Vadim Selyeznov wants to be good.
Good for his new life.
He trains hard, several times a day.
Sport is one way of breaking with the past.
Forever.
"I stole a car and had an accident.
And I ran off.
The police caught me two days later."
Vadim has been at this facility for juvenile offenders in Serafimovka for two years.
Many of the boys here are similar to him.
They struggled on the outside.
They stole cars, beat people up, took drugs.
Some of them even committed murder.
But they've found a balance here, a routine.
"Outside where they're free, they're potentially dangerous.
Dangerous for other children from decent families.
Teachers don't know how to deal with them.
The other kids are well-dressed, well-fed.
They know their parents are waiting for them at home.
These ones on the other hand don't even know what to wear to school.
They don't have nice clothes like the others.
That makes them aggressive.
Here everyone looks the same."
Vadim has lunchtime duty today.
They seem to get enough to eat in this institution - soup, meat, dessert.
Vadim's team lays the table.
Life is easier if there is routine and order, clear rules and discipline.
"Spasibo" "I was a terror.
I was constantly fighting with other boys.
I've changed completely here."
Some of the children here are orphans.
Many others are the children of alcoholics, drug addicts.
Some parents are in jail.
The general idea is that boys like Vadim should improve their behavior.
And ideally become soldiers.
"We require the same of everybody.
The bed has to be made like this, it's like an envelope.
it should look perfect.
Like this.
Very tight.
This is a boys' school.
We're preparing them for the army.
This is not a prison."
( And the system works.
Many boys go into the army from Sarafimovka, where they are taught to be patriotic servers
of the state, not responsible and critical citizens who question the government's authority.
The boys are taught that they should be grateful for a second chance.
And many are of course grateful for the affection and care they receive here.
Many of the tutors here are certain that they are doing Vadim and other boys like him a
lot of good.
"Our children radiate warmth and we feel it, but they also need warmth back.
Some of them like their hair to be stroked - even the big boys like Vadim.
Others tell us their secrets.
It shows that they trust us.
And to earn the trust of hard cases like this is saying something."
There is a fence around the facility to prevent boys from escaping.
But Vadim says that nobody here would want to escape.
"I wasn't allowed to leave for the first three months.
But after I'd adapted, I was allowed out on day release from time to time.
I never thought of escaping though.
They treat us well here."
Several thousand boys have gone through this facility since it opened in the 1970s.
They're mainly from surrounding towns in Bashkortostan.
But there are such re-education facilities all over Russia.
"It would be great if the children could simply stay here.
But they have to leave the facility one day.
And they often go back to where they came, to the same conditions.
Only those who learn to stand their ground here manage to survive those conditions."
Boys who end up at Serafimovka quickly understand that life is sometimes easier behind a fence.
The mixture of discipline and care here is not typical for the Russian judicial system
- a system that boys like Vadim are often acquainted with from an early age.
There are surely problems here.
But the show for our cameras was one of an ideal state reeducation facility with grateful,
disciplined boys.