Lukashenko's role in revival of student construction brigade … – Belarus News (BelTA)

Do you know what one of the first wise moves of the leadership of modern Belarus was? After the collapse of the Soviet Union, it did not throw the country in at the deep end. Having gained our independence, we have built on the best traditions of the past. A striking example is the student construction brigade movement. With the collapse of the USSR, young people in the post-Soviet space started searching for new meanings elsewhere. Belarusians were the only ones who continued their journey. Student construction brigades, albeit not in such numbers as in the Soviet years, continued to travel around the fraternal republics and contribute to their formation and development. Over time, the authorities gave student construction brigades new powers and opened the door for young people to landmark construction projects throughout the country.

In this episode, we will tell you how the student construction brigade movement emerged in Belarus. What Belarusian youth are proud of and how they ended up at the construction of a nuclear power plant and the Vostochny cosmodrome. We will listen to the president. Why did Aleksandr Lukashenko leave his first student construction brigade and assemble a separate construction team? What did he spend the first money he earned on? It will be very interesting.

Officially, 1963 is considered the date of birth of the student construction brigade movement in Belarus. At that time, the Central Committee of the Komsomol decided to send student construction brigades to Kazakhstan to assist with rural development. The Belarusian Komsomol immediately set up the headquarters and put together construction brigades for Kazakhstan from among students of 16 universities of the republic.

The combined team of the BSSR participated in the construction of 362 housing and cultural facilities of 41 agricultural organizations in the West Kazakhstan Territory. In the wild steppe, Belarusian students built 100 residential buildings, 18 dormitories, 34 cultural facilities, workshops, schools, bathhouses, and warehouses.

However, the student construction brigade movement in Belarus began to emerge much earlier. Nadezhda Shakhovskaya, the leader of the national headquarters of the student brigades of the Belarusian BRSM Youth Union, knows the history of its formation in detail.

“When we host young visitors, members of student construction brigades or just young people in our museum, we always show them this photo of the city of Minsk after the Great Patriotic War. The subbotniks and voskesniks [voluntary Saturday and Sunday work] to rebuild our country gave rise, I believe, to the student brigade movement. Because then, after the war, after all the ordeals, people were very eager to get their lives back, to improve them as fast as possible. They were ready to work for days,” she said.

The student construction brigade movement immediately began to gain traction. Every year more and more young people joined it to work on construction sites, in collective farms of their republic and in other republics. 1974 was a truly significant year for the student construction brigade movement. In April, the first All-Soviet Union student construction brigade left to build the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM). It included Komsomol members from all the Soviet Union republics.

In those years, participation in the construction of the village of Kichera became especially important for Belarusians. From the first days, Belarusian students undertook the most difficult job as loggers and fellers. They broke the trail clearing way for power lines and the future mainline. The labor exploits of the Belarusians were captured in a photo report of the brigade, an Instagram of sorts of that time.

“Why is this photo report interesting? Because it shows the conditions in which the young people, our peers, lived and worked then. And they see how much work they accomplished: in the steppes, wooded areas, in terms of new residential construction. They worked in the heat, in the cold, in the snow. Here is a kindergarten. 22 babies were born to the Belarusians, BAM builders,” Nadezhda Shakhovskaya noted.

Friendship, romance, first job in life… The student construction brigade movement picked up pace in the following decades. Tens of thousands of Belarusian students participated in the construction of the largest enterprises. They built memorial complexes, repaired schools, worked on land reclamation and built housing for resettlers from the Chernobyl regions. Probably, there was no such object in which student construction brigades had not been involved. The movement did not stop even with the collapse of the Soviet Union, a unique case for the post-Soviet space. Although not so large in terms of scale but Belarusian students continued to travel in an organized manner to various regions of Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Czechia and even Germany.

The Belarusian president was also a member of a student construction brigade, as, probably, most people of that generation. In 2020, when meeting with employees of the Atlant plant and members of student brigades, participants of the Atlant 2020 project, Aleksandr Lukashenko spoke about his experience.

The head of state admitted that he had both positive and negative experience of participating in student construction brigades. “I joined my first student brigade as I finished my first year. It was a school construction site in a village. For a while I worked there, but management was poor. We were not paid, and overall things were organized very poorly. I gave up and left,” the president said. “I went back to my hometown and assembled a squad from among school students. Those were students of grades 9 and 10 (it was a ten-year school program then). We concreted the floors at granaries in one of local farms.

Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that it was a good experience for him as a future teacher to communicate with guys. Teenagers (there were about two dozen of them in the squad) were satisfied too. The president also recollected the work in a reclamation student team, and he still remembers the technology. “Tremendous experience. Even my experience in the first student team was useful. I learned how to lay bricks, evenly, along a plumb line. But a reclamation brigade was something special. I remember everything in detail… We earned a lot then,” the Belarusian leader reminisced.

Aleksandr Lukashenko used the money to buy clothes and footwear for the new academic year. He explained that, since his mother worked as a milkmaid, there was never enough money in the family, and therefore he used every opportunity to earn as much as possible in order to provide for himself. “To look the same as the children from wealthy families on 1 September [the start of the academic year],” the head of state shared his memories.

The student construction brigade movement saw its revival in 2003.
Student construction brigades got a number of preferences from the state. Khatyn Memorial Complex and the Mound of Glory were the first facilities where the youth took part in reconstruction efforts. The students received the Letter of Commendation from the Belarusian president for the work done there. Then it was the reconstruction of the Augustow Canal. After that came the country’s largest and most significant project , namely the Belarusian nuclear power plant.

“A young person who has the experience of working in student brigades, of working hard, makes a good person. This is the experience of starting as a young, novice worker, of mentoring, of collective work. This is important for us today. Western countries promote this culture of individuality, detachment from common problems, a personal brand. This is probably a good thing in some aspects. But in certain doses. We still have a taste for collective work, collective assistance to each other,” said Aleksandr Lukyanov, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Belarusian BRSM Youth Union.

Since 2003, more than 760,000 young people have been part of student construction brigades. Children who are on preventive records and who are in a socially dangerous situation are also involved in the work.

“This is not the first time we have revisited the issue of student construction brigades, and you know my position on this matter. I will always support this project. Because student construction brigades are not only a good school for young people, but also a great talent pool. It is clear that hosting student construction brigades in a region is a troublesome business, perhaps an extra headache for local authorities. We must commend the Belarusian BRSM Youth Union, governors, and employers for helping young people, for giving them an opportunity to earn money, and for raising the prestige of working professions,” the head of state said as he addressed the BRSM congress in 2015.

Young people say, however, that money is not their main motivation.
What really matters here is the opportunity to make new friends, go on educational trips, make cultural exchanges, and take part in festivals and tourist meetings.

“The experience of our country is very interesting to colleagues from Uzbekistan. We expect that our brigades will cooperate with Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan. Of course, these are primarily post-Soviet countries. We should not forget about such strategic friends as the People’s Republic of China. China has similar projects. We are ready to work on joint projects. We have no borders here. It is important to set a goal and move towards it. Joint work is in any case for the good, especially for the sake of peace and development,” the head of the BRSM Youth Union said.

Some 40,000 young people will make part of student construction brigades this year. Student brigades work in various industries. The most demanded and highly paid are construction and manufacturing sectors. Student brigades take part in the construction of various facilities: from kindergartens to a nuclear power plant and even a cosmodrome. As for the manufacturing sector, students work at Atlant (assembling refrigerators), Horizont, automobile and tractor plants.

“You know that we work today. We do not fight. Thanks God! We however lack workforce here. Set up working brigades. You will be welcome at our new plant BelGee, and also at BelAZ, garment and other factories. This will be your contribution to the country’s economy. Take patronage over a large facility construction project. Call it “a youth construction project” in order to leave your ‘BAM’ mark in the history of modern Belarus. Each of you must understand that nothing comes easy. Everything comes with hard exhausting work and hardships. There is no such thing as ‘easy bread’,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he met with the youth in 2018.

Agricultural brigades are involved in the country’s planting and harvesting campaigns. Some students choose the services sector: hairdressers, waiters, merchandisers, and trainmen. There are pedagogical brigades that consist of children’s summer camp counselors. Physicians-to-be get invaluable experience working in healthcare institutions as junior and middle medical staff. Pedagogical and medical teams comprise only students of the appropriate educational institutions. Environmental student teams help landscape urban areas.

The Atlant enterprise was the first company to host student brigades. Some 300 students worked there in the first year. Their number increased to 900 the following year. In addition to salaries, Atlant provided working students with accommodation and meals. Today this enterprise is the most popular facility as a summer side job for students. You need to pass the selection in order to get there. The competition is almost two people per place. Someone even manages to meet their love there. As it was the case with Kristina Khubulova from Russia. Today she is the leader of the youth industrial labor project Atlant-2023 – a representative of the National Student Brigades Headquarters. Kristina lives in Belarus thanks to student brigades.

The young woman was born and grew up in the Altai Territory of Russia. her first brigade helped the elderly and children. Then Kristina got into the student brigade that worked on the construction of the Vostochny cosmodrome. Then, she took part in labor projects in Moscow, where she was offered to participate in the student brigade movement in Belarus. “In 2019, I was selected to go to Belarus. It was my childhood dream to go to Belarus, to see the country and its cities,” she said. “I took part in my first construction site project, the City of the Youth.

In 2020, she was invited to join the Atlant manufacturing project, which involved 13 student brigades from all over Belarus. Kristina was delighted with our country, but she did not think of staying in the country yet. A year later however everything changed. She found her love. “It was 2021, I already started thinking of settling down here. After the project, I went to Omsk for a month and decided that I would come back here and work here as part of the student brigade movement. I have also found my love in the brigade,” the young woman said.

“We joined a student construction brigade to have something to do in the summer and earn extra money during the holidays,” Maksim Tsyrynsky, a student at the BIP University of Law and Social and Information Technologies, said. “Working in student brigades have many benefits. We are exempted from income tax. The university promises a discount on tuition.”

Maksim is involved in the construction of a hostel. The students work as auxiliary workers. For example, they worked on an elevator shaft the other day, and now they are cleaning the building and the surrounding grounds.

Yan Rudakovsky, another BIP student, became a controller in public transport for a month. This is his first experience of working in a student brigade. “I decided to take up some work to help my parents and earn some money for myself. I am doing it to gain some experience, too. The uni provided such an opportunity, and I thought, why not do it? I like it,” the young man said.

For his colleague Valeriya Gorlacheva, this is also the first experience. The girl is studying at the Belarusian State Pedagogical University named after Maxim Tank. According to her, she wanted to try it as a controller last year, but because of the big competition she did not get into the student brigade. She has been luckier this year. “We were very well received here. We had a four-day training. Now we are already working as controllers,” Valeriya said.

The country’s important facilities have received the All-Belarusian Youth Construction status thanks to the president’s support of student initiatives. This status was assigned to the facilities of the Belarusian nuclear power plant in 2014, and to social infrastructure facilities in Ostrovets in 2019. The All-Belarusian Youth Construction status was given to the Khatyn Memorial Complex reconstruction project last year. Recently, one of the students has made a proposal to the head of state to declare the National Center for Patriotic Education in the Brest Fortress the All-Belarusian Youth Construction site.

“We will take a look at your proposal. Moreover, you are not strangers to me, you are my kin folk,” Aleksandr Lukashenko replied. “If the youth, the Belarusian BRSM Youth Union join this initiative, I will be very happy to announce it a youth construction site. You did a very good job in Khatyn.”

This initiative was then expressed by student of the Brest State Technical University, leader of the student construction brigade Spadchyna Semyon Lyulkovich. The young man admitted that he felt very nervous when addressing his question to the president. He added however that he did not expect another answer from the head of state.

“In June, we are going to build a kindergarten – this is a regional construction site. As soon works kick off at the National Youth Patriotic Center, we will switch to them,” Semyon said.

The head of state’s decisions have also enabled Belarusian students to work outside the country. In April 2022, Aleksandr Lukashenko, while on a visit to the Vostochny cosmodrome, asked Vladimir Putin to consider involving Belarusian specialists in the construction of facilities at the huge construction site in Russia. The president also mentioned youth then. The Belarusian best student brigade Evrika was sent to the cosmodrome construction site last year.

“We were engaged in the construction of housing for the workers of the cosmodrome and also a weather station. There were 11 brigades on the project – one Belarusian and ten Russian ones. We worked together with qualified specialists. We did the same work as they did,” the former leader of the student construction brigade Evrika Vadim Lozhechnik said.

Now he is the leader of the All-Belarusian youth construction site City of the Youth 2023. In previous years, Vadim’s brigade participated in the construction of the BelNPP.

In terms of scope the student construction brigade movement in Belarus has already surpassed the similar experience of the Soviet period. Do you know what its main value is? It teaches young people to work and cherish what they have created with their own hands. This is virtually the entire country, from a planted tree or a new kindergarten to the nuclear power plant. This is worth a lot. Being part of a student construction brigade also helps individuals to reveal their talents, become true leaders.

“Student brigades are like a family. They are like your kin folk who are on the same page with you, who understand you perfectly,” Nadezhda Shakhovskaya said. “It is crucial for leaders to know how to encourage students for action. After all the main thing for a leader is to be fit for the job and to lead. These are two incentives, two postulates that we teach our leaders.”

To be fit for the job and to lead are essential leadership traits. The head of state teaches this to the youth as well. He in fact sets an example of how to do it.

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