“We called the school the Fourth Reich”: former students of the gymnasium, where Kharms and Vvedensky were banned, recall their school years

Employees of the scandalous St. Petersburg gymnasium No. 168 cleaned their VKontakte group of poems by Alexander Vvedensky and Daniil Kharms, who had previously been declared “enemies of the people.” Poems in the comments under the posts were published by Petersburgers, outraged by the dismissal of the teacher Serafima Saprykina, who read Kharms and Vvedensky to high school students.

Back at 10-11 am, under the posts of the group about class hours and fire safety, city residents staged a real flash mob. People asked questions since when rehabilitated poets are considered accomplices of the Nazis, and published their poems. By the middle of the day, the moderators of the group cleaned up the comments.

Now only one poem by Vvedensky remained in the group, which the school staff apparently considered politically neutral:

“When I grow up, when I get big,

I will equip the shuttle.

I’ll take a bottle of water with me

And a bag of crackers.

On Facebook, former students of the gymnasium continue to share their memories of the unhealthy atmosphere in the educational institution. So, Daniil Nevsky, who studied at the gymnasium from 2000 to 2007, recalls the first line and the speech of the headmistress – the one who, according to Saprykina, advised her to quit a month ago and called the poets “enemies of the people.”

“Lisping, she told us how important it is to be useful to the motherland,” Nevsky recalls. – Teachers were selected solely on the basis of the policy of the party, where Svetlana Andreeva was and remains the permanent chairman. Any independent interpretation of the material by the teacher was suppressed. Any initiative of the student was punished. But the most painful symptom was universal patriotism.”

Nevsky recalls that patriotism lessons were practiced at the gymnasium back in the early 2000s, starting with the singing of the gymnasium’s anthem, poetry contests on the theme “Motherland”, and ending with a search of pockets and briefcases.

“By the third grade, we called the school “4th Reich”, and Svetlana Andreevna was called the Fuhrer,” writes the Petersburger, admitting that in the sixth grade he discovered absenteeism, “so as not to see and hear all this,” after which he was expelled .

Earlier, Rosbalt wrote that the teacher of gymnasium No. 168, Serafima Saprykina, was forced to resign after the director set her a condition: either to leave herself or under the article “Loss of confidence”. This happened at the end of December, after the teacher read the poems of the repressed Alexander Vvedensky and Daniil Kharms to schoolchildren. According to the headmistress, these are “accomplices of the fascists” and “enemies of the people.” The education committee and the school itself still do not answer the calls and inquiries of the Rosbalt correspondent.

The press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov said earlier that the information about the dismissal of the teacher will be double-checked.