Own experience of interethnic problems

Author: VK

After the events on Manezhnaya Square in Moscow last year, the topic of Russians and Russian identity has become one of the most debated among experts and politicians. A VK correspondent spoke with the founder of the “Smart School”, journalist and TV host Tina Kandelaki, and discussed the problem of interethnic relations in Russian schools.

- How would you judge the ethnic policy of Russia in the Caucasus?

- I am eager to visit the North Caucasus. I have honestly never really been there. Working in the Public Chamber I have visited many regions, but have only been to the North Caucasus twice when we were making the program “Unreal Policy” with Ramzan Kadyrov, for only 3-4 hours. We arrived, recorded and left. Now I will visit it in February within the framework of the “Smart School”. It is very hard to talk about politics, judging only by what you read. There is often a difference between what you hear from others and what you see with your own eyes. When I see it I will be more competent to answer your questions.

- What is the idea of the “Smart School” project?

- The “Smart School” project is a platform that was formed after a forum with the same name to which teachers from 45 regions had been invited. The main goal of the project was to get a dialogue going between specialists of education, starting from ordinary teachers and ending with officials from the Ministry of Education. The умная-школа.рф website was the main platform of the project. The website allows discussions of new laws and projects.

- What do you reckon should be done in schools to avoid interethnic tensions?

- It is a very long and complicated discussion. Interethnic relations are one of the most complicated problems in schools. I am not only familiar with the problem from letters and messages at the “Smart School” website, but also from experience of my own children. It is a very serious problem, because there is no form which the professional community could use to decide on some single language to explain it all to children. There are good pedagogues to whom it can easily be explained, including such complicated things. But it is hard for some teachers.

When my daughter is being teased “Georgian potsticker” at school, I explain to her: “There is nothing terrible about it. I am Georgian, your father is a Russian. We all live in Russia. It does not matter at all how many bloods you have, what matters is how you understand and love your culture, the culture of your parents. You should not be ashamed of it. You should be proud of it”. But in order to be proud you need to know who are Georgians, who are Armenians, all the ancestors of my daughter. She is Milanya Kondrakhina – looking like a Russian girl with blue eyes, but she has so many bloods mixed! At the same time, she is a Russian citizen.