"People believe in propaganda." The historian was removed from teaching after denunciation

The teacher of auxiliary historical disciplines of Novgorod State University Pavel Kolosnitsyn was removed from work with students after denunciation of his anti -war posts. In them, he criticized the mobilization and wrote about the loss of Russian troops in a aggressive war against Ukraine. And before that, in April, the Novgorod District Court upheld the decision of the magistrate court, which in February 2023 fined him under an administrative article on abuse of freedom of mass media and awarded 30 thousand rubles of a fine. How did the students react to the “departure” of the teacher and what is awaiting the Russian educational system, given that any manifestation of illness in the Putin regime turns to persecute? The correspondent of North. Realiy talked about this with a dismissed historian.

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Pavel Kolosnitsyn - A well -known scientist, archaeologist and teacher in the city. In the past eight years, he, among other things, had lectures on the history of Russia at Novgorod State University. Despite the open criticism of the annexation of Crimea and falsification of elections, problems with the leadership of the university, Kolosnitsyn claims, he did not have a full -scale military invasion of Ukraine before the beginning of a full -scale military invasion.

The non-signing of the contract with Kolosnitsyn is not the only case when the teacher is left without work due to an anti-war position. On December 27, the leadership of the Higher School of Economics dismissed Professor Ilya Iliyev for an "immoral act, incompatible with a continuation of work." The true reason for dismissal was the anti -war views, which Ivishev publicly expressed in social networks. On June 2, teacher Mikhail Belousov was fired from St. Petersburg State University because of anti-war statements. When discussing the death of student Fedor Solomonov in the war, he allegedly wrote in the chat that "the direct and open approval of Rashism is disgusting." The correspondence was published in pro-government telegram channels. The university’s leadership considered the teacher’s actions “immoral” and deprived him of his position. On August 10, it became known about the dismissal of the Doctor of Economics Igor Lipsitsa from the Higher School. He said that the university’s leadership unilaterally annulled his contract for distance work, offering him the positions of a dishwasher, passporter and leading accountant. Lipsitz claims that the leadership of the Higher School of Economics forbade teachers to talk on political topics and established surveillance for them, he told the BBC Russian service.

With the outbreak of war and the adoption of the so -called law on "fakes" about the Russian army against teachers of schools and universities regularly initiate administrative affairs for expressing a position that differs from the official one. Not only schoolchildren and students, but also colleagues report to their teachers. In March 2023, the court was fined under the article on the "discredit" of the teacher of Pyatigorsk State University Natalia Kabakov. She told one of the students that his stepfather went to the war in Ukraine to kill civilians. On Sakhalin, in the city of Korsakov, a school teacher Marina Dubrova, who said that she does not support the actions of the Russian army in Ukraine, received an administrative fine. Dubrovova’s words were recorded on the video by students, and later the police detained her. The school leadership applied a disciplinary sanction to the teacher, but decided not to dismiss.

"Many condemned me, but there were those who supported"

-Like many, I began to occupy some active position after Bolotnaya. He participated in protests, was an observer in the elections, in 2014 he spoke extremely disapprovingly about Russia's actions in Ukraine, ”recalls Pavel. - Then many more condemned me, from my colleagues. But there were those who supported.

Kolosnitsyn worked at NovSU "Occupying" - every year signed a new contract with the university. However, this year the university’s leadership refused to extend with him. He connects this with his anti -war position and an administrative affair about the “abuse of freedom of the mass media”, which was excited against him in January 2023 on the denunciation of supposedly one of the acquaintances of Paul.

- This is a person familiar to me. Of course, I met him. He said that he did not write any denunciation and did not know anything about him, ”says Pavel. -The denunciation was electronic, so probably just someone took advantage of his mail. He even in the presence of a lawyer testified that he had no attitude to this. In court, we then presented this paper, but the judge refused to call him a witness.

Before that, Kolosnitsyn tried to attract under a criminal article about “deliberately false report on the preparatory explosion, arson or other actions that create the danger of people death, causing significant property damage or other socially dangerous consequences in order to destabilize the activities of the authorities” (207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and the “discredit” of the Russian army. However, after the examination and a survey of grounds for initiating cases for these articles, security officials could not find. Then they paid attention to one of the posts of Colosnitsyn about mobilization. In it, Paul wrote that "mobilization is when people who do not want to die are sent to the death of people who do not want to fight."

- In the comments there, they also began to discuss how many Russian military died in Ukraine. And I expressed my approximate assessment at that time - 20–25 thousand people. Of this, the investigation (?), The district (?), The expert (?) Or who else (

For this, the court fined Kolosnitsyn for 30 thousand rubles. Paul has not yet been appealed to appeal this decision.

Pavel was born in 1982 in Uzbekistan (then still - the Uzbek SSR). When he was four, his parents moved to Ugra, as the oil industry was actively developing there, and Pavel's father worked in a construction organization associated with this.

Until the age of 17, Pavel lived in the city of Urai with a population of about 40 thousand people, then went to study at the St. Petersburg State Institute of Cinema and Television, but realized that this was not his.

I rebuked at the Faculty of History at NovSU. Then for the first time he visited the excavations in the city of Staraya Russa, and he was "dragged out". Since 2005, he began to constantly work in an archaeological expedition. And now his life is inextricably linked with this.

Pavel performs at various events, organizes archaeological schools, popularizes science in social networks. Kolosnitsyn admits to teach, he became more like a hobby, because "it is always interesting to communicate with youth."

For all the years of work with students, Kolosnitsyn claims, he had no problems with students, nor with colleagues, nor with the leadership of the university. There were no comments, no complaints, no complaints.

- Nothing was expressed right to me to the very end. In the spring of 2022, as part of rumors, it began to reach me that after my statement [against a full-scale war] they will now approve anything. So it happened. At first, I was not approved by a business trip to the conference, which I go to almost every year. I had to take a vacation and go at my own expense. Then, also without explaining me, they removed from the teaching of historical disciplines from absenteeisms. That is, I accepted the course, gave them introductory lectures, and it was found to the session that I was replaced by another teacher.

- You have taught students the history of Russia for eight years. How do they relate to what is happening now?

- In the classroom, I did not discuss the war with them directly. But after I was removed, one of the students wrote to me the words of support and thanked me for openly speaking [against war]. They wrote that it helps a lot - to hear such an opinion among all the madness. But there were other students who, on the contrary, took my words negatively and sent insults. Some of them even wrote denunciations on me, as I understand it. So the mood at the university, as in the whole society, is now split. And although students, in comparison with the older generation, still support all this less, propaganda grain is planted in so many minds. It turned out to be very effective. There are guys who are suitable for my sons, but they have already voluntarily went to war and died there.

In part, therefore, the only way that remains of Russian education now is the path of inevitable degradation, Paul believes.

- Take at least a story with Prigozhin. Here he is a hero, his "volunteers" are the best people of the country, who are entrusted with all our hopes. Then they raise the rebellion and instantly turn into traitors, villains and killers. And after they agree at the top, it turns out that well, in general, they are normal people. Well, they rebelled, well, it's okay. And the terrible thing is that people believe in propaganda based on the rejection of critical thinking. And any science, on the contrary, is based on critical thinking.

On June 23, the creator of the Wagner PMC Evgeny Prigozhin reported about the Wagner allegedly inflicted on the rear of the Russian missile strikes from the regular army of Russia. After that, he announced that 25 thousand Wagner fighters were going on an armed campaign to Moscow in order to hold the leadership of the Russian Ministry of Defense accountable. For a day, the columns of the Wagner PMC managed to actually take control of Rostov-on-Don. During the rebellion, the Wagnerians shot down several helicopters and the aircraft of the Russian army, the pilots died . Prigozhin stopped the rebellion after negotiations with the authoritarian leader of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko.

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Prigozhin and mercenaries in the Kremlin. Putin gave his assessment of what happened and offered representatives of the PMC "Options for employment". According to him, the Wagner commanders presented Putin with their version of events and assured that they were convinced supporters and soldiers of the head of state.

Kolosnitsyn is convinced that the war against Ukraine, like everything else in modern Russia, is holding on deception.

“People who have plunged into a lie do not want to get out of it. They will kill and go to death. They will demand nuclear strikes. They can kill themselves and their children, like the Nazis in the besieged Berlin. They will survive in a ruined country and curse the“ West ”, saying that Putin is young, but we would have betrayed it and we would have betrayed it, otherwise we would have won everything. Anything, just not to realize the terrible truth.

According to Kolosnitsyn, the imperial narrative was planted in the country for decades. Nobody condemned the Afghan war, except for some pile of dissidents, he says.

- The main mass thinks like this: since the authorities decided - it means it is necessary. And most people are now taking this position, which is based on ignorance of the real situation and faith in propaganda. Yes, and no one longs to delve into the situation. Here they are doing something in the government there, but we don’t want to hear anything about it. We are small people. But this is silent such support, not hot. And it will disappear as soon as it all ends. The usual story for totalitarian regimes, ”the dismissed historian does not doubt.