MOSCOW, May 19. /TASS/. A group of Russian lawmakers on Thursday submitted a bill to the State Duma on the establishment of a nationwide children's and youth movement.
The initiative to launch the Bolshaya Peremena (The Great Change) movement was put forward on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Soviet Union’s Young Pioneers organization established on May 19, 1922, five years after the October Revolution of 1917.
The best of the pioneer organization’s practices will be used in the work of the new movement, said Federation Council Deputy Speaker Galina Karelova, one of the bill’s authors. "All of us have childhood pioneer memories full of romance and joy. The new movement will somehow use the practices [of the pioneer organization], first and foremost, the traditions of mentorship," Karelova noted.
She said the movement would be established to boost children's development and their participation in public life. Under the draft law, the new organization will unite schoolchildren over six years old, as well as college students.
Bolshaya Peremena will offer voluntary membership and equal rights for all participants. The movement will be non-commercial and self-managed and would focus on the comprehensive development and self-realization of children and teenagers.
President Vladimir Putin will be asked to head the supervisory council of the new movement.