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Children's Railways of the Former USSR
- wawjgreen 4y agoIn "Ender's Game", Scott Card uses his smart children to echo the same sentiment: treat children as if they were miniature human beings!
- jacquesm 4y agoYes, but there it is so children will take responsibilities that adults wish to avoid.
- euroclear 4y agoThe Budapest espisode of the show Travel Man featured a visit to the children's railway there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EU-dyv1iOM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EU-dyv1iOM
- szemy2 4y agoI grew up 5min walk from the station there and I have never realised it's operated by children
- bitwize 4y ago
- feet 4y agoSchools under capitalism are somehow better? Creating nothing but obedient wage slaves who lack critical thinking abilities Not to mention, as another comment mentions this was to give them a sense of responsibility early not to get child labor
- kspacewalk2 4y agoMan, if you think schools under capitalism churn out "obedient wage slaves who lack critical thinking abilities", you'd be completely lost for words at what happens when lack of critical thinking is overtly baked into the system, like in the commie states. I only caught the very tail end of the abysmal, soul crushing Soviet primary school education, and by the late 80s most adults were openly contemptuous of the totalitarian BS... But it was still enough to understand that this system was based on institutionalized, merciless bullying and a methodical dismantling of independent thinking of any pupil entering it.
- feet 4y agoChina seems to be doing pretty well with education
- onetimepasswd 4y agoChina is good at education, but also good at avoiding certain topics. For example, fairly basic research skills are not taught until university level.
- watwut 4y agoCritical thinking and overall quality of education are not the same thing. You can be very good at teaching math, physics, geography, chemistry, biology while completely sux at "critical thinking" stuff. And vice versa.
- zx8080 4y ago> this system was based on institutionalized, merciless bullying No bullying exist in the US and EU schools, sure.
- ch4s3 4y agoI think the previous poster is saying that the state was doing the bullying, which is characteristically different.
- toiletfuneral 4y ago[dead]
- LBJsPNS 4y agoOMG THE EBIL STATE Give it a rest already.
- deepdriver 4y agoThe steam locomotives (scroll down for color photos) look remarkably like Thomas the Tank Engine: http://www.dzd-ussr.ru/towns/gorky/foto1-eng.html http://www.dzd-ussr.ru/towns/gorky/foto1-eng.html Those photos are from the late 1990s, so maybe the resemblance is intentional.
- kgeist 4y agoThomas the Tank Engine is virtually unknown in Russia, so I doubt it
- watwut 4y agoWay more plausible is that Thomas the Tank Engine was drawn based on how real world trained looked like.
- pmyteh 4y agoYes - he's drawn based on a specific kind of tank engine from the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (E2 class). There's not a huge similarity with the engine in the photo except that they're both small and painted in a similar shade of blue. Thomas's prototype causes problems for preserved railway lines in the UK, incidentally. 'Day Out With Thomas' events (where an engine 'dresses' as Thomas to run trains) are very popular, but there are actually zero preserved E2s, so they all look a bit wrong. If Rev Awdry had picked something more common (like a Jinty[0], say) to base Thomas on, there would be loads of nearly exact copies to go around... [0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LMS_Fowler_Class_3F https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LMS_Fowler_Class_3F
- orthoxerox 4y agoThat's incorrect. The show has been regularly broadcast since the 1990's. But it's not that big in Russia that people will deliberately style steam locomotives to look like Thomas or Gordon.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- aaaaaaaaaaab 4y agoWe have that in Budapest too: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Children's_Railway https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Children's_Railway
- blueflow 4y agoSome of these still exist! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dresden_Park_Railway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dresden_Park_Railway
- konschubert 4y agoAnd https://www.parkeisenbahn.de/startseite.html https://www.parkeisenbahn.de/startseite.html
- playing_colours 4y agoI live nearby, and my son absolutely loves riding their trains on weekends. They have two types of railways: regular children’s railways, and something I would call micro-trains that operate within smaller boundaries. The whole facility seems to come from GDR times, and there are mountains of old rusty train parts around their depots.
- yread 4y agoor https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ko%C5%A1ice_Children%27s_Heritage_Railway https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ko%C5%A1ice_Children%27s_Her...
- d1sxeyes 4y agoOr https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Children%27s_Railway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Children%27s_Railway
- egorfine 4y agoGoogle for "Children's Railway Kiev". It's a working thing here in Kiev in an excellent condition. I love it.
- djmips 4y agoSmall train but not run by kids... :/ https://visitorinvictoria.ca/train-rides-heritage-acres/#:~:text=One%20of%20Victoria's%20least%20known,for%20children%20of%20all%20ages https://visitorinvictoria.ca/train-rides-heritage-acres/#:~:....
- nonrandomstring 4y ago> Then, why is it "Children's?", you might ask. Because it is operated by the schoolchildren, 9-15 years old. This blew my mind, and immediately made me think of John Taylor-Gatto [1] who won numerous teaching awards trying, but ultimately failing, to convince American teachers to show children the same respect. My 30 year old masters students are not even allowed to run their own WiFi network never mind an actual RAILWAY NETWORK that carries real passengers. Going way beyond Montessori's philosophies, Gatto (and similarly Sir Ken Robinson) insisted children should learn real life skills by being given responsibility. His methods were revolutionary and transformed some of the worst New York schools. This scared the living shit out of governors and politicians who realised such a radical agenda might create young adults able to think and politically organise. [1] https://www.diygenius.com/changemakers-john-taylor-gatto/ https://www.diygenius.com/changemakers-john-taylor-gatto/
- yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago> My 30 year old masters students are not even allowed to run their own WiFi network Because they're students, or because IT doesn't want random people running their own networks that are halfway part of the school's systems but independently administered?
- nonrandomstring 4y ago> because IT doesn't want random people running their own networks that are halfway part of the school's systems but independently administered? IT people have nothing to do with it. They just peck at webmin interfaces and pretend to understand what Microsoft tell them to do. If it were up to IT they'd just grunt and shrug, and the students would get on with it. Decisions to directly counter to the core mission of the institution and stand between students and the education they paid for are way above IT's pay grade. For that we have a special class of random, low skilled people with an over-inflated sense of themselves called "policy makers" - a different cadre of unassailable, unaccountable centre of "shadow power" IT guys can only dream of :)
- kspacewalk2 4y ago
- wrp 4y agoSo, these were educational projects, the purpose being to instill in children a sense of responsibility. I'd be interested in hearing about how well it worked. I've lived in rural America and I see a huge difference in maturity between suburban and farm kids. The daily responsibilities of farm life seem to instill a focus and determination that carries into the workplace. The trains project would be a much less immersive experience, so I wonder how pronounced any benefit would be.
- IIAOPSW 4y agoJust curious why do you say it would be a less immersive experience? Running a train system is no small thing. From drawing up time tables to ad hoc rerouting when something inevitably breaks to all the signal and rolling stock maintenance...
- mantas 4y agoAt least in my city, the child railway used to be an isolated bit of decommissioned railway. A kilometer or two of a single track to do back-and-forth runs. While it still had to be great experience (it was closed many years before I was born), it was not that complicated :)
- orthoxerox 4y agoIt's still complicated, since your tiny train can run over some wino who fell asleep across your tiny track after finding a hole in the fence.
- wrp 4y agoThe trains experience would be something children would voluntarily spend a few hours on occasionally. Farm life would be a daily responsibility that children would have no option of walking away from. I anticipate that children running a train could be very immersed in the moment, but the goal of the activity was to instill a sense of responsibility, and I'm wondering how effective that transitory experience would be.
- softgrow 4y agoI really would have loved doing this as a child. I'm left wondering though if actually working on a railroad would have negatively affected my love of trains I still have now as an adult. Any readers lucky enough to have worked on these railways?
- markvdb 4y agoThe site claims 1/3 to half of the children involved in running these would eventually end up working jobs related to trains.
- jacquesm 4y agoI think this will be the last time that I see a website listing an ICQ number to contact the author. Does that network even operate?
- peace4all 4y agoIt does. It's bought by the Russian Mail.ru group. In 2016, I went to an interview in their office, and the interviewer made me an excursion around it. At one place I saw big ICQ logo with sign reading "ICQ Project Department". - Wow, it still hasn't died?! - Shhhhh! Don't say this so loud, the guys get very offended! - said the interviewer. The office itself was spacious, with free snacks and drinks, including free fresh juice -- I remember a perfect set of 4 people sitting together, some holding those free juices -- a guy and a girl sitting on small either couchettes or stools, and two more sitting next to them a bit higher on the window, and together looking like sat down to make promotion pictures for some sort of bar. I joked that this was staged just for me. Then, there was a nice sightseeing place: an imposing rotating armchair next to panoramic glass, to make photos with Moscow in the backdrop. When you enter or exit the office, you walk along a tennis-field-size playground, with people playing, surrounded by a net to catch stray balls. The interviewer joked that of course all this play was also staged just for the interview. Regarding ICQ, I guess, the project is kept by the corporation for nostalgic reasons -- it was the default messenger in exUSSR in the 90s and 00s.
- greencore 4y agoI think that most of those railroads have nothing to do with children operation - it was just a narrow gouge standard railway for less intensive commuting, some specific industrial purposes (like bringing fresh cut wood from forest or clay from careers) or even military (railroad system build around Vilnius during Polish rule in 1930's to provide ammunition to underground forts) and some was built way before soviet union occupied Baltics. In Lithuania this narrow gouge standard is called "Siaurukas" (eng. "narrowy") and some parts are still being operated as a tourist attraction [1][2] [1] https://siaurukas.eu/en/history/ https://siaurukas.eu/en/history/ [2] https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siaurasis_gele%C5%BEinkelis https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siaurasis_gele%C5%BEinkelis
- justsomehnguy 4y ago> I think that most of those railroads have nothing to do with children operation Except they are operated literally by the children? And many of them have 'Children's' in the name? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_railway https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_railway
- justsomehnguy 4y ago> A children's railway or pioneer railway is an extracurricular educational institution, where teenagers interested in rail transport can learn railway professions. This phenomenon originated in the USSR and was greatly developed in Soviet times. The world's first children's railway was opened in Gorky Park, Moscow,[1] in 1932. At the breakup of the USSR, 52 children's railways existed in the country. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_railway https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_railway
- rightbyte 4y agoI actually rode a local museum steam railway this weekend where 6 of 8 staff members were children aged 10 to 15-ish - the driver and head conductor were adults. They seemed to do their tasks quite well. And they took them dead serius. Felt kinda strange having a 10yo in uniform with a serius face marking your ticket.
- stanleychink 4y ago
- zoomablemind 4y agoThese pioneer kids would be learning the 'responsibilities' on DZhD, just to face the rampant bribes and neglect on RL 'adult' railroads and elsewhere in the ussr. It may not seem so obvious, but those who lived their adolescence through the soviet 60-80s in ussr russia are the very same cohort that now authorize the killing and the violent destruction of the so 'cherished' soviet-built infrastructure in Ukraine. This only underscores that the children inevitably absorb the moral corruption - as the soviet times were soaked through with - just as another survival-skill no matter how it was dressed. Fuck the dusted off soviet nostalgy - look at the present deeds!
- cameron_b 4y agoI for one have been very interested of late in the history of the USSR the Soviet Republics themselves and the style and achievements they put forward. I don't think this needs to be understood in the sense of nostalgia. More than that I think it is important to understand the social decisions that lead to outcomes we despise. As you say, the kids who initially ran these railways had peers or passengers who now call the shots in a society we deeply disagree with. But at the same time we can marvel at how grown up a 10-15 year old can seem while shuttling around holiday travelers. Somewhere along the way the Workers' principles were displaced by people who sought power over them. Often it is in others' experiences that we can start to understand ourselves, whether by contrast of complement.