Union State fell into cadets
Last September, the Belarusian “Artek” - the national children's educational and health center “Zubrenok” hosted the next 21-day Change of Suvorov and Cadets of the Union State (SG) - the ninth since 2007. During their free time, they actively communicated and competed in various 432 intellectual and physical martial arts of young participants in uniform at the age of 14 – 16 years: 252 person (21 delegation) from the Russian Federation and 180 (15) - from the Republic of Belarus (RB); on weekends - active leisure, excursions. In just eight years, as camp director Nadezhda Onufrieva told NVO, the best representatives of presidential and Suvorov, Nakhimov and Cadet schools from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to Brest visited the pine forest on the picturesque shore of the largest lake in the Republic of Naroch. In the summer, boys and girls in uniform visited the Crimean coast for the first time (Evpatoria). The seaside shift also became the ninth in a row (the previous eight fees were organized in Anapa). True, the Belarusian cadets this time avoided the meeting, and 3545 of the Russian Suvorov and Cadet, alas, could not communicate with their peers from the fraternal republic. In total, over the years, almost 227 of thousands of young pets of various "cadets" became friends on the Black Sea. Both traditional events are held under the auspices of the Standing Committee (PC) of the SG, which finances them (2 million rubles were allocated from the SG budget for the Naroch collection; the same amount last year for the meeting in Anapa).GROW MILITARY ELITE
“The goal of each such military-patriotic shift, which we regard as one of the most important in the practice of working with young people, is to create conditions for the emergence and strengthening of friendship between young future officers and generals of Belarus and Russia, raising patriotism and preparing for the joint defense of the Union State ", - explained Margarita Levchenko, head of the social policy and information department of the SG PC, at the round table with the participation of Russian journalists, which was held in those days.
And this year, a new tradition was laid on Poklonnaya Gora in Moscow - the first Moscow cadet parade dedicated to the 70 anniversary of the Victory took place, in which more than 2,5 thousand students from Moscow cadet classes and representatives of the Minsk cadet movement took part.
All this is only the visible tip of the multifaceted work that the authorities of both countries and their “common” structures are actively pursuing in order to accomplish the main task - preparing the elite for public service, and above all - for the army of the 21st century. Levchenko thesis explained Postkom's approach: “The military elite has always been one of the pillars of our powers. And the education of people who initially see themselves as defenders of the Fatherland is a state mission. The revival of the Cadet and preservation of the Suvorov movement in Belarus and Russia is a sign that a respectful attitude towards the military ensures a stable and peaceful future. ” However, when opening the “cadet” behind the “cadet”, the mentors do not pressure the pupils to further connect their lives exclusively with the army and other security forces: patriots are also very necessary in the civil field.
The Cadet movement in Russia and Belarus has now spread everywhere and continues to expand. Suffice to say that since 2010, only presidential cadet schools have been opened in Russia (geography - from Vladivostok to Sevastopol), and in Belarus - 10 cadet schools (plus the Minsk VCA, existing from 1953). By and large, the number of "cadets" in the Russian Federation is incalculable, and they continue to grow like mushrooms after rain.
And here it is reasonable to ask the question: will the part of the two countries so unstoppable result in a certain profanation of the generally necessary and very important thing? Signs of such, according to the observations of “NVO”, are already partly already observed. On the whole, in civil-patriotic education of young people, it does not do without a certain degree of façade, or something: here you have all the “goods” by the person, and what is the content, and what quality is it - the second, and the third – fifth. This was also imprinted in the perception of the weekly columnist, who visited the corresponding thematic press tour in the Republic of Belarus. It was organized by the Postcom "Union of Two" and the National Press Center of the Republic of Belarus with the support of the International Information Agency "Russia Today". But first things first.
FORGOT ABOUT YOUNG HEROES
Of greatest interest are the observations on how the forms of the indicated work are actually implemented with examples, according to the organizers, “of the best that is in the Republic of Belarus and what is being done in the SG”. Here is a modern capital school number 2, opened a few years ago, which since December 2012 has been positioned as the Interschool center of pre-conscription training (WDC; there are those in every district of Minsk) and the Center for shooting sports from pneumatic weapons. The director, Maria Kovalevskaya, led a large shooting gallery located in the basement, where girls of the senior classes trained under the supervision of a retired army lieutenant colonel. The teacher, not without pride, remarked that “although our school, unlike the new one next door, is not equipped with a swimming pool, I think this is a matter for the future,” our range of equipment, volume and quality of equipment is by far the best not only in the capital, but also in the republic. " The NVO observer, as they say, recalled youth and made sure that here you can really quickly fill your hand in shooting with a virtual shooting weapon. Yes, and two trainee schoolgirls fired in the "top ten". But there is also pneumatics.
Showed the director and classes of the MCDC for students of 9 – 11 classes. In one of them, the young men learned the basics of military knowledge; in another, high school students had a lesson in the framework of the annual course “Medical Training” - they studied each other with a tonometer to measure blood pressure. “They practice the practice of dressing and dressing, and provide other first aid to the victims,” explained Maria Feodorovna. “If there is a military conflict, they are all well-prepared future nurses!” But it can be useful in everyday life - people, alas, tend to create and fall into various emergencies. ”
Since February, the 2014 has been operating at the school with a rather rich Museum of honor and valor of the internationalist warriors. Exhibits and documents were brought to it (and still brought) by participants in the battles in Afghanistan in the 80s of the last century, as well as mothers and widows of the victims. According to Kovalevskaya, there is still only one such museum in the country - in Vitebsk. And on May 8, the adjacent hall “On the great and eternal feat” was opened, dedicated to the war against Hitler’s fascism. Five sections schematically cover the chronicle from the battles in the Brest Fortress to the Victory Parade, and front-line soldiers, their relatives and the Ministry of Defense helped fill them. Children actively participated in the design, and now some of them are “working” here as tour guides.
The NVO observer dared, however, on the sidelines to draw the attention of the schoolmaster to the fact that there was not a single sign in this exposition that would show at least a little how hundreds and thousands of Belarusian boys and girls of that hard times fought in partisan units. (Whether the young guides know about this, I was afraid to ask you: I didn’t want a possible childish embarrassment at all.) Such an omission cannot but seem strange. Moreover, in the year of the 70 anniversary of the Victory in the republic it became known about two unique females of war, a “living” example of which (in one case - literally) could be used in working with schoolchildren.
In the first case, we are talking about the youngest full cavalier of the Order of Glory, captain Ivan Filippovich Kuznetsov (1928 – 1989), who served for a long time in Borisov (a large district center of Minsk region) and after retiring he worked there in the military office: he had all three of the most revered soldiers. In the 14 years he voluntarily became the son of a Guards artillery regiment and ended the war in Berlin, received at 16 – 17 years of age. His name was a quarter of a century in the city (and indeed in the country) in oblivion, and the grave was simply overgrown. One local historian, who did not wish to put up with such a state of affairs, wrote to the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Belarus, but from there his letter was fooled to Borisov, and ultimately, a partial Borisov citizen received from the local authorities more than a formal reply, in which even his last name was printed with an error.
By the way, it would also be useful to tell children about such an attitude: let them know and, when they become adults, “they do not do that”. Only on the eve of the Victory 70 anniversary of the efforts of the Colonel of the Russian Railway Troops Vladimir Volynets (he was born and grew up in Belarus), who accidentally stumbled across the Internet on a note by the local historian under the more than loud headline "Memory Paralysis" (with the official bureaucratic replies mentioned in it), and the notorious philanthropist from St. Petersburg, Hrachya Poghosyan, this blatant situation was drastically changed: the grave must be cultivated, a memorial plaque appeared on the house where the hero lived, and in the urban gymnasium No. 3, where his great-grandchildren, created a museum in his name, began an active search for information about his heroic affairs and life; now it remains only to name three times the gentleman one of the streets of Borisov. By the way, Postkom SG could also contribute to this, but there, it seems, like in Minsk School No. 2, they have not heard anything about the glorious Borisov thrice order bearer, nor about his “posthumous fate”. It is a pity that the central media very briefly informed about this.
In the second case, the name of the youngest hero, who lay down on the embrasure of the enemy bunker, Pyotr Alekseevich Filonenko, appears. The regiment's 14-year-old son, in the course of Operation Bagration, repeated the exploit of Alexander Matrosov and remained alive in a miraculous way. And live to this day! (For details, see “IEE” No. 32 for 2015 year).
Maria Kovalevskaya was forced to “take note” of a fair comment. However, one of the deputies of the school’s director No. 2 was quick to explain that another room would be allocated for the museum, “in which the feat of the children during the Great Patriotic War will be reflected quite clearly”.
“DEFINING” ONCE ALREADY WAS
The Minsk SVU in the republic is not without reason considered the core of the civil-patriotic education of young people. The annual competition that year already has seven or eight people per place, and out of hundreds of 12 – 13-year-old boys who have made a clear informed choice in favor of the profession of an armed defender of the Motherland, they are selecting the best of the best 80. For the release of 93 – 95,% of young men rush to universities of security forces. At the same time, it is necessary to make sense of this: the military children who study here account for only 7%, orphans for children - 8%, but for sons from families of workers and employees - more than 80% (and after all, the VCA was created primarily for the first two categories). A visit to the school caused a very positive response on several parameters from a HBO observer, in the past Suvorov student.Firstly, his boss himself, 50-year-old Major General Viktor Aleksandrovich Lisovsky. During communication with him, it was formed that it was for such an endeavor to lead the “cadet”, to preserve and increase the spirit of the Russian cadetism in it (with a Belarusian bias, of course) - he was born. The point is not so much that the general graduated with honors from Ulyanovsk tank command school, command and staff department of the Military Academy of the Republic of Belarus and - with a gold medal - the Russian Academy of the General Staff, became a candidate of military sciences and associate professor, although this is also an example to follow. The main thing is that he is infinitely, to the brilliance in his eyes, in love with the upbringing of his pets, he devotes himself entirely, creatively and energizes the entire officer and teaching staff with his fruitful energy. For example, he has been zealous for more than a year to return to the school the challenge prize of the Ministry of Defense of the long-departed USSR - a bust of Generalissimo Suvorov, who is the Minsk IED for its 38-year-old Soviet history (the school was opened in 1953) did not give up for the last seven years, confirming the title of the best "kadka" every year (and 12 acquired it all more times - more than any other school); but a year before the collapse of the Union, the positions were somewhat surrendered, and the honorary trophy migrated to another IED, now purely Russian, where it is stored as a museum exhibit.
Frankly, for a long time did not have to meet such a leader; It seems that it was the generals with such a vein who were found and recalled from the front when the first IEDs were created in 1943. It is not by chance that at the beginning of October, President Alexander Lukashenko awarded the Order of Service to the Motherland of the 3rd Degree to Lisovsky. It was noted that it was under him (he was at the head of the institution for six years) “thanks to the use of advanced teaching methods, teaching of academic disciplines was put on a qualitatively new level”. Such a sign of attention from the head of state is worth a lot. It will not be recalled that one of the heads of numerous Russian IEDs ever visited the Kremlin’s St. George Hall, where awards are traditionally held.
The general personally conducted for journalists an hour and a half tour of educational, residential and sports facilities, showing in detail how everything in the school is modern, new, "meets the requirements of the day." And how it is surrounded by active care not only of the head of the military department, but also of the head of state, who once visited the institution, and not so long ago took a number of important decisions on it.
All this is all the more important for understanding that the Russian SVU still continue to recover from the notorious “Serdyukovschiny”, during which the entire officer corps in them was “confronted”, and traditional rituals and military training were negated. “In the Suvorov graduates, we no longer need military high schools!” - so shamelessly did the high-ranking ladies of the former minister who supervised military education say with which he himself surrounded himself. In essence, IEDs were turned into some strange “school-books”, the level of discipline and academic performance in which has fallen markedly, as the pupils sharply declined and the moral incentive to strive for officer's chases. Even now, in one or another city, you may get caught by a couple of rashristan Suvorovs of that “Serdyukovskaya wave” in unbuttoned tunics, carrying a cap in their hands and drinking Pepsi-Cola from their throats (good, not beer yet). In addition, the minister “reformer” of Suvorov was suddenly excommunicated from the traditional, from 1945, annual parades in honor of Victory Day on Red Square in Moscow, participation in which was an important educative factor. Fortunately, the current Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Army General Sergei Shoigu, barely heading the ministry, canceled this and a number of other decisions of his predecessor, which in society were openly called “narrow-minded”, if not completely “anti-state”. It is strange that this stubbornly did not notice then the top leadership of the country, now so fostering Russian cadetism.
The way of everyday life and approaches to education in the Minsk IED in a number of positions are very different from those of the Suvorov students of the past. For example, pupils here do not carry daily outfits, except during the day. “After all, they were still children, they did not take the oath,” explains the head of the school, “and with those daily training loads, it’s difficult for them not to sleep for four night hours, especially for younger children.” Or is the punishment of the guilty person necessarily taking place in the presence of three people: an officer, a psychologist and ... who would you think? - parent suvorovtsa, which is called in school. Learning carelessly here does not give full, literally per-minute employment of pupils (yes, actually, the guys did not come here to grab the “unsuccessful”). For example, after three or four years, almost all the pets more or less fluently speak the foreign language being studied (English or German), which was also noted by foreign observers who had often been to the Suvorov school several times.
The NVO observer asked General Lisovsky, who had a chance to visit several Russian IEDs, the question of what he sees the main advantages of his school? “It is precisely in this that we did not“ drive away ”our officer-tutors! - was the answer. - This was already happening in Russia in the long years of milyutin reforms — in the 60 – 70-ies of the 19th century, when the cadet corps were turned into military gymnasiums, the cadets were removed from their pride — shoulder straps, and then it took a decade or two, or even more to return to true cadet origins. In one of the Russian IEDs, I saw a retired colonel at the head of a platoon, I apologize for the details, with a well-convex tummy. Is this a thing ?! A boy in uniform must daily observe his youthful commander-officer — smart, educated, erudite, athletic. Say, the captain, who was soon given the Major title. The pupil must be equal to him, strive to be like him, to become like him. ”
Lisovsky, probably due to his modesty, kept silent about the fact that the acting general must necessarily be headed by a general (albeit at an age, but wise by military and life experience, of a vigorous disposition), as was always the case with the royal CK and Soviet IEDs. For what suvorovets not ever dream of finding a marshal's baton! .. Alas, now the heads of all eight IEDs of Russia, with all due respect for their rich experience and noble activities in the education of young men, are reserve officers and retirees: five colonels, three general; almost every one of them is already behind 55 – 60, or even to 70 not so far ...
ALL COLOR OF COLOR
In addition to the best Suvorov students from Minsk, “Zubrenok” gathered “all the color” of the Belarusian (all 11 schools were represented) and representative 13 school buildings from the European part of the country - the Russian cadetism. This was especially felt on the Day of the Union State, which is traditionally celebrated at such gatherings. It was a pleasure to look at these guys (and girls) in shape and communicate with them - this was noted by all adults - not only in the official part of the event, but also “on the sidelines” of the camp. For the day I was among the cadets and cadets, I did not hear from one (one) not even a distant word from a distance, while their civilian peers, without being hampered even for kids and women, elderly people, in transport, literally " talking mats. Alas, nowadays for senior pupils and students this style of behavior is the norm.
The overwhelming majority of these young men in the form made their informed choice at the turn of their 10 years, sometimes incomplete. And they went to the cadets, so that — let it sound for someone and too pathetic — prepare themselves for serving the Fatherland specifically in the army. Here it was possible to cite a dozen such explanations that I heard.
The Cadet motto, deeply and deeply penetrated by Russian officers of “Cadet origin” in pre-revolutionary Russia: “Soul — God, heart — lady, life — Sovereign, honor — no one,” is not an empty sound for modern successors to Cadet traditions. True, officially this motto is now “halved” in the SVU and KK and presented as “Life to the Fatherland, honor to no one”: they say, God, lady of the heart is already purely personal.
However, relative to the faith in the same Minsk IED, since 2006, there is a temple in honor of the apostle and evangelist John the Theologian, its walls are painted with faces of saints, most of which are glorified as warriors of their earthly and heavenly Fatherland; here the head of the Orthodox Belarusian Church, Metropolitan of Minsk and Zaslavsky, Pavel regularly conducts service. There are similar sanctuaries in the Russian “cadets”. “Although, unlike the royal cadet corps, we do not teach the Suvorov law of God, no one bothers them to attend the church, which is on the school’s territory,” the reserve commander in the Ulyanovsk SVU (supervised by the commander-in-chief of the Airborne Forces) Vladimir Shirokov. “And to the Muslims who are also learning from us, the mullah comes from the 31 airborne brigade.”
SHOULD LEAVE FROM HOME
But still, the parochial home-grownness of the Russian-Belarusian school cadetism sometimes even sticks out. The representatives of a number of schools (corps), published in Zubrenka for a solemn review on the occasion of the Day of the Union State, had a formal uniform with an obvious tastelessness, an obsessive catchiness, and not excessive pretentiousness inherent in military uniforms. Some were dressed in the same way (not the Cadets themselves invent the form), as if teenagers are not the military elite preparing to become, but the doormen of the coolest hotels, if not the waiters of the cafe. With all due respect to the young and their educators ... Now the Cossacks are now all and sundry called ryazhennymi (and not without reason), but for the lads of the Kuban Cossack KK them. Ataman Babich (Krasnodar), who were also in Zubrenka, stylized ceremonial Kubank and Circassian in traditional cadet style.
What else? Many cadets have an obvious overwhelming with the same God-appointed awards — literally the whole chest in crosses and medals, and often in several rows. Brezhnevschina some. Where is the modesty? Especially if you remember the first Suvorov students who sat down at their desks in 1943: many of them not only smelled gunpowder, but were wounded in battles, but not everyone was noted. And what was noted by the medals (one or two on the chest) - “For courage”, “For military merit” ... In addition to the Cadet’s motto, we must remember the address of Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov, who was sacredly honored in the cadet corps: “I’d ask my offspring to take my example : start every business with the blessing of God; to gasp of being faithful to the Sovereign and Fatherland; to flee luxury, idleness, greed and seek glory through truth and virtue, which are my symbol. " The breasts of young people, “painted” by rows of homegrown medals, are a luxury and idleness, contributing to the development of greed.
In addition to these, there are claims personally to teachers. The director of one of the schools at the official part on the Day of the Union State went out to receive the award in such an unpresentable dress, as if he deliberately put on either the worst that he had from the wardrobe, or the best because of the lack of funds to renew it. What, then, does he appear before the pupils in school ?! The salary of the teachers, of course, is not so hot, but why not so much correspond to the bearing of their wonderful cadets? Yes, and such teachers should have an internal “dress control”.
This observation only underlines the fact that the “education of the elite”, whether in the capital or in regional and district buildings, is carried out mainly by civilian educators at their own risk, with very moderate funding of local budgets. It is good if retired army men help them (as, for example, in the Mogilyov regional cadet school among the tutors of the cadet groups there are more than two such teachers). But all these let three times wonderful teachers, no matter how hard they try, will not be able to fully bring their pupils to the, so to say, the necessary level of elitism, what the cadet education aims at.
The NVO observer expressed these considerations at a press conference in Zubrenka. General Lisowski replied. In his view, the problems with cadet education in Belarus and Russia are similar. Neither in Moscow nor in Minsk for the years that there exists a cadetism, they have not developed a clearly constructed state system with its vertical and all horizons regarding it. And the second is the obvious need for specially trained personnel for such educational institutions. However, this topic requires more detailed consideration with the participation of Russian experts.
The directors of the cadet schools refrained from expressing any productive ideas (although the head of the VCA said that “we speak the same language”). The retired colonel and two purely civilian leaders only complained that the guys who had become friends in Zubrenk or Vita expressed a great desire to visit each other in cadet schools during any significant events that would be useful in all respects. However, remoteness, and most importantly, the lack of finance, reduce these aspirations to nothing, especially for the Belarusian cadets. Nowadays, more or less they communicate outside Zubrenka, coming to each other to “business guests”, only the cadets of the Belarusian Polotsk cadet school and Smolensk field marshal Kutuzov of the cadet corps. The NVO observer also asked them if the idea of creating at least one Presidential Cadet School in the country was in the minds of the teachers? It could become a kind of benchmark to which, in time, all other similar establishments would emerge. The answer was in the sense that the directors at their meetings discuss such an idea among themselves, but only behind the scenes. “But how to bring it to the higher authorities?” One of them rhetorically asked. Such a soft-bodied lack of initiative, the Cadets are unlikely to learn.
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