New Pioneer – Newspaper Kommersant No. 235 (7436) dated 12/17/2022

On Sunday, the first congress of the Russian Movement of Children and Youth (RDDM) will begin in Moscow. On it, an organization that will have to unite all Russian schoolchildren, as well as ensure their self-realization and instill the right values, will choose a name. According to Kommersant’s information, various options with the word “pioneers” appear in the shortlist of new RDDM names. According to some interlocutors of Kommersant, this version of the name will be quite honest, since, in fact, the new movement will be the modern analogue of the Soviet pioneer organization.

From 18 to 20 December, the Central Exhibition Hall “Manege” will host the first congress of the Russian Movement of Children and Youth. The new organization has already been compared with the pioneers more than once. Although, by law, membership in it for schoolchildren will be purely voluntary, according to the idea of ​​the authors of this idea (including those from the Kremlin), the majority of all schoolchildren in Russia should enter the RDDM. According to the law on the movement, the president of Russia will be the head of its supervisory board. He also appoints the chairman of the board of the organization by his decree. The other day, Deputy Minister of Education and Science Grigory Gurov became it. “Kommersant” wrote that in the ministry he, in particular, was engaged in the introduction of a system of vice-rectors for educational work in universities, and also coordinated work on the “DNA of Russia” project, within the framework of which a special educational and methodological complex is being developed for students, dedicated to the basics of Russian statehood . This experience will be useful to him in his new job. According to Kommersant’s interlocutors, the main goal of the movement is to create opportunities for self-realization of children, but the educational function will be no less important. The authors of the idea believe that children should be able to talk about political issues, as well as instill in them the right values.

If everything was clear with the general concept of the movement from the very beginning, then the Russian authorities had difficulties in choosing a name for it. So, it actually did not exist when the draft law on organization was submitted to the State Duma on May 19, Pioneer Day. Therefore, the working title remained in the document: the Russian Movement of Children and Youth “Big Change”. It was assumed that the new name of the movement would appear by the second reading, but in the end it was only reduced to the Russian Movement of Children and Youth. A Kommersant source close to the presidential administration (AP) explains that even now there is no final version: it was decided that the children themselves would decide on it at the congress. However, according to him, most likely, he will be selected from the short list, which was determined through voting using a chat bot on VKontakte. This list (available to Kommersant) includes: “Pioneers”, “The Future of Russia”, “Patriots”, “Young Russia”, “Russian Movement of Children and Youth”, “Gagarin Name”, “New Generation”, ” Youth”, “Movement of Schoolchildren and Youth”, “Big Break”. According to Kommersant’s interlocutors, who are familiar with the search for a name for the RDDM, the congress may also be offered combined options. So, one of the sources claims that one of the possible names is “Pioneers of Russia”. Another says that there is also a very simple option – “Movement”. At the same time, many of them believe that the best name for the organization is the one that includes the word “pioneers”. “Well, basically, that’s what they are. Maybe it’s better to say so directly,” says a source close to the AP. “In this list, the pioneers stand out. Name the movement after Yuri Gagarin? And why not Mikhail Lomonosov? a federal official said in a conversation with Kommersant.

The head of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh), Ksenia Razuvaeva, refused to answer Kommersant’s question about the future name of the organization, noting only that the congress participants would determine its final version. It will be, in a certain sense, the result of the organizational work on the movement, which was carried out by her department together with the Ministry of Education, she says. “The congress will adopt a declaration of the movement, many policy documents, and present key projects. Moreover, all this was formulated by children, among other things, and we, together with the professional pedagogical community, helped them in this. We actively involved teachers in the work through municipalities, children’s camps and online tools of the VKontakte social network,” says Ms. Razuvaeva. The movement will not do without values. According to the head of Rosmolodezh, they were also formulated by the children themselves. “Of course, the RDDM has an educational task: the formation of a patriotic generation that shares the values ​​of our society and is ready to contribute to the development of itself, the environment and the country,” she says. The main difference from the pioneers, she calls the voluntary membership in the movement. However, in general, she recognizes the similarity of both organizations: “We will not go anywhere from analogies with the pioneers, because even now we are talking about a movement that will positively affect the lives of the maximum number of children.”

The head of the Petersburg Politics Foundation, Mikhail Vinogradov, notes the conflict between the historical role of the pioneer organization and its reputation. According to him, the pioneers had “a kind of success story” before the war, but later it degenerated into the same “imitation ideological ritual as the Komsomol”. Explaining the desire of a part of the Russian elite to revive such Soviet practices, the expert says that in this case they operate not with “historical memory” (after all, few pioneers were found), but with stereotypes of the “collective unconscious” about the times of more correct children – “from Timur and his team to the pioneers, in whose ranks Cheburashka dreamed of joining. “This is superimposed on the stereotypes existing in any era that young people have gone wrong now and it would be much better if children did not sit in gadgets, but collected scrap metal and waste paper, this would make them more obedient and ideological,” sums up Mr. Vinogradov.

Andrey Vinokurov