Russia moves to inculcate greater patriotism
Interfax
Moscow, 18 June: The government has approved a state programme entitled "The patriotic education of citizens of the Russian Federation for 2006-2010". Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov has signed the relevant decision, the government press service reports.
The government has instructed the Finance Ministry from 2006 onwards to allocate funds to implement the programme as the budget is drafted. The overall volume of funding for the programme for 2006-2010, the decision notes, is approximately R497.8m, to include R378.05m from the federal budget and R119.75m from nonbudget sources.
The expectation is that the nonbudget sources will consist of funds from creative unions, cultural, sports, science and other organizations involved in patriotic education, as well as money from individual and corporate entities offering free help, patronage and sponsorship.
The programme envisages the creation of conditions whereby the mass media can play a wider role "in promoting patriotism and the formation of a state order for patriotic goods by cultural and arts organizations and the media". Also envisaged is "resistance to attempts at discrediting or devaluing the concept of patriotism in the media and in works of literature or art".
In line with the document, the state is to support and promote "an expansion of patriotic subject matter in television programmes, the publications of the patriotic press and in works of literature and art".
A system of measures to provide computer support for patriotic education envisages "furthering the creative potential of journalists, writers and film-makers in the area of patriotic education". Also suggested is that media workers have access to the information resources of archives, museums and libraries when preparing material for patriotic education.
Heading up the implementation of the programme are the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications, the Ministry of Defence and the Russian government's Russian State Military History and Culture Centre. These structures will develop departmental programmes and organize and carry out competitive selection for implementing specific work.
In order to put the programme into effect, federal executive agencies will gain "patriotic education councils and the executive agencies of the constituent parts of the Russian Federation will gain regional interdepartmental coordinating councils".
Overall, the measures in the programme seek to provide patriotic education to all categories of citizen in the country. "The programme's priority will, however, be the patriotic education of the next generation - of children and young people," the programme text says. "The main emphasis here will be on work in educational institutions such as centres that integrate the joint educational activities of schools, the family and public organizations (associations)," the document says.
The programme contains a concrete list of activities for the period 2006-2010, which is published on the Russian government website.
It also contains a list of shared implementation assessment criteria (indicators). Two groups of indicators - moral/spiritual and qualitative - are presented as criteria for assessing its achievements. The moral/spiritual parameters endorsed by the Russian government include: "An increase in tolerance, a reduction in the level of ideological confrontation in society; a strengthening of the unity and friendship of the peoples of the Russian Federation."
The moral/spiritual parameters that have been endorsed also include such indicators as "ensuring citizens have an interest in the development of the national economy and in reducing social tension in society".