United Russia • Lenin's Doctrine • ©2011 Matvey Tsivinyuk
Siberia, November 15th 2011:- A dialogue between a
hysterical school principal and a calm, tech-savvy 15-year old, who surreptiously
made the recording, represents a generation gap where the old fascist reigns,
not necessarily in that part of the world, that symbolizes ignorance in assuming that knowledge is and will always be the monopoly of politicians in higher
echelons.
November 16th 2011, GlobalVoices:- A scandal caused by a
hidden camera recording at a school in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia has highlighted a
serious problem in Russian schools: teachers campaigning for the ruling
party, United Russia. Underpaid and dependent on government funding, teachers are
one of the pillars of the current political system. Local and regional
elections often take place in school buildings, and the electoral committees in
Russia often consist mainly of teachers. Whether it's from fear of losing
funding, or belief in United Russia's promises, this often leads to illegal
electioneering in schools.
One brave student takes on the authorities.
On 15 November, 2011, 15-year-old Matvey Tsivinyuk, uploaded
a video of himself being scolded by his school principal, Alexandra Pronina, at
Krasnoyarsk Gymnazium number 3 (the website
went offline after massive interest from bloggers).
Tsivinyuk had been caught defacing political posters that
were hanging in the school hallways. The posters with a Russian tricolor flag
in the background bore portraits of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, President
Dmitry Medvedev and two local politicians.
Before meeting the principal, Tsivinyuk turned on the video
recorder in his smartphone. The dialogue captured by the device has been widely
cited as evidence of unlawful actions from school authorities, and also lends a
narrative to explain the support for the current political regime. Later that day, Tsivinyuk removed the video from his own
profile but bloggers have not let the video disappear:
Here is a translation of what is said:
Principal: Do you know what this means for you?
Tsivinyuk: It means nothing to me because, according to the
point 5 of the article 9 of the Law on Political parties... [Matvey correctly
cites the law
that forbids interference of the political process in education]
Principal: Enough, enough, Matvey. There's no article
number 9, number 10, they [the police] will write that you damaged the poster.
[…] Does your family have lots of money to pay for the fine for the damage?
Tsivinyuk: A fine for the piece of paper?
Principal [screaming]: For the hooliganism! You understand
it's not just a paper, it's a political poster!
Tsivinyuk: It can't be in school. Because the activity of
political parties on the territory of schools is forbidden.
Principal: You understand, it's not campaigning.
Tsivinyuk: So what is it then?
Principal: It is not campaigning. People put it there so
that everyone could read the biographies [of Medvedev, Putin, and local
politicians]. From now on I forbid you to do anything to these posters. You've
spoiled several posters. If you will spoil more, I will call the police.
Tsivinyuk: And what will they do to me?
Principal: I don't know. […] But I have warned you. […]
Then the principal compared Tsivinyuk to Lenin and reminded
him of Lenin's expulsion from his school and the university. After a digression
about Tsivinyuk's religious beliefs (he's an Orthodox Christian) the Principal
exclaimed:
Principal: How can a Christian person perform such
non-Christian actions? [speaking of defacing a political poster]
Tsivinyuk: Political views and religious views are different
spheres of life.
Principal [screaming]: If you don't understand this, let's
meet with your leader [of the Orthodox Christian group Tsivinyuk belongs to]
Tsivinuyk: He has nothing to do with this.
Principal [screaming]: How is that? For example, I think
that no one is teaching you this in school. No one teaches you in school how to
do such nasty things, to write bad things on posters. Where and who teaches you
then? Where did you get this into your head? We should find the place where you
were taught this. […] Once again, the minimum is a fine.
Tsivinyuk: For what?
Principal: You still don't understand?
Tsivinyuk: Well, tell me the article number of the
administrative code I have violated.
The principal did not explain to Tsivinyuk why the
defacement of illegally hung political posters would be cause for
administrative or police charges. The case may have never reached the public had it not been
for Moscow blogger and journalist Vladimir Varfolomeev who published [ru] the
story in his blog (the post attracted more than 2,000 comments). Siberian and
federal websites quickly re-published the story.
Vice-Governor of Krasnoyarsk, Sergey Ponomarenko, said [ru] that Tsivinyuk's actions were
“mean” and this attracted critical comments from bloggers who said United
Russia and Ponomarenko himself were the “mean” ones.
By the end of the day, Tsivinyuk removed his video (there is
no information regarding what pressure was put on him). On his Vkontakte page
(Russian equivalent to Facebook) he wrote [ru]: I haven't given up, but I'm not in to politics anymore. I
hope you get me right, don't get into this crap, think of the future, take care
of your friends.
There have been many incidents of this nature leading up to
the Russian election in March 2012. Kartanarusheniy.ru
[ru], a website that crowd-sources reports of electoral fraud, currently lists
737 cases of “Authorities creating preferential conditions [for candidates]”.
And last year, a video
[ru] on YouTube showed teachers in one school giving first-graders gifts while
talking about how great United Russia is.
The dialogue between the hysterical principal versus the
calm, tech-savvy Tsivinyuk who knows the law, represents a huge generational
gap, and a hope that the obscurity and ignorance (for instance assuming that
all knowledge comes from school) can be exposed and defeated.
Update: Vladimir Varfolomeev reports that Tsivinyuk's mother
was called to the police. The police so far have not explained the reason for
the call.
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