In March of this year, Krasnoyarsk stirred up from the resonant news: Mikhail Konstantinov, a teacher at the largest university in Siberia, was fired … for showing the film to students. True, this happened during school hours, and the film was not on the program. Confusing situation …
short biography
Mikhail Viktorovich Konstantinov in 1986 graduated from the Department of History of the Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University named after Victor Petrovich Astafiev. He studied at the Department of Russian History.
After college, he worked for four years as a teacher in the countryside, and later came to the Krasnoyarsk State Trade and Economic Institute (he was a separate educational institution until 2012) to teach cultural studies and philosophy. He worked as a senior teacher in this institution for twenty-four years. He is the author of scientific publications.
Siberian Federal University: mini-help
The largest university in Siberia and Krasnoyarsk - SFU - was formed in 2006 by the merger of the four main universities of the city. Six years later, a trade and economic one was added to them. The university employs about eight thousand people. Specialists of various fields are trained in it, both humanitarian and technical. Applicants have a choice of 139 different professions.
The university is among the best in Russia, as well as in various foreign ratings of educational institutions.
“He is not Dimon for you”
Oppositionist Alexei Navalny and the Anti-Corruption Foundation released a 50-minute film in early March, entitled “He Is Not Dimon for You.” It refers to the Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. The filmmakers claim that Medvedev is the owner of expensive real estate, and also uses the numerous assets of close businessmen. From the moment of pouring to the present, more than twenty-four million people watched the film on the Yotube portal.
Reconstruction of events
On March 14, in a lesson on the history of world culture, instead of the subject of the lesson, the teacher of Siberian Federal University Mikhail Konstantinov showed the above-mentioned film to first-year students. He showed, in his own words, in order to explain where the state money goes. The students watched the film, after discussing what they saw with the teacher and parted.
Exactly seven days later, on March 21st, in the morning, Konstantinov was called to the higher leadership - the department head and the rector. He was scolded and offered to write a statement of his own free will. What Mikhail Konstantinov did. As a justification for such a proposal, political agitation and the use of educational time for personal purposes were presented. And the press service of the Siberian Federal University said that claims would have been brought against any work of propaganda nature, and the point is not that the film is oppositional.
Education Act
Article 48 of the Russian law on education contains paragraph number three, which states that any political campaigning is prohibited for pedagogical workers. It also says that teachers are required to give out the full amount of knowledge in their subject and conduct it at a high professional level.
Thus, if we consider the dismissal of the former teacher of the Siberian Federal University Mikhail Konstantinov from the point of view that the administration of the university voiced, it is legitimate. Indeed, a political film was not supposed to be shown to students, also during school hours. Mikhail Viktorovich himself, in principle, also agrees with this. He says he committed an offense … But you don’t get fired for misconduct! Reprimand - no matter where it goes.
First person
Mikhail Konstantinov himself in numerous interviews tells the following background: in the winter, it was cold in the classroom where the classes were held. Probably there are old windows. No one set new ones, but instead pieces of polyethylene were nailed to them. Each time, looking at this polyethylene, Konstantinov thought: are there really no funds allocated to a federal university? And if they isolate, then where are they? According to Mikhail Viktorovich, after watching the above film, he found the answers to his questions. And he decided to share what he saw with the students.
Mikhail Viktorovich emphasizes that, although he sympathizes with the main oppositionist of the country, he did not at all try to agitate the guys to take his side. He just wanted to convey to them the thought outlined in the video. And he claims that he did report - the bulk of the students agreed with him that the state money was going somewhere "not there." At the same time, adds Konstantinov, not everyone knew about Navalny, and when they found out, they did not share the point of view of the teacher.
Someone is a supporter of the incumbent president, someone supports other opposition members, and someone is generally far from politics. Having discussed all this and expressed their own opinions, Konstantinov and the students parted. And then … Further - it is unknown, but Mikhail Viktorovich believes that at home the students shared their past occupation with their relatives. Someone's relative was probably a "true patriot" and brought to the attention of the university leadership about what happened. Perhaps, of course, with amendments for its part. After which Konstantinov got “on the carpet”, from which there was only one way - to the exit.
He packed his things on the same day, on the same day he was fully calculated. Since then, none of the colleagues with whom he worked side by side for many years, did not appear in his life. This, of course, offends the former teacher. He says that he was supported only by students, whom he misses very much, and several people not from the Siberian Federal University, with whom he worked before. Nevertheless, he does not regret what has been done: this helped him to know the people around him from a different angle and, in general, gave a new round in life.
