The right political values.

“The main mission of the All-Russian forum 'Digoria' is to unite the intellectual potential of young scholars in the socio-humanitarian field with practitioners from the socio-political sphere for the benefit of our homeland,” explained the head of the forum's directorate, Zaurbek Khugaev, to journalists on Tuesday. Apparently, to ensure maximum unity, the organizers tightly controlled external influences on the young scholars this time: journalists could only interact with the Digorians through a request to the press service, which selectively chose forum participants capable of speaking both for themselves and their colleagues.

One of the selected candidates for a PhD in geography, Anna Mikhailova, shared that to participate in the forum in her area (“Political Education and Civic Enlightenment”), she needed to write a lecture plan dedicated to Russian civilization and traditional values. She gladly explained (first to the forum organizers, and later to “Ъ”): the distinction of Russian civilization from others lies in the fact that “we have gone through the acceptance and understanding of each other,” while others (including the USA) have approached it through assessing threats to their own security, which sometimes led to a desire to conquer other civilizations.

On the first day of the forum, the media were allowed only at the opening ceremony, which was not without pathos and high-society glamour. At one point, the lights went out in the main hall, and a dancer appeared in the shadows on stage, demonstrating various pirouettes to the voice of the announcer: “Achievements, innovations, pride, objectivity, determination, inventiveness, clarity.” All these qualities, as it turned out, were embodied by the forum participants from both the current and past years.

Then, under full lighting, the participants heard from Alexander Kharichev, head of the President's Administration for Monitoring and Analyzing Social Processes, who read a message from Vladimir Putin, and Anna Fedulkina, General Director of the EISI, who spoke about the pride she feels from her institute's cooperation with the presidential administration and several ministries. The first vice-rector of 'Senezh', Sergey Bocharov, honestly warned the young political scientists that they are in a real “place of power,” which “makes strong people even stronger.”

Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education, Olga Petrova, immediately shifted from generalities to specifics, admitting what exactly she expects from the forum participants. It turned out that educators still do not always welcome her department's proposals regarding “ideological” projects like “The Foundations of Russian Statehood.” “Sometimes, I still hear questions from teachers: 'How many more hours do you want to take from our professional block for your patriotism?'” lamented the official. She believes that clarifying meanings and correct task formulations, which young specialists in the socio-political field should work on, should alleviate such concerns.

And Zaurbek Khugaev added another important task for political scientists during a press briefing, suggesting they consider how to instill a love for Russian holidays among the populace. “So that it is clear to the public, so that people joyfully celebrate holidays like Family, Love, and Fidelity Day or the Day of National Unity… and not, for instance, Valentine's Day, which is not part of our culture,” explained Mr. Khugaev.

Andrey Vinokurov