Figure 1.--Zarnista was a popular game activity in Cold War-era Soviet schools. It was generally discontinued in the1990s after the disolution of the Soviet Union. It has been reintroduced in modern Russian schools. One of the many contests involved is the use of gas masks.

Soviet schools conducted war games called "Zarnitsa" ("summer lightning"). I am not sure when this was introduced, but it appears to have been a standard activity during the post-World War II Cold War era. After the fall of the Soviet Union during the 1990s, this game was largely discontinud in the schools. Russian readers reports that in the 200s it has been reintroduced at many schools. It has proven popular with the children. A reader writes, "As I remember from my childhood, each class (form) became a "squad". Depending on a weather and time of the year the game consisted of several different contests. In each "squad" were elected "snipers", "medics", "scouts", "communication specialists" and so on. I can remember such a contests during this game: a) Shooting (from a pneumatic gun "Izh" MR-512, this weapon can be bought in Russia without license), b) First aid, c) Using gas masks, and other competitions. As a boy good in geography and technics, I usually chose to be a "scout". The scouting competitions were to show how well we can read maps, flag-code, Morse code, etc. If the game was in autumn or spring it was often conducted outside in the open air. For example, teachers hid some "artifact" somewhere in the forest. To find it a scout squad searched for "clues". The map showed only the way to a first clue, which was written in Morse code, or flag ABCs, or perhaps a foreign language (German or English). The first clue showed the way to the second clue and so on.

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Created: 3:18 PM 2/19/2009
Last updated: 3:18 PM 2/19/2009