Welcome to the 32nd edition of our Russian-language podcast Then & Now with me, Teresa Cherfas. Today’s episode illustrates like nothing else the difference between ‘Then and Now’ in Russia. It concerns the transformation of an entire generation into an instrument of patriotism and militarism in support of Putin’s Russia. In January this year, the documentary film Mr. Nobody Against Putin premiered at America’s prestigious Sundance Film Festival. The film is set in School No. 1 in Karabash, a small town in the industrial Ural region with a population of 10,000 and an average life expectancy of just 38 years. The film offers a fly-on-the-wall glimpse of Z-patriotism in Putin’s Russia and shows how the education and propaganda machine works in one individual school. The hero of the film, and its co-director, is our guest today. He is the Mr. Nobody of the title. Welcome to our podcast, Pavel Talankin!
This podcast was recorded on 12 June 2025
My Questions
- First of all, I would like to thank you for your important and courageous film. For those who have not yet seen the film, please tell us how it came to be made.
- You worked as the events organiser, as well as part-time videographer, at School No. 1 in Karabash, your hometown. What role does the school play in the town? What kind of town is Karabash?
- As I understand it, you yourself graduated from this very school. Why did you decide to return to work there? What did you like about your job?
- In the film, you say you always felt lonely and different from other people. In what ways?
- You created an especially open atmosphere in your office, where students came to relax. Tell us about it.
- How has school life changed since Putin announced the special military operation in February 2022? How quickly did things change at the school? And in the town?
- What were the new directives from the Ministry of Education? Did you have to change how you work?
- There is a revealing scene in the film where a teacher cannot pronounce the words “demilitarization” and “denazification” in front of the children—she cannot do it, and you correct her…
- And there is another teacher, a history teacher, who follows the new guidelines perfectly…
- You wanted to quit your job. Why?
- When did you realise that the footage you had shot could be important evidence of these changes in school life?
- Tell us about the working relationship you developed with your creative partner during filming.
- Did you have like-minded people around you with whom you could share your ideas? Or whom you could trust to film you for the movie? There are quite a few shots of you that someone else must have filmed.
- For the viewer, the speed with which the students adopt their new skills in patriotic events, lessons, songs, and morning flag ceremonies is striking. The school changes before our eyes—the children are becoming different. How did you experience these changes yourself? And what about in your relationships at school? And in the town? Did it affect your work on the film?
- We see how, at a teachers’ meeting, teachers find out that the school’s academic ranking has dropped, that they are not managing to allocate enough time and resources to traditional teaching. What do you think this tells us about values in Putin’s Russia?
- In September 2022, President Putin announced a partial mobilization. Did this affect the mood and atmosphere at school? And in the wider town?
- When did you decide that you needed to leave Russia? Was it a difficult decision for you? After all, your much- loved mother worked at the same school as a librarian, and you couldn’t even tell her what you were planning to do.
- As the school’s event organizer, you organized the “Last Bell” graduation ceremony. You gave a speech in which every word seemed to be meant not only for the graduates but also for you, knowing that tomorrow would be your last day in your hometown. Everyone was crying, the children, the parents, and even the history teacher. What do you remember about that day?
- Are you aware of what happened at the school, and in Karabash as a whole, after you left Russia?
- What does love for your homeland mean to you?
- What do you wish for your film?
