Make valuables out of these rubles

On Wednesday, the head of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh) Ksenia Razuvaeva reported to State Duma deputies as part of the “government hour”. The conversation also focused on measures to instill patriotism and protect traditional values. 91% of young Russians already feel pride in the country, compared to 46% in 2020. But the measures taken for this are becoming more expensive all the time: over five years, the agency’s budget has grown sixfold and in 2023 already amounted to 60 billion rubles. The planned targets for reaching the youth audience with patriotic content were met and exceeded, but deputies questioned the calculation methods and also complained about insufficient anti-LGBT propaganda, cyberbullying and queues for housing for young families.

In the near future, the Strategy for the Implementation of Youth Policy until 2030 will be submitted for public discussion, Ksenia Razuvaeva told deputies on September 27. She recalled that work on this “fundamental” document is being carried out on behalf of the president, whose decrees set out the main goals and objectives of the department: preserving and strengthening traditional spiritual and moral values ​​among young people, as well as creating opportunities for self-realization of young Russians.

Mrs. Razuvaeva noted that the younger generation is now the main target of the information war that the West is waging against Russia.

And this sets new requirements for work on patriotic education – however, her department is ready to solve such problems: the infrastructure of patriotic activities today is more than 36 thousand patriotic clubs and centers of patriotic education, working according to a single standardized program. “Such a structure is a place where proactive, patriotic-minded youth concentrate, and we see the fruits of our comprehensive work: in two years, the share of young people who feel proud of our country has doubled and today is 91% versus 46% in 2020,” said Head of Rosmolodezh. A big breakthrough in the field of patriotic education was the creation of the Russian movement of children and youth “Movement of the First” – today it is the only public organization in our country created and regulated by a separate law, Ms. Razuvaeva emphasized.

The presidential platform “Russia is a Land of Opportunities”, which unites 26 large-scale projects and programs, is designed to ensure the self-realization of young people.

“By the way, the share of young people who believe today in the possibilities of self-realization, and this is one of our key sociological indicators, is above 80% among young people in general and 90% in the category of 18–24 year olds,” rejoiced Ksenia Razuvaeva. “This is a record figure.” over the past five years!

Since 2020, subsidies for the creation and promotion of patriotic content have been distributed on a competitive basis, the official continued. During this time, more than 1.5 thousand online projects, 600 teams were funded, Ksenia Razuvaeva shared the details. Such content includes TV series, feature films and documentaries dedicated to Russia, its culture, nature, and modern heroes. The leader in creating educational content is the Knowledge Society: more than 23 thousand lecturers across the country have already given over 100 thousand lectures.

This year, the government developed and approved a set of measures to prevent socially negative manifestations among young people, and the departmental network monitoring center daily monitors the distribution of materials that incline children to commit criminal acts. “I would like to note that from 2019 to the present, Rosmolodezh has already made more than 57.5 thousand decisions to block illegal content,” Ms. Razuvaeva continued to proudly report. Thanks to the joint efforts of Rosmolodezh and the Ministry of Science, the positions of vice-rectors for educational work have been introduced at each university, and together with the Ministry of Education, the department is developing a network for training educational advisers in schools. “This is all a conducting network, which today allows us to form a single value framework and involve children and youth in the opportunities that exist in our country,” concluded the head of Rosmolodezh.

However, as Auditor of the Accounts Chamber Danil Shilkov told the deputies, expenses for working with young people are also growing: over five years, the agency’s budget has grown sixfold, and in 2023 it amounts to almost 60 billion rubles.

At the same time, for the fourth year in a row, more than half of Rosmolodezh’s expenses are subsidies to non-profit organizations, the auditor noted. The Accounts Chamber has some comments on their distribution, Mr. Shilkov made it clear, but did not go into details.

Member of the Duma Control Committee Nikita Rumyantsev (United Russia) noted the “great, high-quality and positive work” of the department. However, I drew attention to the fact that the target for the federal project to reach youth audiences with patriotic Internet content for 2022 was in fact exceeded by more than twice, and the plan for the “Youth Russia” project was exceeded by as much as 3.5 times. “This result was largely achieved thanks to changes in the methodology for calculating indicators and the establishment of easily achievable target values,” the deputy noted, wishing Rosmolodezh to interact more actively with other departments.

Deputies who met for the first time with the head of Rosmolodezh in the “government hour” format were more often concerned about everyday matters. What to do about bullying? 55% of children encounter it, SRZP deputy Yana Lantratova worried. The queue for housing for young families stretched out for 13 years, MP from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Artem Prokofiev was indignant. Parliamentarians also did not forget about traditional values.

They passed a law banning LGBT propaganda, but now how can we make it unfashionable, so that “all this homosexuality is condemned among young people?” — LDPR deputy Sergei Leonov got excited.

Blocking helps against cyberbullying, Ms. Razuvaeva reassured the deputies. Proposals for the implementation of additional preferential housing programs are already being prepared. And non-traditional values ​​will be attacked by family hikes. “For us, protecting traditional values ​​is a key goal; every project is permeated with this theme,” the head of Rosmolodezh assured the deputies. Nevertheless, communist Vladimir Isakov advised her to study the experience of the Komsomol organization and not lose the spirit of collectivism. He recalled that in the modern history of Russia there were youth organizations, all sorts of “Ours” and “Locals,” but they quickly sank into oblivion – because young people went there, according to the deputy, for personal enrichment.

Anastasia Kornya