A second front will be opened to the participants of the SVO – Newspaper Kommersant No. 65 (7510) dated 04/14/2023

The Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh) plans to involve demobilized military personnel who participated in a special military operation (SVO) in the sphere of youth policy. While we are talking about their employment in regional centers and clubs of a military-patriotic orientation and children’s camps. In the future, officials are considering the possibility of integrating former fighters into the system of patriotic education based on schools and universities. Also, Rosmolodezh believes that such citizens can be recruited to work with difficult teenagers who are on the intra-school register and in police units for minors (PDN).

“Rosmolodezh” within the framework of the project “Your Hero” plans to involve in the field of youth policy demobilized servicemen who participated in a special military operation. In March, the program was presented by Sergei Kiriyenko, deputy head of the presidential administration. Since mid-March, more than 130 combat veterans have already completed a four-day training program at the Mashuk educational center. As Rosmolodezh explained to Kommersant, they “participated in master classes on youth value orientations and mentoring”: “Particular attention is paid to the topics of pedagogy and psychology in the training program so that young specialists who have returned from HEIs can navigate in requests, needs and interests of young people, as well as to understand the characteristics of the development of the younger generation. It is assumed that the participants of the SVO upon their return will be able to count on employment in regional and municipal centers of patriotic education – now there are more than 1.1 thousand of them. Basically, children are taught there according to programs of additional education, military-patriotic, civil education, and are also prepared for service in ranks of the armed forces of the Russian Federation. In addition to such centers, officials intend to integrate demobilized servicemen into regional military-patriotic clubs and associations, youth centers, children’s camps and branches of the Russian Movement of Children and Youth “Movement of the First”.

In addition to additional education sites, Rosmolodezh would like to integrate former fighters into the system of patriotic education based on schools and universities – “if they have the appropriate education and training.” As specified in the agency, the decision to attract such citizens to work in schools and universities will be made by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Education and Science.

Rosmolodezh believes that schools and universities could engage such employees as instructors in military sports camps, in circles and clubs of a military patriotic orientation, during “army weeks” in military units, as well as in “support of patronage relations between them and universities. In addition, demobilized fighters can be involved in the development of projects, actions and events for military-patriotic education, as well as programs to “popularize the heroic image of the defender of the Fatherland.” Rosmolodezh sees former servicemen as potential mentors for young people in the basics of military service, who could also be engaged in preventive work with difficult teenagers who are on the intra-school register and in police departments.

The head of the working group on the psychological well-being of the population under the State Duma Committee on Family, Women and Children, Alexei Bogachev, believes that demobilized servicemen “need education, training, maybe even special psychological training.” A few days, he believes, will only be enough to understand whether a person is ready to start working with youth right now or whether he needs rehabilitation. At the same time, Mr. Bogachev believes that mentoring will benefit the former fighters themselves: “A person who has passed the CBO has hardened as a person, but has experienced severe trauma and may suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). But after a certain rehabilitation, instead of conducting some kind of chaotic activity, he can conduct socially useful work with young people.” It should be noted that earlier Kommersant reported on the readiness of the Ministry of Health to provide assistance to patients with PTSD – the department presented the relevant clinical recommendations. Experts interviewed in this regard told Kommersant that far from all participants and victims of armed conflicts are diagnosed with PTSD, but since the Korean War, the proportion of veterans with PTSD has been steadily growing.

Demobilized citizens may not want to work in schools or educational centers, says Vsevolod Lukhovitsky, co-chairman of the Teacher trade union. He is also not sure that all high school students will perceive such people as mentors and treat them positively. Mr. Lukhovitsky points out that working with youth requires a specialized four or five-year education, and it is impossible to acquire the necessary skills and abilities in a couple of weeks or months. He doubts that this initiative will reach schools directly. In the past, various officials over the years have offered to conduct life safety lessons and basic military training for servicemen returning from Afghanistan and Chechnya, but this practice has not been implemented en masse, Mr. Lukhovitsky says.

Some in the educator community fear that the arrival of CWO participants in educational institutions could lead to trauma for students who are mentors to share their experience, and in some cases this risks running counter to federal law. Yes, Art. 5 of the federal law “On the Protection of Children from Information Harmful to Their Health and Development” expressly prohibits the dissemination among young people of information that substantiates or justifies the permissibility of violence and cruelty.

Political scientist Konstantin Kalachev considers this initiative more like a “self-promotion” of Rosmolodezh, which, in his opinion, rather demonstrates a “desire to be in trend” than seeks to achieve a practical result. “To motivate and interest children, you need to have a number of skills and talents,” he says. “I doubt that participation in hostilities can be a sufficient reason to interest young people.” At the same time, Mr. Kalachev considers the militarization of the upbringing and educational process in Russia to be a trend: “In this area, more and more is not just patriotic, but military-patriotic.”

The Ministry of Education did not respond to Kommersant’s request. In January 2023, the head of the department, Sergei Kravtsov, announced that participants in a special military operation after retraining would be able to teach an initial military training course in schools. Yesterday, Mr. Kravtsov said that his department, together with the Ministry of Defense, developed a concept for preparing for military service, without disclosing details and without commenting on whether members of the NWO would be involved in this work. A number of universities now have an optional format of meetings with students “Open Dialogue”, in which participants of the SVO take part, Konstantin Mogilevsky, deputy head of the Ministry of Education and Science, told Kommersant: “Universities need to deal not only with education, but also with upbringing. We see students’ interest in these meetings. They have a lot of questions on current topics. They tell them about the goals and objectives of the NMD, about what the enemy is like. According to him, it is not planned to make such meetings mandatory for students yet.

Anna Vasilyeva, Natalia Kostarnova