Mashuk 2010 - Giorgio Comai

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Last August, the youth forum “Mashuk 2010”, the first summer camp promoted by Moscow's government and solely devoted to young people from the Russian Caucasus, was held in Pyatigorsk, an old spa town in Russia’s North Caucasian Federal District. The event focused on training for cultural interaction and support to youth entrepreneurship.

Read the reportage "Mashuk 2010, a youth camp in the Caucasus"

 

Pionerlager' Saljut
The youth camp “Mashuk 2010” was held in a flat area named after the Komsomol' , the youth organisation of the Communist party. During Soviet times, a summer camp for young “pioneers” was held in this same location and, even now, the icons and images of that time are still on display.
The stage
Following the example of Russia's main youth forum, organizers of the Mashuk 2010 camp decided to decorate the central stage of the camp with two huge billboards with the images of Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Abkhazia
On the main road through the camp there are banners with the names of all the delegations represented at the camp. In addition to all the republics and territories of the Northern Caucasus belonging to the Russian Federation, the banners of Abkhazia and South Ossetia are displayed as well. Despite plans to include them, the Abkhazian delegation did not show up at the forum and the Ossetian delegation was present only for the first shift of the camp. The head of the Committee for Sport and Youth Affairs of Abkhazia, Rafael' Ampar, contacted by phone by Osservatorio, declared that the Abkhazian delegation could not take part in the forum because of “organisational and financial issues”, suggesting that camp organisers did not offer to support the Abkhazian delegation.
Gymnastics
All participants wake up at 8 a.m to the sound of the Russian national anthem. At 8:30, the organisers present the programme of the day from the main stage. Afterwards, girls stay in front of the stage to do gymnastics exercises to loud disco music while boys go for a run of a few kilometres.
The successful Caucasus female
In the morning, participants take part in motivational trainings as well as trainings in inter-cultural integration and project drafting. During one of these trainings, instructors asked participants to “illustrate with a human statue the successful male and female Caucasian”. In the picture, the successful female Caucasian is represented with a child on one hip and a laptop in the other hand. Other teams gave more traditionalist answers, describing a “successful female” as one who is a “good mother and good housewife”.
Boys
Some delegations had few female representatives. In the picture, a groups of participants from Ingushetia.
Lessons and conferences
During the day, Forum participants attended classes dedicated to the situation in the Caucasus that included project drafting and management as well as lectures on the topic of reciprocal knowledge. Some of the lectures were held by special guests. Among them, young Russian blogger Anton Korobkov (his Twitter account @Korobkov counts 18,000 followers and his blog on LiveJournal more than 40,000 comments, http://korobkov.livejournal.com/ ), in the picture. Korobkov told participants they should be more active online in order to fight negative stereotypes of the Caucasus that are still dominant in Russia.
Religions
Organisers of Mashuk 2010 prepared prayer tents for both Muslims and Orthodox Christians.
Food
All participants ate together at long tables. Meals presented a challenge because the camp took place during the holy month of Ramadan and the fast period of the “Ascent”, observed by the most orthodox Christians.
Dances and shows
Evenings featured shows, disco dances, film screenings and concerts. In the picture, a participant from Stavropol' does an oriental dance during a show on the last night of the camp. Leisure and entertainment, together with the chance to meet boys and girls out of the view of parents and family, is doubtlessly an important incentive for participation in these kind of events.
We are Russia
The concept of belonging to Russia and the importance of taking an active role in making Russia a great country were frequently stressed during the camp. On a billboard inside the camp (pictured), participants hung their pictures around the words “We Are Russia”.
An opportunity to meet
Two participants from North Ossetia and Ingushetia sit next to each other and watch a dance show. The two republics have had tense relations since the Ossetian-Ingush conflict of 1992, a conflict over the Prigorodnyj Rajon.
The Chechen village
The entrance to the area where Chechnan participant tents were located was decorated with a large poster of Akhmat Kadyrov, father and predecessor of Chechnya's president Ramzan Kadyrov. The text next to the picture stressed the fundamental and heroic role the late Kadyrov played in bringing peace and development to Chechnya.
Security
Armed guards constantly patrol the area surrounding the camp. The luggage of all participants was thoroughly examined upon entry.