Staunton, August 4 – Aleksey Lubkov,
rector of Moscow State Pedagogical University, has declared that students at
his institution who take part in demonstrations will be expelled, a threat that
if he carries through with it or others copy could do for Vladimir Putin’s Russia
what a similar action in 1898 did to the Russia of Nicholas II, Abbas Gallyamov
says.
Expanding on a point Vladimir
Pastukhov made in a commentary last month (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/07/a-new-russian-revolution-has-begun-in.html), the Moscow analyst says that the expulsion of
students from the University of St. Petersburg in 1898 set in train events that
led to 1905 revolution (echo.msk.ru/blog/gallyamov_a/2476459-echo/).
The 19th century rector
actually expelled students who took part in traditional celebrations beyond the
confines of the university, and some of those who were expelled were then
drafted, infuriating and politicizing students in a way that led to ever larger
demonstrations in the capitals.
When the police dispersed the
students in 1898, something very unexpected happened, Gallyamov says. Students
in provincial universities came out in support of them, boycotted their
classes, and then faced expulsion and the military draft. Over the next six
years, protests ebbed and flowed, but the students never stopped being angry
and activist.
“If I worked in the Kremlin” – and he
once did as a Putin speech writer – Gallyamov says, “I would do everything not
to politicize the students. This is the most dangerous enemy of the powers that
be, and they have claimed the scalps of many rulers who thought they were
secure on their thrones.”
Indeed, he continues, “If I were in
the Kremlin,” I would expel this short-sighted rector rather than take the risk
that his proposal will be taken up by others and spread.
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