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?"
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