Personal data
Pavel Vladlenovich Kovalev, 40 years old, Gemini.
de jure – military man (Gorky Military School), teacher (Gorky Pedagogical Institute), PhD in law (Nizhny Novgorod Ministry of the Interior Academy).
de facto – the CEO of the Association of guarding and legal companies "Berkut", a member of Presidium of the Coordinating Council of the Russian Interior Ministry Department for the Protection of Public Order, the Volga Federal District coordinator. Last year he became the administrator of the year. Married.
Reference
"Berkut" is an association of guarding and legal companies (Nizhny Novgorod), a dynamically developing company with a b management team and highly qualified structural guarding subdivisions. The larger part of the “Berkut” administration staff includes former law enforcement and armed forces officers. 15 years in the market, has 2,000 employees, guards the objects of "higher guarding level " - factories, big shopping malls, public city and region organizations. It has 23 branches in Russian cities. Closely cooperates with law enforcement agencies. Has its own clothing manufacture, a school for guarding officers training and a sport club. Patronizes an orphanage and a boarding school.
- Paul Vladlenovich, you are the head of a major security structure. To your mind, what is the primary social task of the CEO of a guarding agency?
- First, certainly, is to protect people and organizations! And secondly, is to form a proper social understanding of security and maintain a decent image of the guarding organization officer. After all, what is the stereotype of a guarding officer we have in the society today, in school for example? This is a former cop or a war dog, with little imagination and two classes of education… In fact, it is far from being true! Serious and respectable people work in private guarding. What matters is to have them in the right places, while the society realizes the importance of their work.
- And what personal qualities should a chief manager of your level possess?
- I am sure a chief manager of a guarding organization must not only select and deploy his employees properly, not only help children and veterans, but also should be directly involved in their lives. The main thing is to be concerned! The most horrible people are the indifferent. I would like to quote Bernard Shaw: "The worst crime we can commit against people is not hating them but treating them with indifference; this is the essence of inhumanity."
This concerns the whole society and especially non-governmental structure guarding employees. Indifference is the first stage on which we test our employees. The second is the desire to work well and responsibly - to protect the people.
- Our summer season starts with the Children's Day... No matter how much we were suggested that the childhood in our country is happy and carefree, but even in the name of this festival lies the essence of the existing problem - children need protection! How safe is the live of our children today and where danger can come from?
- As parents, we, of course, are afraid of everything. We are afraid that the child will fail to cross the street, will not get to school, that he or she will be hurt or kidnapped... And all this has the grounds! I used to take my son right to the school doors till the 4th grade! Although, recalling my childhood, I remember that my parents used to send me to a summer camp for two or three sessions at that age, they were not afraid of anything, although I was small and skinny. But then the guarding structure and personal responsibility of people were different... But today, I know this firsthand, there is so mush around our children that’s worth being afraid of. And from what they have to be protected! Drug addiction, violence, kidnapping, robberies... And before sending my son to a sports camp, I have to double-check everything: who the organizer is, what children are coming, who guards the camp and what people work as counselors. And the question is not whether my son wants to go to the camp, but if we can send him there? And such fears arise at every turn! What school to send the child to - not just for the sake of education, or prestige, but also for the sake of security.
- What do you think caused such negative changes in the society?
- I think that much of what is shown by the media is immoral and tasteless! Media is largely out of control. They show everything on TV including violence as well. And children, we know, like it to be scary. It's really very easy to win "cheap" authority by cheap movies: shooting, horror, blood, etc. And just from watching TV they subconsciously and psychologically develop aggression and permissiveness. Street doesn’t educate today either in a good sense. The charm of the past is gone - "boys of the neighborhood", "team of the neighborhood," gatherings outdoors... But most importantly our society has become completely indifferent! Children smoke and swear openly in the streets and adults pass by observing indifferently: "so what, we used to smoke and say some bad words and I am not supposed to lecture, let school do this..." But to stop, not to say how to behave, but simply put in the place the little smokers and swearers in the street is what any normal person is supposed to do. So that the children just know they mustn’t do this.
- Then how to protect our children?
- To educate and teach them safety! It seems to me extremely important to teach children to treat themselves and others with respect and most importantly – the life itself. If you appreciate your life then so will the others do.
- At what age should this education start?
- There are no strict rules when to start or to stop. It is a process that has neither beginning nor an end. A child is taking his first steps and the parents are protecting him every second: steps, sharp objects, hot and hard things, etc. They show with gestures what is allowed and what is not. And as soon as children begin to understand words, you need to explain them the rules of behavior in complex situations. It is never too early to start! I learned it from my own experience.
One day me and my son found ourselves in an emergency when were on holiday in Turkey. At night when everyone was asleep, our hotel caught fire and the fire alarm did not work. The hotel staff began running from suite to suite and shouting something in Turkish. We learned from their gestures that it was fire. I grabbed the papers from the safe and I and Nikita ran out to the hallway as we were. I rushed to the elevator, but my 8-year-old son at 3 a.m. acted faster. He shouted: "Dad, what’s wrong with you? It is fire! We mustn’t use the elevator, we use the backstairs! This is what I taught him when he was 3! I forgot, but he understood and remembered. So it is never too early.
- But you can probably prevent many dangerous situations with the help of technical means of protection? For example, a child's safety in the city. Today all sorts of systems for tracking and monitoring children are advertised a lot...
- Yes. There is much of such kind of working-outs. You can install a chip in your kid’s bag to track his travel... But in most of the cases it does not help. After all, the bag can be taken away and the connection may fail. That’s why the child should know the basic rules of personal safety from the tender nail. For example, what should he or she do if lost in a city he or she doesn’t know? Look for the Police? No! He or she should stay where was lost and wait for help! And it will be the Police and the parents who will be looking for him or her.
- Who taught you the safety rules when you were a child and what were they?
- My parents taught me the rules of a more general nature, "if promised - do it!". For example, on Saturday I had to wash the floors, and behind the window my friends were calling out to play football, you know! And there was this dialogue: "Mom, I have washed everything up" - "And behind the couch, sonny?" - "Certainly!" And my mother would push the couch aside... It was this fear of recheck which gave the sense of responsibility! That is our generation was taught safety in the form of discipline.
But today the situation is different and even in summer camps there is no safety not to mention the society in general. For example, I was calm letting my daughter go to study abroad for a year, but I’m afraid to let her go on holiday to "Zhdanovets" (camp) at the Gorky sea! I'm not against labor education, but it is scary to just send your child to make some money. Can you let your girl to work as a waitress in a bar? Never! So that’s why we speak about modern science of security that should be taught at school.
- What is the educational process like in your own family?
- I finished Military School, served in special mission units – I’m used to discipline and try to maintain it at home. I bring up my children with strictness but without any fanaticism, of course... I teach my son to respect and support his sisters, especially around other children! I talk to him, explain, inspire... although I can growl and slap if words don’t help. On the whole I believe that upbringing should vary at different ages. "One father means more than a hundred of teachers." But it is important to bring up boys in disciplin... I won’t make any unsubstantiated statements. Up to sixteen kids, mostly guys, hang out in our yard in the country sometimes. All of them are of different social status. And if you don’t hold them back, they instantly turn into unruly crowd. But I understand them, the boys want independence - to go to a neighboring village, swim in the river with no adults around... You have to get them lined up! Literally. I line them up and explain who will be the team leader, who substitutes one another if anything happens, what is the subordination between them. On coming the children report on the situation and only then walk away to their parents... By the way, the team leader isn’t always appointed by the age because a younger too can win respect! For this we hold different kind of competitions – endurance tests – drop to push up, quick thinking tests, etc.
- And do you bring up the girls in a different way?
- I'm probably one of the fathers who pamper his daughters. Not in material sense - "gave money - bought any toy," no, I pamper them with attention. My older daughter, Vicky, is 18, and I do not have an idea of raising my voice at her, I neither do even when my younger Glasha doesn’t obey, I don’t shout but just take her by the hand and lead to another room. And also cultivate in them the sense of self-respect by my own example and by my expectations from other people. Only when a girl gets used to her special role from the childhood, the n on becoming adult she will be able to find a man who will respect and love her. Well and de facto, of course - the girls help the mother in the kitchen and about the house! My son Nikita can also wash the dishes and babysit with Petya but only the younger daughter Aglaya can volunteer.
- And how do you understand the phrase "happy childhood"?
- I remember my childhood... The happiest moments were when the winter came and we, boys from the neighborhood, would extend a hose from the house and made a skating rink to play hockey at last! Now children have more opportunities, but there as more danger out there... I think a happy childhood at all times is when the parents are around both Mom and Dad, when everybody is safe and sound. And most importantly is when a child is free to choose an occupation according to his or her interest and when this choice doesn’t become a pain in the parents’ necks and doesn’t present a problem.
- In light of the recent controversy in the Ministry of Education about the priorities of sciences, I would like to ask you as a guarding associate... What subject at school do you consider of the utmost importance - Life safety or Literature and History?
- I think that Literature and History are more important. You can be teaching a child how to cross the street for 10 years, but it won’t be enough for him to realize what road to go down on in his life! Only with developing both hemispheres of the brain and by imparting the child to the culture and bringing him up on the best examples from History, you can raise a person who will be concerned and responsible for everything that is happening around. In fact, there are two factors which shape the personality – these are the genotype and education. And education is more important!
- And what kind of an educator are you?
- I graduated from a number of educational institutions: Military School, Pedagogical Institute, the law faculty of the Ministry of the Interior Academy... But in fact I’m a teacher only de jure and de facto I am not a didactic person! To play football, to give a cuff and show by my personal example how it is should be... These are more important than all the textbooks.
- What areas of the work in your Association concern childhood protection?
- Most likely, we should speak not about areas of work here, but about the additional activities of the association. For many years "Berkut" has been helping the children who don’t have parents. We participate in the life of an orphanage and a boarding school. We give the children clothes, assemble the furniture. From the day when "Berkut" was found, it has its own futsal club which has many times become the winner of competitions of various levels. And I, as the CEO of the Association, try to plan the budget with charity in mind.
As for the work in the field of child protection, my second position of Coordinating Council member contributes to it. Here more global issues are being solved. For example, organizing meetings on Drug Abuse Prevention to participate in which the heads of drug control departments were invited. They have the information on the number of drug addicted children and drug realization locations. By providing this information to our guarding agencies (there are 800 of them in the city), we can coordinate the work of PGAs (Private guarding agency). Since 17.000 security guards being informed about drugs, they will know what to watch over. And the managers of the agencies will have the opportunity to be more demanding of their employees. Today we have a strange situation: according to statistics, drug abuse is on the rise at schools, but there are no notifications from the PGA protected city schools to the Drug Abuse Prevention department! Isn’t this the very indifference of the guarding officers?
- What do you think private security in schools should be like?
- The security should be diversified! I have a whole theory on this point. I believe that school security should be represented by two officers of different sex because female and male psychologies are worlds apart! It is only male and female observation that can give the complete picture. What is more, two people look after each other and compete... I don’t even mention that all guards must finish a special training school (we have 270 hours of training in the Private educational institution "Berkut-cadet") and pass a qualifying examination. But for the schools, I think, we also need a special certification...
- What is generally included in the concept of "schools safety"? Criminal situations? Terrorism? Checkpoint system?
- These are the most important but not limited to them! For example, when a pipe burst or wind has blown the roof off... or children are smoking in the toilet... It's not just about education, it is the risk of fire! And prevention of these cases should also be the work of the security service. Unfortunately, still very few deal with it.
- Whose responsibility is this?
- First of all, the government’s and the society’s! A private guarding agency can’t handle it without a serious program to provide security in educational institutions at the state level. It will be even better if schools will be under the protection of the Police. As for us, we can only support this policy.
- It will be the 20 years in March next year since non-state security structures have been established in Russia. How are you going to celebrate this date, what are the results?
- To my mind, the main thing is not to celebrate the date but to enhance the prestige of the profession. We need to show the public what an important mission the private guarding fulfils and what worthy people are involved in. To do this, we want to make a documentary film about the private guarding. We are going to open a Private Security museum. The museum will be based on the collected statistics about the deeds of private guarding officers, not on truncheons and guns. Because the information makes the base of the museum, it is the connection between past, present and future, which I hope will be bright for private guarding.