- A considerable amount of overall regional teenage crime occurs in Magadan. The rise in the number of juvenile crime is being observed. The number of teenage drunken offenders is increasing. There is a growth in car thefts.
G. ASEEVA. Misfortune can’t be dealt partially: I. Three truths // Magadansky Komsomolets. – Jun. 29, 1976

    Police assistants Olga YAKUBOVSKAYA (KIREEVA), Victor MASJUK, Volodya BLAGOVSKY, Valera ZAICHENKO, Vladislav AKOLZIN are trying to find new means of working with “problem children”. The words “child” and “crime” are truly dissonant…

    Create a troop of boys that would live according to general men’s laws, have its own statute, uniform, code of honor, a troop whose distinct feature would be kindly deeds, and not some silly bravado, the members of which would be men fully prepared for life as it is and, what is especially important, fully prepared for military service – that was my dream from youth.
N. ZINNATULINA – “A Man is his Word”, // Magadanskaya Pravda – Sept. 22, 1985

    Vladislav AKOLZIN was a little over twenty when it came to him that one should not fight juvenile criminals, but try to win their hearts instead. One should know the way they live, their values; one should understand and truly love these diverse, vague, confused kids. And it worked.

Having visited all the troop bases, I was certain, that komsomol troop of block 31 is very efficient in its work with the problem children… It gives a contrast to slow general city activity. Why?
There are two reasons to this – objective and subjective. The first is that there exists an understanding between the city police station and komsomol cells in several blocks of the city. The second reason is komsomol cell secretary Vladislav AKOLZIN’s and major V. KAMINSKY’s personal traits.
G. AVSEEVA. Misfortune can’t be dealt partially: III. Militant lone wolves

    Several years have passed. In 1978 the City department of people’s education has created a military and sporting camp PODVIG in the village Uptar. 80 kids stayed in the building of School #23 for the time of the camp.
    Most of the children got the vouchers to the camp from the Juvenile Affairs Inspectorate. Yuri ZIMIN and Vladislav AKOLZIN were offered to be in charge of the camp. Both had years of experience working with problem teenagers.
    Leading the camp was a challenge. There was a shortage of tutors, the assets – cameras, tents – were extremely hard to get. Another challenging factor was the alienation of the locals – the gossip was that “they” had brought in dozens of hooligans. The panic subsided, though, when the locals saw their “neighbors” to be calm and absolutely normal. The children have brought “order to chaos” in the local clubhouse, got the reservations to watch movies in the building, cleaned the adjacent school territory on a daily basis. They also built a “garage” for mopeds and motorcycles they had received from “Support the Military” Society. Drills, military and sporting training, strict discipline – all this made an appeal to people.
    The camp contained four platoons, each of which was split into four squads. The squads were commanded by the cadets. The platoon commanders, though, were the servicemen – Ramazan VALIEV, Victor DEDUKHIN, Igor MIKHAILOV, Alexander SHIBALKOV. The camp activities were regulated by the Camp Council that was made up of several children from each platoon.
    The camp days were rich with events: a four-day hike, frequent “war games”, sports competitions including soccer, volleyball, motocross, chess tournaments. Other activities included meetings with firemen, helicopter pilots, composing and printing wall newspapers of various genres. There even was a musical ensemble.
    Every cadet had his own duties – squad commander, political instructor, medic, wall newspaper editor – that were closely observed by the Camp Council.
    Every following day started with some – frequently unplanned – activity. It turned out these activities were what the cadets have longed for – to see the material result of their work, to understand its necessity, and not to do something because “it has to be done”. They unloaded freight containers, dug a 150-feet ditch on the request from the canteen workers, cleaned over 20 acres of forest plantations from deadwood – they later used it for a large bonfire, prepared blueprints for a kindergarten playground, restored a fence around the school yard.
    Another benefit was that the cadets felt free to apply the material rewards gained from such activities – for example, a thousand rubles that was earned from building an ice-hockey skating-rink was spent for new tents that would sure be handy for further hikes.
    A distinct uniform was also a “first” in PODVIG’s history. It was denim suits – stitched pockets, long collars, bell-bottoms, sneakers. All 80 cadets were from then on of one color – green, or, to be more precise, khaki. And almost everyone had his hair shoulder-length – black or blond, straight or wavy… Seventies-style, Russian version.
    The uniform didn’t make the cadets impersonal. On the contrary – the boys became more organized, understood that they were one big team.
    The old photographs look a little odd and funny now – there’s shaggy-haired, awkward Ruslan MUSAEV with a guitar, with his friends around him – Anatoli KARNAUKHOV, Oleg KABANOV, Vasil ZHARIKOV…
    This short and hard PODVIG camp achieved its goal – it created a true comradeship. These boys didn’t care if their behavior was “problematic” or not when they were making a huge emblem of sand and rocks and laying “Military and sporting camp PODVIG” in its center. They didn’t care of whether they were regarded as difficult or not when receiving a letter of commendation from Uptar Village Council. “That would be great if something like this happened again” – such words were heard by me from many a cadet.
    That would be great indeed…
Vladislav AKOLZIN. Like a Phoenix // Magadansky Komsomolets, Aug. 26, 1978

    The cadets recalled their comradeship in the fall. So did the chiefs – ZIMIN, AKOLZIN and Chief of Staff GANIN. Something amazing had happened to all of them that summer. They felt true affection towards their cadets, but there was also anxiety – old habits die hard, and former so-called “friends” might not stay straight.
    The idea of creating a city club was there – both the cadets and the leaders thought of it.
    One day would-be cadets Oleg KABANOV, Alexander KORZHOV, Ruslan MUSAEV, Oleg DEMBITSKY and Vladik ASMUS dropped by at Vladislav AKOLZIN’s office. Vladislav said: “Guys, why don’t we create a club? Can you do that?”. The “guys” said “no sweat”, not knowing that they had become the first cadets of Military     Sporting and Technical Club PODVIG.
That’s how PODVIG was born. State administration saw the prospects of such an organization and gave the necessary support. The word “podvig”, meaning “a heroic deed”, is also an acronym and has a secret meaning – “Youth Possessing Valor, Tolerance, Initiative, Pride”

    If you want to fight – why not, but only if you do it fairly, skillfully and it happens in a gym; if you love music – that’s great, you can learn to play guitar here; love bikes – you’ll be taught to do this without harming your or somebody else’s health. Don’t prohibit – substitute, that’s the way of education in PODVIG.
O. TSIBENKO. …And we can’t do without them too. // Magadansky Komsomolets, Feb.17, 1979

    A famous Magadan journalist Valeri HILTUNEN wrote in one of his articles several years ago that he was sorry the majority of modern boys are deprived of an opportunity to climb a rope ladder. It’s all too true that today’s generation is not this much fond of active sports and games, but the longing for adventure and romance is still there. And everybody wants to learn as much as possible, to make his dreams come true…
    Probably that’s why the first cadets didn’t stop dreaming – we’ll have parachutes, go-carts, motorbikes, hand-to-hand combat classes in our club, we’ll have an extensive hiking program… It is known that the ancient Greeks didn’t think a man was a man if he couldn’t swim, read and was skilled with weapons. School taught the boys to read, and the rest, thought the cadets, will be PODVIG’s responsibility.
    It was decided instantly that the main goal of the club would be preparation for further military service. That was both interesting and necessary. Besides, military discipline makes the “If you have to, you must” principle to be followed easier. The boys understood – the stricter the order, the better.
And so Vlad, Alexei, Ruslan, two Olegs and Vladislav have invented their club with a promising name – PODVIG (“a heroic deed”).

    The aim of the club was to unite like-minded persons, comrades and friends under the same roof. The first problem, however, was to find that roof – and it took years to solve it. A club shouldn’t under any circumstances become a discussion group. A person is, first of all, a cadet, and only then a martial arts apprentice, a skydiver or a radio communication pro.
    To avoid personnel instability and form a serious attitude towards the club for its new members, the founders had decided this: it is easy to become a member of PODVIG if you are m 14 to 18 years old (12 to 18 now) and if you’re not a girl. But one must pass a trial period to get acquainted with the club and for others to get acquainted with you. At the beginning, you are a trainee. You receive a trainee fill-out form where your activities (physical fitness, overall performance) are marked. Then you become a cadet candidate. You’re getting closer to the goal… And then – “Forward-DRESS! Atten-HUT! Cadets, greet another full-scale member of club PODVIG!”
T. SLYSHOVA. “PODVIG brings up men” // Magadan, 1988

    The club has always been distinguished with its self-sufficiency and it hardly fits the existing merits. At first it was a social organization. In 1996 PODVIG was stated in the official documents as a sporting facility, and now it is a municipal organization.