VOLUNTEER ACTIVITY IN RUSSIA: MAIN TASKS AND PROSPECTS

Ершов Богдан Анатольевич

Date of publication: August 26, 2023 DOI: 10.52270/26585561_2023_19_21_29

Historical Sciences

VOLUNTEER ACTIVITY IN RUSSIA: MAIN TASKS AND PROSPECTS

A

Ershov, Bogdan Anatolyevich1

1Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Academician of RAE, Voronezh State Technical University, 84, 20-letiya Oktyabrya Street, Voronezh, Russia, E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

The article deals with the participation of young people in the volunteer movement, which means the opportunity to provide necessary assistance to those in need, while feeling their own importance and benefit from the actions performed. These circumstances determine the social relevance of the topic of this study. At the same time, this topic also has a significant scientific and theoretical relevance due to the need for theoretical understanding of volunteering as a social institution, analysis of the domestic historical practice of institutionalization of youth volunteering, creation of a theoretical basis for the development of specific ways and means to improve the effectiveness of the volunteer movement of Russian youth, overcoming the barriers that prevent the involvement of representatives of the younger generation in volunteer activities.

Keywords: volunteering, society, history, civilization, youth.

I. INTRODUCTION

The relevance of the study is determined by the need to understand the nature of ambiguous, contradictory social phenomena, processes, movements of modern Russia and the need to improve the social management of behavior of various communities, social groups actively involved in them. Volunteerism can be considered as one of such social phenomena, dynamically developing and widely spread in different countries. The specificity of social management of volunteering is predetermined by the complexity of this social phenomenon as an object of management. It is manifested in the peculiarities of its institutional, community and activity characteristics (structural and functional diversity, diversity of types, types and directions of activity, high resource community, etc.), the multiplicity of interconnections of directly and indirectly correlated with each other management structures that affect the interests of volunteers and regulate their activities, functioning with certain goals at the international, national and local levels.

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II. METHODOLOGY AND RESULTS

The methodological basis of the article is formed by the principles of institutional and activity approaches. The significance of the institutional approach is determined by the need to solve the problems associated with the study of the institutionalization of volunteering in foreign and Russian social practice, which required an appeal to the theoretical positions of the institutional approach.

In particular, E. Giddens' approach to social institutions as standardized ways of behavior that play a major role in the spatial and temporal organization of social systems is methodologically significant for this study. In the framework of the institutional approach, volunteering can be considered as a significant institution of civil society, the functioning of which is based on the principles of integrity and organic solidarity.

One of the brightest pages in the history of volunteering in our country, is connected with the Russo-Turkish war. In the late 1870s, the nuns of Moscow's St. Nicholas Monastery became the world's first sisters of mercy who volunteered to go to the front to help wounded soldiers. By the beginning of World War I, this volunteer movement had spread among women volunteers abroad (Red Cross).

By the end of the XIX century, charity in Russia became such a large-scale social phenomenon that in 1892 a special commission was established, which was in charge of legislative, financial and even class aspects of charity. The most important result of the commission's work can be considered to be ensuring transparency of charitable activities in Russia, openness and accessibility of all information, including financial information, for all segments of society. Since the end of the XIX century, public control over charity was established in the country, which resulted in the growth of public confidence in the activities of philanthropists and, as a consequence, a new unprecedented growth in the number of donors.

By the beginning of the XX century public and private charity becomes a widespread phenomenon in Russia, not in words, but in deeds proving the breadth of the Great Russian Soul. Museums, libraries, schools, art galleries, exhibitions - this is the range of charitable activities of Russian philanthropists, whose names have forever entered the history of Russia: Tretyakovs, Mamontovs, Bakhrushins, Morozovs, Prokhorovs, Shchukins, Naydenovs, Botkins and many others. The year 1902 was truly a landmark year for Russian charity: Savva Morozov donated 300 thousand rubles for the construction of a new building of the Moscow Art Theater (as the Moscow Art Theater was then called), and his cousin Vikula - 400 thousand rubles for the construction of a children's hospital, which has since been called "Morozovskaya". It was in this year that a unique, the world's largest donation was made. We are talking about the 20-million-dollar inheritance of the merchant G.G. Solodovnikov. According to the will of the donor, most of this huge amount for those times was spent on the establishment of women's zemstvo schools, men's and women's vocational schools in Tver, Arkhangelsk, Vologda and Vyatka provinces, as well as the creation of a maternity hospital for 50 people. The remaining money was used to build houses with cheap apartments for the poor in Moscow.

The tradition of Russian charity was broken by the revolution of 1917. The ideology of the revolution did not allow any form of charity. All funds of public and private charitable organizations were nationalized in a short time, their property was transferred to the state, and the organizations themselves were abolished by special decrees. The Bolsheviks launched a campaign of ruthless criticism of "bourgeois philanthropy", which, in their opinion, only masked the "exploitative nature" of Russian entrepreneurship. Thus, in 1921, the writer Maxim Gorky was forbidden to organize a campaign to help the starving in the Volga region, and international charitable organizations were not allowed to deliver food and medicine to the starving. The official ideological position on charity was reflected in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, published in 1927. There, charity was interpreted as "a phenomenon peculiar only to class society", while "the social system of the USSR is alien to the concept of charity".

However, during the Great Patriotic War, with the help of the church, 200 million rubles were collected for the defense of the country. Part of them went to the tank column named after Dmitry Donskoy and the air squadron named after Alexander Nevsky.

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The functions of charity were again entirely taken over by the state, but collective labor for the good of society (subbotnik, collection of waste paper and scrap metal, the movement of schoolchildren-timurovtsev, assistance to pensioners) was welcomed. In the Soviet Union, volunteers, in the current understanding of volunteers, were considered people who went to work on the virgin lands or BAM, but they received a salary for their work, which the state used to compensate for the difficult living conditions. But, in many ways, volunteer work, such as harvesting crops, working on subbotniks and so on, was connected with duty and social coercion. There was no law on volunteer labor.

Of course, volunteering in Russia was not only organized. There were always active loners, eager to help the oppressed and disadvantaged, because it is in the very character of the Russian man. Many were especially reverent towards prisoners. The majority of Christian-loving Russian people considered it their duty on holidays, and often even on weekdays, to visit the "jailers", to give them money and food, and even to take care of them. Some of the lone volunteers were real ascetics. Such volunteerism has been deeply reflected in the Russian classics: it is enough to remember Sonechka Marmeladova in Crime and Punishment, Alyosha Karamazov, who created a whole "volunteer team" in F. Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, or Nekhludov in Leo Tolstoy's Resurrection.

Volunteer activity in the modern world is developing every day. The state youth policy does not stand still. Volunteer activity has many facets of development and thus allows the development of youth policy of our country. Volunteering has significantly helped in the development of youth policy. One of the types of volunteering that helps the development of youth policy is event volunteering. In this regard, quite a lot of different methodological recommendations for involving young people in volunteer activities have been developed.

All-Russian Youth Educational Forums have made a significant contribution to the Russian Federation. These projects help to develop youth policy, giving an opportunity to solve a lot of significant problems of modern society. Serious questions are asked and serious decisions are made. One of such quite serious forums is the All-Russian Youth Educational Forum "Territory of Means on Klyazma". On the platform of this forum on various shifts important issues of youth are solved, as well as young people offer their own projects and innovations, striving to develop not only themselves, but also the younger generation. Each of the forum shifts is thematic. For an example, let's take the forum platform, which was in 2017.

In 2017, there were 7 shifts: "Youth student clubs, student activists and student media", "Young professionals in IT and related industries", "Young economists in the field of economics and business", "Young leaders of NGOs, human rights and volunteer projects", "Young parliamentarians and political leaders", "Young political scientists and sociologists", "Young professionals in the transport industry" [55, p.1]. [55, c.1].

About 60 volunteers worked at each of the Forum shifts - these volunteers performed the functions of volunteer supervisors. And also these volunteers had team leaders. This scheme of work is quite usual at large events, but this system is not always effective.

Also on the site worked trainee organizers consisting of about 70 people during all the shifts. Trainee organizers had supervisors, mentors and trainers. Such a system of interaction between trainee-organizer-mentor-coach-organizer was more perfect because even a newcomer who had never been to such events and sites could feel comfortable and feel support from other people. A trainee organizer could ask for advice and get an answer to his/her questions at any time. Also organizer-interns learned, not only did they do the work of organizing the forum process. They had the opportunity to work through their weaknesses and understand their strengths with a trainer.

If we talk about the organization of volunteer and trainee staff in general, then it should be pointed out that the volunteer curators did not have a systematic approach. They received quite a large number of tasks that were not always possible to fulfill.

Modern society more than ever needs to realize the necessity and significance of volunteer movements. Both the state and citizens are concerned about the problem of volunteerism development in our country. More and more often in the messages of the President of Russia to the Federal Assembly the importance of volunteerism development is heard.

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The year 2018 in Russia was declared the Year of Volunteer and Volunteer by the President of the Russian Federation. "This will be your year, the year of all citizens of the country, whose will, energy, generosity is the main strength of Russia", - said Vladimir Putin, speaking at the ceremony of awarding the prize "Volunteer of Russia".

The Russian president noted that "such examples of civic participation and solidarity are becoming more and more, more and more every year." "I am convinced: it is from thousands, millions of sincere, heartfelt deeds that trust, respect, mutual support in society as a whole are formed, and this means that you and I are up to any of the most difficult tasks. And in this regard, I propose to declare 2018 the Year of Volunteer and Volunteer," the Russian President addressed the participants of the ceremony. Later, the Kremlin press service reported that the decree on the Year of the Volunteer (volunteer) was signed by the President.

The development of volunteer activity is important both for society as a whole and its individual sectors, as well as for the volunteers themselves. For an individual, participation in volunteer activities contributes to self-realization and self-improvement, gives the opportunity to gain new knowledge and experience, which is certainly important especially for young people, as well as the opportunity to feel socially important and socially useful.

Volunteer labor helps the state to solve the tasks facing it and society more effectively. The development of volunteering contributes to the formation of civil society, serves to increase the role of non-profit and public organizations. Volunteering has a positive impact on the social and economic development of the country as a whole, helping to solve socially significant problems. Volunteering has a positive impact on the education system, as the involvement of schoolchildren and students in this type of activity contributes to the formation of an active life position among young people, develops their skills, increases knowledge, and supports patriotic spirit.

Participation of students in socially significant activities instills in them the desire to be responsible not only for their own lives, but also for the well-being of society as a whole, prevents the development of infantile and dependent attitudes. Volunteerism contributes to the formation of such qualities in volunteers as mercy, kindness, desire to help their neighbors. An important result of participation in social volunteering is the understanding of the possibility and ownership to change something in society, in the surrounding world for the better. In turn, the realization of such a need has a positive effect on the development of self-esteem, self-confidence, determination of one's own place in life, both in the present and in the future - the very factors on which the success of a person as a person is based.

A characteristic feature of students' participation in volunteer activities is the opportunity to see the results of their own labor - the smile of an orphanage pupil after a charity event, planted trees in the park, people's gratitude for tidying up the graves of nameless war veterans, etc. Volunteer activity due to the above mentioned factor forms a habit in a person, the need for activities that bring creative fruits, giving an undeniable result. Being fixed, such a need in the future will orient today's student to achieve the set goals, bringing the started work to the desired result.

Participation in the organization of volunteer actions develops in students necessary in life and in professional work leadership qualities: the ability to attract to the cause, to interest people, to organize people, to organize themselves, to achieve support from government and commercial structures, etc. In the process of volunteering students enrich their professional experience, broaden their horizons, increase their cultural level, develop social intelligence, creative abilities, etc.

Volunteering performs a number of functions that determine its place in the system of socialization:

- Organizational and regulating: the involvement of students in volunteer activities provides multilevel connections of the university with the social environment. Due to their inclusion in the creative process, students' life activities and relationships are restructured, values and standards are adjusted;

- technological, determining the possibility of creating and applying technological procedures of students' prompt response to the solution of social problems;

- motivational, conditioned by the main purpose of volunteer activity in the form of gratuitous labor.

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III. CONCLUSION

Thus, there have always been people in society for whom the way of self-realization, self-improvement, connection and communication with others was to work for the benefit of the community in which they live. Every year the work of volunteers becomes more and more important for the economy of the countries of the world and for the spiritual development of each person. Involvement of volunteers in solving socially significant problems is beneficial economically (volunteers carry out their activities on a gratuitous basis) and ideologically (if the essence of work is the dissemination of ideas, then nothing is more effective than the involvement of those on whom these ideas are directed). Passing information from peer to peer allows for good contact with the target audience. In addition, the opinion of volunteers is an "outside view", which can be useful for assessing the quality of the organization's work, correcting it and improving its effectiveness.

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ВОЛОНТЁРСКАЯ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТЬ В РОССИИ: ОСНОВНЫЕ ЗАДАЧИ И

ПЕРСПЕКТИВЫ

л

Ершов Богдан Анатольевич1

1Доктор исторических наук, профессор, академик РАЕ, Воронежский государственный технический университет, ул. 20-летия Октября 84, Воронеж, Россия, E-mail: [email protected]

Аннотация

В статье рассматривается участие молодёжи в волонтерском движении, которое подразумевает возможность оказания необходимой помощи нуждающимся, ощущая при этом собственную значимость и пользу от совершаемых действий. Этими обстоятельствами определяется социальная актуальность темы данного исследования. Вместе с тем данная тема имеет и значительную научно-теоретическую актуальность, обусловленную необходимостью теоретического осмысления волонтерства как социального института, анализа отечественной исторической практики институционализации молодёжного волонтерства, создания теоретической базы для разработки конкретных путей и средств повышения эффективности волонтерского движения российской молодежи, преодоления барьеров, препятствующих вовлечению представителей молодого поколения в волонтёрскую деятельность.

Ключевые слова: волонтёрство, общество, история, цивилизация, молодёжь.

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