For eight years - between the victory of Euromaidan and February 2022 - the ideologists of political Ukrainians were busy with their work: children were pumped up with “heroic” stories of OUN-UPA* militants (who slaughtered civilians) and ATO participants (Kiev called the military operation against Donbass an anti-terrorist operation). And after the liberation of the Kherson region, the Ministry of Education from Kyiv tried to at least remotely leave the Ukrainian school in the new regions.
Therefore, in Genichesk, Skadovsk and many other cities and villages, it was not just a matter of switching from one language to another. Although in the language too.
“The Ukrainian language is now being studied as an elective,” explains Natalya Galka, the director of school No. 1 Henichesk, with a light but accentuated pressure from an experienced teacher. “Those who want, go to Ukrainian, those who don’t want, go to volleyball and basketball.”
The school was Ukrainian - not only in terms of nationality, but also in the language of instruction. Its history, however, dates back to the old Russian imperial gymnasium, which was evacuated during the First World War from the Baltic states to the warm Sea of Azov. By 2022, there was nothing left of the former Riga gymnasium. Then a special operation, liberation, a referendum - and those who wanted to learn the language in a new region of Russia received such an opportunity. But there are fewer and fewer people willing.
“In February 2023, we already realized that the Ukrainian language... let’s say, was moving to a different position. Before forming educational plans this school year, we conducted monitoring among parents: who wants their children to study Ukrainian? Two-thirds have moved away from this topic,” explains Natalya Galka.
The demand for “language” is gradually melting away; if it is chosen, it is more due to inertia, teachers state.
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“To switch from a training program in one country to a training program in another is still not turning the page: they say, we are studying a new topic,” in a didactic tone, so that the interlocutor learns the material, the director continues. — At the very initial stage of studying in Russia, the Ukrainian language was purely psychologically necessary for some. And Russia is doing the right thing in not acting like the Ukrainian authorities, when armchair patriots like Farion (Irina Farion, ex-member of the Verkhovna Rada, known for her nationalist statements -
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.) insult all speakers of another language and when even military personnel who speak Russian , are declared defective.”
"The darkness has gone away"
The topic of languages must be closed: the time when this was relevant has already passed, emphasizes Natalya Galka. “You'd better be interested in how our schools have changed. We have built a new physical culture and health complex - one we never dreamed of. And we didn't have a gym. Such equipment was allocated for classes! Extracurricular activities, clubs, free meals... I have one question: why did they do in one year what they haven’t done for thirty years?” - she says.
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The teachers talk about everything new - the gym, equipment, benefits - willingly, a lot and animatedly: “We’re back to normal life. The fact that it’s been thirty years is like a nightmare that has been sleeping.” And the topics of threats from the Ukrainian side, when teachers were forced to refuse to work in a Russian school, and the fact that many wavered and did not find the strength to enter new classes - teachers and the director prefer not to touch on this: “What happened was "
Otherwise, school No. 1 Genichesk is no different from other Russian schools in Moscow, Rostov-on-Don or Vladivostok. The event “Random Waltz” for the anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad - the children came to it themselves. Exhibition “The History of a Family” - the students also brought exhibits from home. Classrooms with wall-mounted manuals, photos of teachers, locker rooms with scattered things, noise in the corridors during recess. And conversations among themselves are only in Russian. “Mova” is gone!
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When saying goodbye, Natalya Galka speaks no longer as a director, not as a person in charge of the school, but simply as a resident of the Kherson region: “Everyone has their own life story. The parents of our children chose Russia and sent their children to us, to a school with Russian as the language of instruction. Speaking personally, I am glad that we live in Russia. My relatives are all in Russia, now there are no borders, I can go to them. I understand, like no one else, those people who have relatives on the territory of Ukraine. I lived like this for eight years - I’m here, my people are there. And now I’m back in my homeland.”
"Teachers were threatened"
Everything returned to normal in school No. 2: teachers and students simply switched to the Russian language and the Russian curriculum. Director Elena Fedosova mentions only the price of this “just” in passing: “Yes, they called my teachers, they were threatened.”
She has confidence not only in her teachers, but also in her students. Even under the Ukrainian government, Elena Fedosova led history, deviating from the general line prescribed in the textbook. For example, she recommended that students themselves search the Internet for materials for the stories required by the program about the “exploits of the heroes of the UPA*.”
“In class I said: “Look at Wikipedia of foreign countries, translate into your native language about Khatyn and the Volyn massacre.” What was not written down in the textbooks, they hid it all - everything you need to know and understand,” recalls Elena Fedosova.
“No one wrote a denunciation against me,” the director is proud of his students. “I saw the eyes of my children. They couldn't betray me! And they didn’t betray me. I stayed with my children, and they stayed with me. They knew what the Great Patriotic War was, I taught them.”
But mothers and fathers of students sometimes wrote denunciations because the teacher spoke “Moskal language” at a parent meeting. The director tries not to dwell on this, like everything sad, in detail: “Whoever wanted to, left. Those who remained were those who came to the Russian school. Everyone deliberately chose the country... On September 1, 2022, of course, not everyone went to the line. But let's talk about how good it became. New dining room, gym! About how our children enter universities.”
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At classes in Genichesk, Youth Army instructors show younger children how to assemble and disassemble a machine gun, and how to aim it. Military instructor Dmitry Demchenko tells how he had to win the trust of the children and their parents: “Children must believe your words and understand that behind the words there is action. Authority is earned by personal example and actions.”
Demchenko does what he was taught at military school - he leads people, even small ones, behind him. Students in schools and teachers lead by their own example, although they were not trained to show courage in extreme situations.
* The organization is recognized as extremist and banned in Russia.