Last week, this video of student pilots at the Ulyanovsk Institute of Civil Aviation started appearing across Russian social media.
View this video on YouTube
The video was made and recorded by 14 students at the institute, one of Russia's oldest civil airplane training schools, back in October last year. The video, showing the students dancing to "Satisfaction" by Benny Benassi, is believed to have been inspired by a similar skit back in 2013, made by British soldiers.
When the video was published up by the Russian social network VK on Jan. 16 it quickly gained a huge amount of attention, racking up hundreds of thousands of views.
After the university head compared the students to activist group Pussy Riot, things started to spiral out of control.
People began to call for others to support the cadets by doing their own versions of the video.
Вот была бы у нас «Нормальная» страна, сейчас бы в поддержку курсантов - все военные, пожарники и спасатели свои бы… https://t.co/jmOuySNYEY
Which eventually turned into a "Satisfaction Challenge" hashtag.
#satisfactionchallenge #protest #strike #russia #elections #president #navalny - #бойкот #забастовка… https://t.co/jUDIEIYkG5
As controversy around the video gathered steam, so did the number of videos in support of it. Like this one, by agricultural college students:
View this video on YouTube
Or this one by students at the Ministry of Emergency Situations...

Or this one by nursing students...

Or this one by construction students...
