Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education leads the “new pioneer”

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree appointing Grigory Gurov as Chairman of the Board of the All-Russian Social and State Movement of Children and Youth.

Previously, Gurov worked in the apparatus of the plenipotentiary in the North Caucasus Federal District, then in Rosmolodezh, in 2020 he was appointed deputy head of the department. In August 2021, he moved to the position of Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education. This is a relatively public official. On April 12, Gurov, at the opening of a new project of the ministry – the Science Slam University League – said that the word fundamental “scares away young people who are not associated with science” and called for it to be “more rock-roll”.

Gurov’s experience at the Ministry of Education and Science, where he oversaw youth policy, will allow him to work effectively and practice-oriented with schoolchildren in a new capacity, in fact, he knows in practice what challenges this generation will face already at the stage of adulthood, Ksenia Razuvaeva, head of Rosmolodezh, told Vedomosti. She spoke about the new head of the all-Russian movement of children and youth as a patriotic, modern person who speaks the same language with the younger generation, “being, on the one hand, quite young, on the other, the father of two sons.”

The head of the movement was elected at an unofficial competition, Vedomosti learned from a source close to one of the candidates for the post of head of the movement. He explained that each of them wrote a concept for the further development of the movement, and Gurov’s concept “pleased the presidential administration more than the others.” “The preparation of the appointment was supervised by Rosmolodezh, however, last Friday there was no understanding of who would be the chairman of the board, despite the fact that this process dragged on for several months,” the source said. Vedomosti sent a request to Rosmolodezh.

The appointment of a non-public person to the post of head of the “new pioneer” is quite understandable, says political scientist Vitaly Ivanov. The position that Gurov took may not involve much publicity, he admits, in large organizations the functions of a public person and a “conditional executive director” are separated. “Perhaps someone else will be appointed to the role of a “public leader”, there may be several such people, as earlier in the ONF,” Ivanov argues.

A bill on the creation of an all-Russian movement of children and youth was submitted by a group of deputies in May this year. The movement was created to promote “the conduct of state policy in the interests of children and youth”, its goals also include preparing young people for a full life in society, including the formation of a worldview “based on traditional Russian spiritual and moral values,” the explanatory note said. Children from the age of six can become members of the movement. The authors of the bill have previously stated that participation in the movement will be voluntary.

In July, deputies in the third reading passed a law on the creation of a new movement, its supervisory board was headed by Putin. From 2023, the government will allocate 21.35 billion rubles for the work of the all-Russian movement. By the end of the year, the government and authorities of Moscow, in accordance with the instructions of the president, must allocate premises for the movement’s board.

It was originally planned that the movement would be called “Big Change”, but this caused a discussion among public associations, so it was decided to hold a vote, Artem Metelev, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Youth Policy, said earlier. For example, the chairman of the Russian Movement of Schoolchildren, Sergei Ryazansky, considered the name unsuccessful, and the experts also initially had questions about the status and structure of the future movement. At the first stage of the competition, proposals for the name of the new movement were selected, in mid-November voting began, where the ten most popular options were presented, the movement reported. The choice was presented, for example: “Pioneers”, “Youth”, “Patriots”, Movement to them. Gagarin” and others. Voting has been extended until December 10th.