Fortieth Anniversary of Russia's First Student
Nature Guards
Forty years ago, on December 13, 1960, the first Student Nature Guards
(Druzhina) were created at the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State
University (MSU).
A lot has changed since then. The first curators of the Druzhina – Vadim
Nikolayevich Tikhomirov and Konstantin Nikolaevich Blagosklonov – have
passed away; we live in a different country and are facing a different
socio-economic situation. However, the work that was started by biology
students 40 years ago, during Lysenko's time, has not stopped; on the
contrary, it is being expanded and diversified.
Russia’s student nature guards are no longer just a group of enthusiasts,
but a broad-based youth movement with a membership from all over the former
USSR and beyond. Besides catching poachers as they used to do in the Losiny
Ostrov Small Nature Reserve in the early 1960s, student nature guards
now help set up environmental networks and influence federal policy on
nature conservation.
Since 1960, many former student nature guards have gone on to make significant
contributions to the country’s nature conservation community. Druzhina
graduates work in national, regional and local environmental organizations
and several other NIS, in many large national and international non-governmental
environmental organizations; teach in secondary and high schools; conduct
scientific research; and some of them simply work for the good of Mother
Nature as foresters, reserve rangers, hunting inspectors…
Almost all the environmental activities initiated by the Druzhina have
attracted the attention of specialists and large groups using the same
methods. For example, the system of training environmental inspectors
originally developed by the inter-Druzhinas Vystrel Program is now used
throughout Russia's nature reserves. The work initiated by the Druzhina
in the 1970s in small nature reserves and Fauna Sectors is now carried
out in many of regions of Russia. Here, networks and systems of natural
protected territories, regional and interregional ecological frameworks
are being created. Recreational problems first researched by the Druzhina
of the MSU Faculty of Biology and worked on for several years successfully
by another students' organization – the Nature Protection Group of the
MSU Faculty of Geography – resulted in the establishment of national parks
in Russia and in current works to improve control over them. Even this
journal you are now reading was written by former members of the Druzhina.
We hope that the Druzhina of the MSU Faculty of Biology will celebrate
many more anniversaries and remain a source of educated and principled
people interested in nature conservation in general and in Russia’s system
of nature reserves in particular.
In conclusion, we append a document, which shows how the campaign against
illegal fir logging before the New Year holidays initiated by Druzhina
members almost 40 years ago has evolved into a federal enterprise of which
senior government officials take note.
Decree of the Mayor of Saint Petersburg
of December 6, 1995 No. 1265-r
On Organization of Enforcement of Environmental
Legislation
before the New Year Holiday
With the purpose of preventing unauthorized fir logging before
the New Year, I hereby decree:
1. To accept the suggestion of the Forest Committee of the Leningrad
Region on organizing inspections at railroad stations and roads
of Saint Petersburg, as well as in trade zones, with the purpose
of preventing the import of firs and fir branches cut without permission
into Saint Petersburg.
2. Before December 10, 1995, the Head of the Committee on City
Property Management shall prepare and adopt the staff of the joint
headquarters of "Fir campaign – 1995" nature conservation inspections
and the joint headquarters regulations.
3. The Department of Nature Conservation of Saint Petersburg shall
allot 4 million rubles from the funds of the Saint Petersburg Nature
Conservation Fund managed by the Department to the Forest Committee
of the Leningrad Region for the purpose of inspections before the
New Year Holiday.
4. To authorize the Vice-Mayor of Saint Petersburg (the Head of
the Committee on City Property Management) to ensure that this decree
is carried out.
Vice-Mayor of Saint Petersburg V. V. Putin
In the next issue of our Bulletin, we will discuss current activities
of the Druzhina aimed at creating and preserving Natural Protected Territories.
Former Druzhina members, A. V. Zimenko,
Biodiversity Conservation Center General Director , V. Shcherbakov,
Head of the BCC Publishing House
