‘Seamless transition between age groups is important’: Damir Fattakhov to lead ‘new pioneer movement’?

New all-Russian movement will be headed by the ex-minister of youth affairs of Tatarstan

On 17 May, the media reported that the Kremlin plans to form a new all-Russian movement of children and youth. It will also be supervised by Rosmolodezh and the ministry of education of the country.

The new movement will be created on the basis of already existing structures that work in the appropriate direction, for example, the Russian Movement of Schoolchildren and the Big School Break project.

Officially, the Kremlin does not inform about plans to create a movement of children and youth in Russia. “I do not have such information," Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the President of Russia, told reporters.

According to media reports, the movement will be headed by the deputy head of Rosmolodezh, Damir Fattakhov, who previously served as Minister of Youth Affairs of Tatarstan.

“I have nothing to tell you and comment on yet," he told Realnoe Vremya.

The ministry of youth affairs of Tatarstan promised to provide a comment on the creation of the new movement later. As Realnoe Vremya found out, details about this are not yet available in the Youth Assembly of the Peoples of Tatarstan, as well as in the Russian Youth Union.

“A seamless transition between age groups is important”

Recently, Fattakhov has summed up the results of participation in a round table discussion devoted to the topic of education in modern conditions. In his Telegram channel, he presented the main points of the report on the formation of environment for the continuous and comprehensive development of children and adolescents.

“A seamless transition between age groups is important. We need to build a trajectory of “child-teenager-youth” and create an environment for self-realisation at every stage of growing up," wrote the deputy head of Rosmolodezh.

According to him, children's organisations attract the most active representatives of the younger generation. Different movements often work with the same children. As Fattakhov stressed, in the modern world, a person can be a member of several communities.

“But there is a lot to be done to make children's movements open and mass, interesting and in demand... Today, there is obviously a question of consolidating the children's movement, refocusing on new tasks," he concluded.

For example, among the tasks identified, there are the increase in coverage, the creation of new and interesting products for children, the restoration of the training system for children's movement and the formation of its own environment.

“There have been talks of such a movement for a very long time”

As Viktor Shabelnik, the chairman of the Student Coordinating Council of the All-Russian Trade Union of Education, told Realnoe Vremya, conversations about the movement for children and youth have been going on for a very long time. According to him, after the collapse of the USSR, there has not been a single youth organisation left. Most of the work with the younger generation was taken over by trade unions, construction teams, the Russian Youth Union and others.

“At the same time, there has been no movement that would work with the youngest Russians until now, and educational functions were taken by the executive authorities," explained Shabelnik.

According to the chairman of the Student Coordinating Council of the trade union, if such an organisation is headed by a person with enormous experience in youth policy, it will greatly improve work with the younger generation.

100th anniversary of Pioneer Movement Day establishment

It is expected that the new entity will be officially announced on Thursday, May 19. On this day, Pioneer Day was celebrated in the USSR, and this year it is 100 years since the establishment of this holiday. In the Soviet Union, it was one of the main celebrations for schoolchildren.

The birthday of the All-Union Pioneer Organisation named after Vladimir Lenin is celebrated on May 19. On this day in 1922, the 2nd All-Russian Komsomol Conference decided to create pioneer detachments everywhere.

Since then, on Day of Pioneers, schoolchildren attended “Lenin Lessons”, and the results of academic performance and social activity were also summed up. Various concerts and competitions were organised on this holiday, distinguished pioneers and schoolchildren received awards.