Tolerance

Specificity of our work consists of often trips to different regions of Russia. And, it is natural, that we have some representations about cities, some stereotypes. Recently one of these stereotypes has been destroyed. During our trainings we usually carry out interrogations with the purpose to reveal a level of tolerance in region, we conduct statistics, and we know that the least safe is Moscow, and the most tolerant - Yaroslavl. So we were much surprised when, having arrived in this famous city with our whole team, already in a taxi we have heard from the driver that, it appears, Russia is only for Russians, and during nationalist processions it is necessary to pelt synagogues with apples. We realize that it is impossible to judge a city on speech of one of its not most significant representative. Therefore in the beginning of our training, during the block devoted to problems of discrimination, we have asked participants to write down on sheets of paper the histories about cases of discrimination occurred with them or with someone from their close circle. And here again disappointment has waited for us. We count as super-tolerant a region in which students arrived to study from FSU republics of Caucasus and Asia constantly face problems with fellow students and teachers and where natives from Caucasus cannot rent the apartment without being humiliated... Probably, advantages of this region consist of not so frequently murders to a national attribute as in others, statistically less tolerant places.

In June of 2009 the Russian Federal Agency for Youth Affairs invited the Center for Interethnic Cooperation to take part in the pan-Russian forum 'Seliger 2009'. The youth forum's organizers planned to bring together around 4000 students from various regions all over Russian Federation. To that end, a special website was created so that young people could post information about their projects. Those who posted the most interesting projects were promised a place at the forum. It is important to note that this year's Seliger forum was the first ever to have tolerance as one of its main themes.

For several years now the Center for Interethnic Cooperation has been conducting trainings and seminars throughout Russia that are devoted to tolerance amongst the country's youth. Yet it is clear to us that without state support it will be impossible to change young people's mentality. Therefore, the Center has repeatedly requested that the state create a special program to support tolerance among young people. We hoped that having a forum on tolerance would be the first step towards developing a government-sustained program. So we decided to gather a great team together and tell the forum's young participants about the projects we conducted in the past as well as encouraging them to think about creating this kind of event on an even bigger scale. 

We elected Maksim Zhilyaev to be our team leader as he already has experience in several Russian and international trainings and conferences. Our group was made of twenty young people from Moscow, Samara, Astrakhan, and Nizhniy Novgorod who had all previously worked with us in similar projects. We held many large team-building exercises to prepare for the conference. Each team member was equipped with informative leaflets about our projects. They participated very actively and enthusiastically in all aspects of the forum. The focal point of the forum was the campsite, where everybody lived in tents and had to cook over a camp fire. We received many guests to the camp that wanted to get to know us and find out more about our projects. As a result of the aforementioned project selection, Maksim was chosen to be part of a small group that traveled to Barvikha to meet with the Russian president. Also, the president had a video conference set up with the campers back at Seliger. The president answered several questions - stressing the need for tolerance amongst the country's youth. He mostly talked to the forum organizers, so, unfortunately, there was not any time for Makism's presentation in the end.

Throughout the conference the participants attended several meetings with some very interesting people - including representatives from different national ministries and departments. Our team members did not just talk about our own projects but also had the opportunity to speak and discuss issues with many professionals.

Seliger left us with two different impressions. First, we realized how difficult it is to host an event on such a scale - with several thousand young people that do not know each other. It is very hard to provide a safe environment, food, water, and all other necessities for such a large amount of people. It should also be noted that it is very difficult to attract civil servants and experts to an event like this. Selinger's organizers successfully dealt with all of these problems. However, the almost military discipline, mandatory attendance to all of the lectures, and the over-the-top patriotic propaganda was definitely not to everybody's taste. It was also evident that, once-off events like these, even though massive, are insufficient to combat the wave of xenophobia in our country.

As a result of the forum the director of the Agency for Youth Affairs, Visili Yakimenko signed an agreement with Maksim Zhilyaev guaranteeing support for our new project, 'Preventing Interethnic Conflicts and Promoting Tolerance amongst Young People'.

On the 17th of July the State Council convened for a meeting in Moscow with the Russian president Dimity Medvedev on the topic of youth involvement in politics within the framework of Youth Year. Several important figures attended the meeting including the Minister for Tourism and Youth Vitaliy Mutko, the director of 'Rusyouth' Vasiliy Yakemenko, and governors from several key regions.

 

The president and members of the State Council listened to a report by Youth Year's Moscow coordinator Marina Zademidkova. In the report she informed the country's leaders of the Seliger-2009 Youth Forum and its participants' innovative projects. She went on to talk about the project that was led by Maksim Zhilyaev. President Medvedev recommended that the governors support the youth projects in the future. At the request of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs the project was to undergo three changes and then... silence. A month later the Center for Interethnic Cooperation contacted the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs and governors of forty regions throughout Russia requesting support for our project. Only half of the governors responded to our letters. They were all united in their admiration for our project and understood the importance and relevance of our work for their individual regions and for Russia as a whole. However, there simply wasn't any money set aside for these kinds of projects in the regional budgets. We are, after all, going through an economic crisis. It is strange, however, that after Seliger 2009 many regions held their own forums, but there wasn't any state programs supporting tolerance amongst young people - and there still isn't.

On November the 16th, in the theatre center “Na Strastnom” the Guild of interethnic journalism summed up the Second All-Russian competition “SMIrotvorjets-2009”. This is another reason to think about the role of the media in the fight against xenophobia and nationalism.

This competition is about the best coverage of themes of interethnic interaction of the peoples of Russia and their ethno-cultural development. It is supported by the Ministry for Regional Development of the Russian Federation.

The award ceremony was lead by the famous actors of the Theatre Vakhtangova Marina Esipenko and Vasiliy Lanovija. The awarding of the prizes alternated with bright performances of different art groups. One of the winners said that through dances and songs of ethnic groups the participants once again were convinced that the strength of Russia lies in its versatility. "We are united as we are so different, because different people complement and enrich each other."

In a guest house near Moscow from 24th to 25th of October the training “Youth and tolerance” was held which was organized by the Center for Interethnic Cooperation (CIC) and at which representatives of 21 universities of Moscow, St. Petersburg and Nizhniy Novgorod took part. During the training, the causes of extremism within the youth were discussed. On the training was brought forward the idea of organizing a conference, inviting representatives of other Moscow universities and discussing what can be done to effectively counter extremism and how to achieve that our youth gets more tolerant. On the 2nd of November the conference “Diffusion of ideas of tolerance within the youth” took place in the Moscow University of Design and Technology.

The participants of the conference found out that there is no tolerance in the country because of poverty, indifference and moral and ethic vulgarity. The youth may improve the situation.

In the guest house "Sunny Glade" from 24th - 25th October 2009 in the framework of the project "Utilizing the Network of Ethnic Associations in Russia to provide support for youth organizations in Russia" an educational seminar with the title "Using the potential of student youth for prophylaxis of extremism among youth" was carried out. A distinctive feature of this activity whose theme repeatedly covers other trainings of the Center for Interethnic Cooperation in different regions of our country was the target audience. For the first time official representatives of the students were invited to participate in this seminar. Assistant Vice-Chancellors on educational work, heads of active students associations of twenty leading universities in Moscow gathered for the first time to exchange opinions about the reasons for the increasingly alarming situation with the strengthening extremist ideology in the youth's minds.

Representatives of the General Prosecutor's Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs responsible for countering youth extremism and extreme forms of manifestation of ethnic intolerance took part in the discussion. In addition representatives of the Federal Agency on Youth Affairs participated in the seminar and described the activities aimed at building tolerance in the Year of the Youth in Russia. The educational seminar was attended by students from the universities of Moscow, St. Petersburg and Nizhniy Novgorod, which happens often on our trainings, and also by Valence Maniragena, Deputy Dean on the work with foreign students of State Electro-Technical University of St. Petersburg, an international expert on questions of tolerance building. In total, 39 people took part in the training.

The process began with brainstorming which aim it was to answer the question how and why in a country that defeated fascism manifestations of extreme hostility against people of other nationalities appear. After creating an extended list and procedures of rating, the following answers remained:

The main reasons for youth extremism:

Propaganda of xenophobia in the mass-media Insufficient information on other cultures Lack of a precise policy of the State Cultural differences Problems in the family and poverty Loss of the system of values and ideals

It is obvious that each item on this list can be leveled with special social projects.

Then, according to the tradition, were created social portraits of the people who play a special role in the life of a youth, one of them was the student.

The typical student

Typical motives:

Hungry Wants to sleep and to drink Lazy (before the session) Very active (unwilling to serve in the army) Weak will, lack of strong interests Good work (money, relations, prestige) Ostentatious patriotism

Typical occupation

Doesn't study Games and social networks Tries to pass sessions Active leisure activities Search for freebie Side jobs

Such a poor-sympathetic image of the best representatives of our youth what should in principle be a student does not inspire with optimism. Nevertheless, the representatives of these students rated the portrait nearly with 4 on a five-point scale, where 1 is the lowest and 5 the highest point. That is, the portrait practically corresponds to the actual situation. It has to be said that the portraits of the young people, the teacher and the skinhead we received were even sadder.

Therefore, the emotional discussion extended then about how - having this social environment, the feeding of the youth with extremism and that typical student who can easily take a fancy in such ideas - to develop an active system of resistance against extremism within the youth. The ideas were as follows:

Concrete actions to build tolerance among youths:

Trainings on tolerance Informal meetings with representatives of the State - Ministry of Internal Affairs, Prosecutor's Office, Justice Weeks of ethnicities at the universities Hidden public service advertising (PSA) Parades and processions Flash-mobs

As a whole, understandable and expected suggestions. The impression is that behind all these items stands one: the call "Let's do something!"

Our request to formulate recommendations to the state authorities after some initial bewilderment ("Is somebody up there interested in my opinion??!!") caused much enthusiasm. And the participants of the seminar created a list of recommendations to all who are involved in the process of tolerance building within the state institutions.

Recommendations to the law enforcement bodies

Be a model: trainings for employees of the militia on migration problems and work with the youth - regularly Lessons on the legal culture and civic consciousness for pupils - building of a good reputation Informal meetings with representatives of student organizations Create a positive image of the workers of the law enforcement bodies Round tables for the discussion of actual problems in the universities Establish on all levels of the structures of the law enforcement bodies public councils on question of tolerance involving real social leaders and not only well-known media personalities Strengthen the control over the mass-media!!!

Recommendations to the rectors of universities

Abolish bureaucracy Facilitate feedback Give the go-ahead for support - and don't interfere Speak in front of the students about the significance of the problem Spend work with the academic council and teaching structures Work with schools Conduct a course on intercultural communication and ethno pedagogy Include in the budget of the university the work on prevention of extremism and tolerance augmentation Increase the popularity and significance of the topic - discussion in the academic council, on the meetings of the departments and in post-graduate courses Assign a responsible from the leadership of the universities Be the leader in your university!!! Meetings with students and the publicity

Recommendations to the Federal Agency on Youth Affairs of Russia

Give broadened information about your organization Establish relations with all universities and youth organizations Work constantly on the reputation of the organization Create a forum for the introduction of suggestions and the conducting of a discussion Work out and distribute university regulations and an activity plan of the Agency for the years 2009-2010

Recommendations to the government of Moscow

Announce the Year of Tolerance Create a permanent, effective council on problems of tolerance Create help points - consultation and adaptation Qualitative PSAs Development of a common tolerance policy with the aid of EXPERTS! Meetings with idols - models of tolerance Creation of a general program on prevention of extremism in the schools of Moscow Supervision of the Moscow City Council Meeting of representatives of the government with the youth Work with representatives of the mass-media (media culture)

The Center for Interethnic Cooperation sent these recommendations to the Government, the General Prosecutor's Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Agency on Youth Affairs of the RF and also the Government of Moscow and the rectors of the universities from which representatives took part in the seminar.

In conclusion, I want to give the data of a survey we conducted during this seminar. As a rule, on our educational seminars we ask the participants to rate the level of tolerance in the given region. Moscow always receives the lowest rates, regardless of the interrogated social group, the topic of the training and the composition of the participants. This time, according to the results of all votes, Moscow was awarded only 2.5 points out of 5. It seems that this is a very alarming result for the capital of our multinational country. But there is reason for optimism. Without exception all participants answered on the question "Do you further want to work on topics of tolerance?" with "YES". And especially pleasing for the Center for Interethnic Cooperation is that we received this answer also on the question "Do you want this seminar to be held at your university?"

There is no need to stretch the truth; the main task of the ideologists who invented the Day of National Unity was the wish to distract the citizens of the 7th of November, anniversary of the October Revolution. Not because current rulers of Russia consider the Soviet Union a criminal regime. They are just tired of supporting the holiday which the Communist Party used to replenish its lines. On the other hand the people is already accustomed that at the beginning of October all of us have a reason to drink and to be merry. Having cancelled the old holiday and established the Day of National Unity, the authorities decided that the deed is done and allowed the citizens to decide themselves how they are going to celebrate this day. The majority of them correctly understood the significance of the new holiday and celebrated it with their families and friends. But not only did the holy place not happen to be empty. The home guard of Minin and Pozharsky in November 1612 forced the Polish invaders out of Moscow. And who in our times tries to take our remarkable capital? Those who come in larger numbers from Caucasus and Central Asia! “We return the city to Muscovites”, said the slogan of the Liberal Democratic Party before the elections to Moscow City Duma.

 

The jury consisted of different, but rather interesting, important and competent personalities: R. Abdulatipov (Head of the Assembly of the Peoples of Russia), A. Gagarkin (expert of the Federal Agency for Press), I. Gilmutdinov (leader of the Federal National-Cultural Autonomy of the Tatars), A. Senko (Deputy Director of Department of International Relations of Ministry of Regional Development of Russia), A. Kasajev (Director of the general directorate for the CIS and the Baltic countries of “RIA-Novosti”), M. Lange (chairman of the Guild for Interethnic Journalism and adviser of the Director of “Radio Rossii”), P. Tultajev (Chairman of the Association of Finno-Ugric peoples of Russia), V. Fronin (Editor-in-chief of “Rossiyskaya Gazeta”), N. Chernyshova (Secretary of the Union of Journalists of Moscow Region). But it turned out that even for them it was not easy to choose the best – among the nominated are journalists from the capital and regional mass media representing work on a high professional level. After long debates, the jury suggested the organizing committee of the competition to introduce five additional prizes!

The short-list of the nominated includes:

 

Друзья! Центр Межнационального Сотрудничества совместно с Федеральным агентством по делам молодежи проводит конференцию «Распространение идей толерантности в молодежной среде. Конференция пройдет 2 ноября в 17.00 в здании Московского Государственного Университета Дизайна и Технологии по адресу Москва, ул. Садовническая, д. 33.

О том, что такая конференция нужна, заявили руководители Студенческих Советов 21 вуза Москвы, Санкт-Петербурга и Нижнего Новгорода – участники семинара «Использование потенциала студенческой молодежи для профилактики экстремизма в молодежной среде», прошедшего 24-25 октября.

 

From 10th to 16th May two educational trips to Italy and Malta took place under the Russian-Italian project “Strengthening of the role of women-immigrants and women of ethnic minorities to overcome discrimination”. In this article I will tell you about Milan and the positive experiences the 12 participants of the project made in the field of overcoming discrimination because of signs of sex and ethnicity in different spheres of life.

On the 10th of May we gathered at the office of the Centre and, having finished all organizational aspects, went on Aeroexpress to Sheremetyevo-2, did not manage it without adventures as one participant was late, but in the end everything ended well. Then a long four-hour flight to the airport “Malpensa” in Milan followed. Because of the time difference we landed at 22.10. We met a Russian-speaking man who brought the whole group to the hotel “Ariston”.

I bought a surprising book in the Golutvinsky monastery which is near Kolomna in the region of Moscow. It is called “Sacred Russia against Khazaria”. The author of the book is Tatiana Gracheva. The table of contents is already amazing. For example, one of the heads says “The Rothschilds – a Khazarian clan serving the Antichrist”. Or “Obamacratia = obmancratia + Khazakratia”. Or “Talmud and kabbala xenophobia as driving force of a new world order”.

If you think that Khasar is the tribe that disappeared a long time ago, you are mistaken. According to the book, Khasari are “…ethnic, blood descendants of the Turkic-khazar nomads, turning into Judaism in the 12th century…” In one word, Jews are guilty everywhere and of everything. They are guilty of the war in the Chechen Republic; they organized the global economical crisis. And even the war in South Ossetia was their business. For example, the statement of the Russian government about the attack of Georgia on Russian peacemakers was a lie. Citation from the book: “…Thus, the war actually was not between Ossetia and Russia, but between Israel, the USA and Russia. And everything indicates that Israel plays the most important role…”

If all this had been written on a fence, it would be possible to put a finger at a temple and twist it and go on. But these revelations are published in an edition of 25000 exemplars by the publisher “Zyorna” (www.zyorna.ru), with the blessing of Vysokopreosvjashchennogo Veniamin, archbishop of Vladivostok and the Seaside.

But most amazing is the author herself. Tatiana Gracheva is head of the department for the General Staff of Armed forces of the Military Academy of the Russian Federation. She is the author of many articles and books on the national security of Russia. She teaches the future Russian officers (!).

Ashot Ayrapetyan