The key facts
- Winners: 'Avangard' (Moscow, 14–15 years old) and 'Uragan' (St. Petersburg, 16–17 years old)
- 16 teams in the final; more than 16,000 schoolchildren took part in the qualifying stages in total
- The rally, held from October 16 to 29, brought together 250 schoolchildren from 31 regions and was timed to the 25th anniversary of the VSKS
Winners Announced
In Anapa, at the All-Russian Children's Center 'Smena', the winners of the III All-Russian Competitions of School Rescue Teams were announced. As reported by Rosdetcenter, 16 teams advanced to the final — winners of the district semifinals, which were preceded by regional qualifying stages; in total, more than 16,000 schoolchildren from various regions of the country competed for the right to reach the final.
Who Became the Best
The competitions were held in two age categories. Among schoolchildren aged 14–15, first place was taken by the 'Avangard' team from Moscow School No. 1329; silver went to the 'Ogneborets' team from the Nizinskaya school in the Leningrad Region, and bronze to 'Volgograd-1' (School No. 81 of the Central District of Volgograd). In the senior category (16–17 years old), the 'Uragan' team from School No. 145 of the Kalininsky District of St. Petersburg won, second place went to 'Vertikal Lyudinovo' from the Kaluga Sports School of Olympic Reserve 'Triumf' named after M.A. Ukhina, and third to 'Svarog' from the Tyumen Region.
Program and New Tasks
The rally took place from October 16 to 29 and brought together 250 schoolchildren from 31 regions. The program was close to the practical work of rescuers: first aid, a fire relay, combat deployment from a fire tanker, water rescue, alpine training, sending distress signals, and theoretical questions. A feature of 2026 was additional tasks in search-and-rescue operations, which required orienteering on the terrain and distributing tasks within the team. 'Ogneborets' captain Elena Ershkova noted that the stages 'have become even closer to reality — the kids learn to act for real'.
Context of the Movement and the Rally
The VSKS school rescue team movement unites about 250 teams in 57 regions; the basis of training is mentorship by student rescuers. The corps itself numbers more than 10,000 volunteers in 300 teams and celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2026 — the rally in Anapa was timed to this date. VSKS head Evgeny Kozeev called the competitions a 'school of safety culture', whose task, in his view, is to raise a generation for whom safety is a 'conscious norm of life'. The project was implemented as part of the national project 'Youth and Children' with the support of the Ministry of Education, Rosdetcenter, and the VDC 'Smena'. The publication also cites statistics: in 2024, about 3.54 million cases of injuries and poisonings were registered among children and adolescents under 18, of which 2.8 million were among children under 15.
