The youth “Movement of the First”, created in the Russian Federation on the instructions of President Vladimir Putin, is based on the principles laid down during the reign of Joseph Stalin, Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov said in an interview with Vedomosti.

“Today, the Movement of the First is built on the principles that were implemented in the 1930s. Children can offer their projects, and the “Movement” allows them to be implemented,” he said. According to Kravtsov, the idea of the pioneer organization in the 1930s was to “gather and unite the guys.”

“Imagine: homelessness, the country after the revolution, a difficult period, many different offenses, sanctions that were imposed against the USSR. First, the best and most active children were gathered to make them guides. Then adults worked with them, and already these leaders united children around them,” he said. According to Kravtsov, this approach provides for a unified education program and the task of the current authorities is to make it interesting for children. He admitted that there are certain difficulties with this.

In general, when the road to the West led to a dead end and they rushed to look for support for independent development in the recent past, here and there they run into Comrade Stalin. After decades of denial. The story is not without irony.

Of course, we are not talking about what will happen now as then – another formation, another system, another era. Nevertheless, such references are very symptomatic.

@boris_rozhin