By: Emily Chu

Russian schools will now teach lectures on the “rebirth” of Russia under Vladimir Putin, the war in Crimea, and “information” on the war in Ukraine, using only Russian news outlets in their curricula.

Russian children will also be encouraged to join a youth movement that will be directed by Vladimir Putin. The Russian government has tried to teach children state ideology in schools ever since the fall of the Soviet Union. Previous attempts were unsuccessful, but now the government has decided to give it another try.

“We need to know how to infect them with our ideology,” Sergei Novikov, a Kremlin bureaucrat said. “Our ideological work is aimed at changing consciousness.”

This attempt to indoctrinate children has had a substantial impact on students throughout Russia.

Irina Ten, a ninth grader, explained her experience with these changes. She described how in March, her computer class in Moscow was used to view Russian news coverage of the war in Ukraine. Students were also given a lecture on how only official Russian news is credible.

She also described how her friends’ behavior towards the war changed as these lectures became more common.

“They suddenly started repeating everything after the television,” Irina said. “They suddenly started saying that this is all deserved, that this had to happen. They couldn’t even attempt to explain this to me.”

When Ten tried to challenge her friends on the many improper things done by the Russian government, such as the war crimes committed in Bucha, her friends replied, “It’s all propaganda.”

There are many other changes noticed by school officials. English teacher Irina Milyutina explains that many students in her class took on pro-war views. During recess, the children acted out the war, pretending to be Russian soldiers. Ms. Milyutina added, “and those whom they don’t like very much they call Ukrainians. The propaganda did its job here.”

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