy of the people." Now the ideological descendants of the Chekists have reached Ukraine and us.
The persecution of teachers and teachers in educational institutions began in Russia long before the war in Ukraine. In the winter of 2021, a history teacher from the city of Mikun of the Komi Republic of Komi 27-year-old Nikita Tushkanov was fired for participating in a rally, which was considered immoral behavior. The teacher of secondary school No. 109 in St. Petersburg Gennady Piachin was fired for "immoral behavior" after the statement "I am proud of being a Ukrainian." Police officers armed with machine guns detained teachers with children. The teacher was accused of "anti -Russian statements" and that he allegedly "inspires the children that Russia is an aggressor," the director said this.
In March 2022, pictures of children began to appear on the network who posed with posters with the image of the letter Z in support of the war in Ukraine. The Union of Education Workers "Alliance of Teachers" called on teachers and parents to oppose propaganda in schools, as this contradicts Article 29 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation.