Lessons from Taiga

Residents of a seaside village turned to Putin with a request to save the school. After that the police came to them

The small school, which was actually the center of the small village of Taiga in the north of Primorye, has been disbanded since the New Year. And this despite persistent promises not to close the educational institution and even large-scale renovations in February. Local residents think that the building and territory simply want to be sold. Young and old gathered in the square near the school and recorded a direct line message with Vladimir Putin. Soon representatives of the PDN came to the villagers and charged them with “organizing a rally.”

Tigers and minus thirty

Once Taiga was an independent settlement, then a village, and now there is neither a settlement nor a village at all - it has been abolished. But almost 850 people still live there, and now it is a remote area of ​​the village of Krasnorechensky in the Dalnegorsk urban district, closer to the north of Primorye. Wikipedia says about the economy of the locality: “Residents are engaged in agriculture and livestock breeding, as well as selling their products. The village has several food and hardware stores, and secondary school No. 16.” Only the school will be closed very soon. It was disbanded as understaffed. Teachers - and they were, and in all subjects! - quit.

52 children studied here. Now they will travel by school bus or public transport on broken roads, without equipped stopping pavilions. “The sidewalks are not cleaned in a timely manner, and children walk along the federal highway in 30-40 degree frost,” the mothers are outraged. — And for the administration it is economical. Only we don’t see these savings. They don’t show it to us, just as they don’t show us compliance with the Constitution.” Tigers are also seen in this area every year.

Taiga resident Lyubov Petrovna is the mother of two schoolchildren: the eldest is already an eleventh grader and goes to Krasnorechensky.

“Although our school could also have 10th and 11th grades,” Novaya’s interlocutor is sure, “but we were not given the go-ahead for them. They were motivated by the fact that there were few children.

We have a small school. Now there are, for example, five children in the sixth grade. There was a full complement of teachers, most of them were local residents, two traveled from Dalnegorsk. Now everyone has left."

Children will be transported to school No. 5 by bus. But on the way back there are questions.

“My son leaves the house at 7.45, goes to the bus stop, gets on the bus to school. There are two flights back from Krasnorechensky - at 11.00 and at 15.20. The bus ride takes 20 minutes with stops. And the youngest will go to fifth grade. For fifth- and sixth-graders, lessons end at one hour and a penny. And the kids are standing at the bus stop at this time. Do you understand - they have to wait until 15.20? Naturally, any parent will give 50 rubles for a regular bus. At the meeting we were told that everything would be adjusted and would change. But since September, the bus has been running at 3:20 pm.”

The reorganization is planned to be completed on January 12, 2026, that is, after the holidays. All students will be transferred to school No. 5 in the village of Krasnorechensky, and property - furniture, equipment - will also go there. The administration of the fifth school has already received a request to parents: to help on December 29–30 with the move.

“It turns out that local authorities are unable to organize even this process without the help of parents,” the independent Dalnegorsk public page Administration_Dalnegorsk sarcastically notes.

Taiga to Putin

Less than a year has passed since the head of the city district, Alexander Terebilov, in front of the entire village (and rumors about the dissolution of the school were already circulating, a people’s meeting was being held on this issue) firmly assured: we will leave the school.

“What are you talking about if a decision has been made to ban the merger of schools?! — he confidently answers the villager’s question. The audience greets this statement with applause. - Let’s do this: I won’t answer your question. Because! The decision was made, everyone voted. The question of closing and merging schools is being removed. Right? That's it."

It turned out that not everything.

On October 1, everyone was gathered and informed: starting in January you will be going to school number five. It turns out that he deceived me, the mayor?

People wrote to different authorities, but, as usual, to no avail. Then parents with children, grandmothers, old-timers of the village - about fifty people in total - gathered in the square near the school building and recorded an appeal to Putin. As a “guarantor of the Constitution”.

“Almost a year ago, on January 31, 2025, in this building of our small school No. 16, we met and at the meeting, together with the head, we decided to ban the reorganization. However, at the end of September, the head signed a resolution: a verdict on the school. And, accordingly, to our village,” a resident of Taiga reads out an appeal to the president via direct line. This was even recorded on video.

One of the mothers says: the reorganization is carried out with violations, without taking into account the opinion of the population. Let’s say that not listening to those who disagree is not such a violation in modern times. But the fact that the school is closed in the middle of the school year and the fact that children are deprived of additional education are serious arguments.

“Our school is very strong, with a large school grounds, stadium, basketball and hockey courts. For many years it has been the center of the village. We don’t have a club, various events are held here for villagers…” the people continue. And they add their own considerations: the city authorities want to sell the building with the land plot.

Maybe this was the meaning of the February renovation of the school at budget expense: they replaced all the windows and doors, floors, furniture, electrical equipment, covered the walls with plasterboard, laid tiles in the bathrooms, repaired the roof... Moreover, questions about the disposal of municipal property had arisen before the mayor (for some reason only from journalists, and not from law enforcement agencies). For example, a year ago, his son Maxim bought at an auction, as the only participant in the auction, a former vocational school building, 4,100 “square meters” in the center of Dalnegorsk, for only a million rubles, and put it up for resale for 30 million.

“Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! Lately we have often heard you say: it is necessary to develop the territories of the Far East. It’s just not clear why develop territories when they are destroying what has already been created and preserved for years? If the school is closed, the village will also close over time,” the residents of Taiga turn to the president as their last resort.

"There must be consequences"

People sent the video to the direct line. There is no certainty that the president himself personally watched it, but it definitely spread across social networks and local public pages. And after 10 days, some of the parents from those who came to record the treatment of their children were called to the police for an interview, specifically to the juvenile affairs unit. Allegedly due to the organization of the rally.

“They called me from an unfamiliar number, I try not to answer them. Then a message came: they introduced themselves as police officers - PDN, and asked to contact them, says Lyubov Petrovna. — The woman was polite, introduced herself culturally, had a pleasant voice. She explained that we needed to talk and that this concerned our appeal. She also said so interestingly: not an incident, not an appeal... but a rally! I say: “This was not a rally!” The woman replies: “You understand that there must be consequences?”

The residents of Taiga were not explained what the consequences would be. At least two mothers received calls, and it is unclear how they were chosen. People talked about this in local public pages, and the situation quickly reached the regional level. And the PDN authorities seem to have retreated.

“They called and said that there was no need to go. The girl also put it so interestingly... Either “stop” or “slow down”…” the villager recalls. And she claims that she believes in the appeal to the president. Although many friends advise me to come to terms with it.

Who is this touchy person?

And the cherry on the cake: the basis for the work of the PDN was the statement of the administration about the participation of children in the rally.

The touchiness of the mayor of Dalnegorsk, Alexander Terebilov, has long become the talk of the town in Primorye. For example, he once took offense at journalist Daniil Kulikov, who posted a video on Russia Day in which Terebilov could not pronounce the word “denazification”, but when he did, he chuckled. The next day, Terebilov personally, together with the military commissar, delivered a summons to Kulikov to the editorial office for military training (he didn’t find him, the guy was on vacation).

And one day an official was offended by comedian Yuri Stoyanov, who (obviously not knowing about the existence of a small seaside town) in his sketch joked in the style: the mayor of Dalnegorsk stole five million from the budget, but could have twenty-five, like the mayor of Blizhnyegorsk. Terebilov burst into a tirade: “There is still a big difference between fantasy and reality. As well as between sharp satire and vulgar humor, grotesque and obscenity. It’s a pity that the scriptwriters of this video didn’t look at the map of the country when choosing the names of cities for a humorous plot. Or were they simply indifferent? They did not make fun of their native Makhachkala, where they came from. The fictional Blizhnyegorsk really does not exist, and Dalnegorsk is a city, although far from the capital, but real, with real people and a history that demands respect.”

Political scientist Vyacheslav Belyakov comments on the story about attempts to intimidate the residents of Taiga: “One cannot fail to note the insane courage of Dalnegorsk officials. Because persecution of citizens and attempts to intimidate them for turning to the president is a new step and a new word in discrediting the state. In all such cases, the main ally of unscrupulous officials is silence. And I am sure that the publicity of this blatant fact will lead to the fact that officials will not get away with such actions.”

Primorye