“Movement of the First” distributed the first tranche of its grants

“Movement of the First” summed up the results of its first grant competition. 2,360 applications were submitted for it, of which the organizers supported 759. In total, the winners will receive 2 billion rubles. The largest sums will go to regional universities, student organizations and one commercial company from St. Petersburg. With the money they receive, they will massively develop school self-government, teach children about healthy lifestyles, deepen their knowledge of robotics and develop skills that will make them “useful and valuable to the Fatherland.”

All participants of the competition had to submit some kind of project, one way or another related to children and schoolchildren and falling under one of 12 areas. Most of the money was collected by the initiatives announced for the tracks “Learn and Learn” (education and knowledge) – 343 million rubles, “Find a calling” (work, profession and your business) – 305 million, “Create and inspire” (culture and art ) – 254 million, “Serve the Fatherland” (patriotism and historical memory) – 241 million rubles. Amounts less than 200 million rubles. were distributed in the areas of “Dare and discover” (science and technology) – 166 million, “Be healthy” (healthy lifestyle) – 136 million, “Reach and win” (sports) – 119 million, “Tell me about the main thing” (media and communications) – 112 million, “Do good” (volunteering and volunteering) – 94 million, “Discover the country” (tourism and travel) – 89 million, “Take care of the planet” (ecology and nature protection) – 81 million. Finally, the last the track “Know how to be friends” (diplomacy and international relations) took a place in the ranking of topics – 56 million rubles.

A feature of the competition was that any commercial and non-commercial legal entities, including individual entrepreneurs, could apply for it. However, the largest grants (13.5 million rubles each) still went to very experienced organizations.

Thus, the Irkutsk State Transport University promises to hold the festival “The Future of Active Youth” for this amount. According to the description of the project, the event will be dedicated to sports and a healthy lifestyle. Among other things, the organizers plan to prepare and hold a sports day, as well as a healthy lifestyle course.

The League of Students of Tatarstan will receive the same grant for the First Team project. She promises to create in every school, technical school and college of the republic a body of children’s self-government – the “Council of the First” – and to hold a single election day in all such educational institutions. In the “Movement of the First”, “Kommersant” explained that, despite the similarity of names, it was about school self-government, and not about the cells of this organization.

Astrakhan State University V. N. Tatishcheva will receive the same 13.5 million rubles. for the project “Skills of the First: Mobile Educational and Playing Space of the Faithful to the Fatherland”. Within its framework, special spaces will be organized at the sites of 25 educational institutions of the region, where children will develop certain personal skills. In the description of the application, each skill is assigned one or another profession: accuracy – a sewing master, analyticity – a master of digital technologies, attentiveness – a lawyer, susceptibility – a psychologist, courage – a defender, etc. The organizers of the contest are sure that a child participating in such activities, can “be useful and valuable to his Fatherland.”

The Bashkir Republican Children’s Educational Technopark will receive 13.5 million rubles. for the National Cyber-Physical Platform project, which will promote children’s engineering creativity. A number of its events will be organized on the basis of the Berloga mobile game, which promotes the development of programming skills in children, knowledge of robotics, etc. A similar project was also announced by Audit Center Group OJSC from St. popularization of robotics and programming with the support of Kulibin’s digital environment. Its authors are going to spend the same 13.5 million rubles. for master classes and a special game tournament with the aim of developing and popularizing engineering education among children and youth from 10 to 17 years old.

Recall that according to the plan of the Russian authorities, the “Movement of the First” (its supervisory board is headed by President Vladimir Putin) should become the most massive youth organization, in whose activities the maximum number of students from schools, colleges and technical schools will participate. In this regard, since its inception in July 2022, the movement has been compared more than once with the Soviet pioneers.

Political scientist Alexander Nemtsev believes that the new organization already has a strong personnel infrastructure and a demand for more content through the search for original ideas. The maximum task, according to the expert, was precisely in the implementation of this request, but it was not possible to solve it at the first competition. “Now, as a result, organizations with experience in receiving similar grants from other structures, with projects that they implement year after year, received the most money. This is due to the short period of project implementation – only four months of this year (from September to December). As a result, many did not participate in the competition, and 2400 applications are too few to get new ideas. But it was a trial balloon, a test of the mechanism itself. Already next year, there is a chance that the competition will be held at the beginning of the year, and this will significantly expand the number of participants,” suggests Mr. Nemtsev.

Oleg Lyakhovenko, senior researcher at the Faculty of Political Science at Moscow State University, believes that the state’s maximum task is to ensure that all young people are patriotic and ready to work for the good of the country. “But it is clear that in reality the majority of young people are apolitical. Therefore, the minimum task is already working here: to create conditions for self-realization and provide an opportunity for those who are willing and motivated to implement their projects, even if they are not formally related to patriotic education, ”concludes the expert.

Andrey Vinokurov