Schools in Non-Russian Republics Again Promoting Separatism, Artyomenko Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 24 – Between 1991 and 2007, schools in the non-Russian republics promoted separatist attitudes by focusing on things specific to those republics and their titular nationalities rather than on the values of the Russian Federation as a whole, according to Olga Artyomenko, a specialist on education at the Russian Academy of Economics and State Service.

            Then, Moscow changed course and promoted the idea of promoting these all-Russian values  through a dialogue of cultures, in which common values of the country as a whole would be promoted alongside those of the republic nationalities rather than subordinated to them, she continues (iarex.ru/articles/86386.html).

            But now Artyomenko says, there are efforts both at the Ministry of Enlightenment and in the Duma to go back to the earlier system, something she says will threaten the promotion of patriotism, respect for the past and law and order, and a willingness to work for the good of the country as a whole.

            These steps, which their proponents say will integrate those values in non-Russian education, will in fact subvert them, reducing their importance or transforming their meaning an thus make patriotism about loyalty to one’s republic rather than to the Russian Federation as a whole.

            Artyomenko’s arguments on this point, of course, are less about any real threat to the existing unifying system than about her obvious desire to reduce still further diversity in education among the country’s various non-Russian republics and promotion of Russian language and Russian values education instead.