I'll review this movie from Christian point of view, by God and Lord Jesus Christ's help. It deals with soviet school in the late 70s. We can use the school as a reflection of soviet life.
Evident is the militarized character in youth pioneer organization and massive communist propaganda by Lenin images and Communist party slogans.
The following problems are present:
For example, a pupil Yura Schiukin, with law and school skipping problems, was brought back to school by the principal, trying to re-educate him by activist work, using his leadership skills for influence on others.
Judging by my past, i guess Schiukin was trying to get attention, but lacking proper guidance and love from parents, working in another city, he resorted to hooliganism and bullying others. Pioneer activism did not help either, because people do not just want to fit in to play a role, but also to be loved and taken care of. It was seen that Schiukin was living poorly, with an old and almost deaf grandmother.
That's why God's command is necessary "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate." (Matthew 19) and "Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." (1 Tim 5)
Due to anti-religious policy in USSR, an alternative cult of WW2 victory was used, promoted even now by Russian officials, instead of Christian faith, as official religious-like ideology based on emotion and national pride, not facts. By it war veterans are proclaimed like heroes and saints, while Nazis are made into the symbol of absolute evil. Even today people add slogans "Thanks to my granddad for victory" to their cars, as form of soviet pride plus ancestor-like worship.
In the movie it lead to abuses too - during school organized gathering of used paper, a boy accidentally brought a stack of letters from his veteran grandfather among others. The principal instead of personal conviction makes it into a huge case of blasphemy and sacrilege, by a global school meeting shaming the boy by peer pressure trying to exclude him as a sort of traitor/heretic, but being stopped by the new teacher Maria.
God taught "You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol.." (Exodus 20)
Rejecting God and Lord Jesus Christ, atheist communists put themselves in God's place and wanted the glory for themselves and in fact returned to a pagan-like cult of ancestors. Obviously this cult of WW2 is very mythologized and contains lies. The early Bolsheviks tried to start a global revolution, expecting to raise all proletarians around the world against "evil" capitalists by multiple incursions in Europe, but were beaten back due to lack of man-power amidst civil war. While claiming to be against evil Tzarist empire, they rebuilt in USSR and became even more oppressive than Tzar, enslaving the people by collectivism, deporting or executing those against it.
I believe God used another villain Hitler, whose Germany was a mirror image of USSR, in their clash punishing godless people by their own actions. As it's written "What you sow is what you reap" and "Treat others the way you want to be treated." WW2 veterans were not saints, it was God who punished both Germany and USSR by WW2. In 1943 Stalin warmed up to Christian church, probably to impress the Allies, gathering its remains, after years of persecution.
By the movie we see the first signs of doubt in communist politics. It hopes to reuse Christian example of love and goodness to fix the occurred failures, through the example of the new teacher, Maria, without mentioning God directly.
The case of collectivism abuse, is shown by the example of an individualist boy called Sergei Zavialov, bullied by activist Schiukin and his gang. He read his own poem likening the country to an old horse dragged on and on forward. He was noted as coming from a divorced family too with a fearful mother having to support 2 children. His attitude did not sit well with official ideologists who liked to portray USSR as a roaring force with great results, ex: tractor drivers going forward like courageous cavalry, by the poem read by Schiukin, similar to official daily propaganda, force fed into the minds of people, just like business advertisements today on TV.
Zavialov was attacked and partially shaved by Schiukin, for trying to fix his grades instead of helping others gather scrap metal, which was a bad result of the decision of the principal to let pupils self-govern each other for one day. It resembles earth, without God's guidance, we make our own lives a hell, through practice of evils, sin and lies when rejecting Lord Jesus Christ's command "Love your neighbor like yourself" and depending on foolish political ideology, bringing bad fruits.
We're left with some hope of change, when the teacher Maria is given time to think over not leaving school; Schiukin moved by his teacher's good treatment, promises to remain in school instead of leaving.
Let us not repeat such mistakes by pride and self-dependence expecting ourselves, politicians and pleasant lying ideology to save us, but to turn back to God and Lord Jesus Christ by repentance of sins and faith to practice good, live in love, truth, peace, righteousness for salvation of our souls.
Evident is the militarized character in youth pioneer organization and massive communist propaganda by Lenin images and Communist party slogans.
The following problems are present:
- Broken families, whether by divorce or by working away, the families of most main characters are like this.
- It leads to another, bullying by children of such families.
- Forced collectivism and cult of World War 2 victory
For example, a pupil Yura Schiukin, with law and school skipping problems, was brought back to school by the principal, trying to re-educate him by activist work, using his leadership skills for influence on others.
Judging by my past, i guess Schiukin was trying to get attention, but lacking proper guidance and love from parents, working in another city, he resorted to hooliganism and bullying others. Pioneer activism did not help either, because people do not just want to fit in to play a role, but also to be loved and taken care of. It was seen that Schiukin was living poorly, with an old and almost deaf grandmother.
That's why God's command is necessary "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate." (Matthew 19) and "Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." (1 Tim 5)
Due to anti-religious policy in USSR, an alternative cult of WW2 victory was used, promoted even now by Russian officials, instead of Christian faith, as official religious-like ideology based on emotion and national pride, not facts. By it war veterans are proclaimed like heroes and saints, while Nazis are made into the symbol of absolute evil. Even today people add slogans "Thanks to my granddad for victory" to their cars, as form of soviet pride plus ancestor-like worship.
In the movie it lead to abuses too - during school organized gathering of used paper, a boy accidentally brought a stack of letters from his veteran grandfather among others. The principal instead of personal conviction makes it into a huge case of blasphemy and sacrilege, by a global school meeting shaming the boy by peer pressure trying to exclude him as a sort of traitor/heretic, but being stopped by the new teacher Maria.
God taught "You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol.." (Exodus 20)
Rejecting God and Lord Jesus Christ, atheist communists put themselves in God's place and wanted the glory for themselves and in fact returned to a pagan-like cult of ancestors. Obviously this cult of WW2 is very mythologized and contains lies. The early Bolsheviks tried to start a global revolution, expecting to raise all proletarians around the world against "evil" capitalists by multiple incursions in Europe, but were beaten back due to lack of man-power amidst civil war. While claiming to be against evil Tzarist empire, they rebuilt in USSR and became even more oppressive than Tzar, enslaving the people by collectivism, deporting or executing those against it.
I believe God used another villain Hitler, whose Germany was a mirror image of USSR, in their clash punishing godless people by their own actions. As it's written "What you sow is what you reap" and "Treat others the way you want to be treated." WW2 veterans were not saints, it was God who punished both Germany and USSR by WW2. In 1943 Stalin warmed up to Christian church, probably to impress the Allies, gathering its remains, after years of persecution.
By the movie we see the first signs of doubt in communist politics. It hopes to reuse Christian example of love and goodness to fix the occurred failures, through the example of the new teacher, Maria, without mentioning God directly.
The case of collectivism abuse, is shown by the example of an individualist boy called Sergei Zavialov, bullied by activist Schiukin and his gang. He read his own poem likening the country to an old horse dragged on and on forward. He was noted as coming from a divorced family too with a fearful mother having to support 2 children. His attitude did not sit well with official ideologists who liked to portray USSR as a roaring force with great results, ex: tractor drivers going forward like courageous cavalry, by the poem read by Schiukin, similar to official daily propaganda, force fed into the minds of people, just like business advertisements today on TV.
Zavialov was attacked and partially shaved by Schiukin, for trying to fix his grades instead of helping others gather scrap metal, which was a bad result of the decision of the principal to let pupils self-govern each other for one day. It resembles earth, without God's guidance, we make our own lives a hell, through practice of evils, sin and lies when rejecting Lord Jesus Christ's command "Love your neighbor like yourself" and depending on foolish political ideology, bringing bad fruits.
We're left with some hope of change, when the teacher Maria is given time to think over not leaving school; Schiukin moved by his teacher's good treatment, promises to remain in school instead of leaving.
Let us not repeat such mistakes by pride and self-dependence expecting ourselves, politicians and pleasant lying ideology to save us, but to turn back to God and Lord Jesus Christ by repentance of sins and faith to practice good, live in love, truth, peace, righteousness for salvation of our souls.
