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'It's Not Scary To Die For The Motherland': As War On Ukraine Rages, Russian
Children Targeted For 'Patriotic' Education
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'IT'S NOT SCARY TO DIE FOR THE MOTHERLAND': AS WAR ON UKRAINE RAGES, RUSSIAN
CHILDREN TARGETED FOR 'PATRIOTIC' EDUCATION

September 02, 2022 17:31 GMT
 * By Yevgenia Kotlyar
 * Robert Coalson

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Schoolchildren, most of them first-graders, take part in a ceremony marking the
start of classes at a school in Nakhabino, west of Moscow, on September 1.
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“One doesn’t become a patriot by just proclaiming slogans,” runs the text of an
upcoming mandatory lesson for upper-level children in Russian schools.
“Genuinely patriotic people are prepared to defend their motherland with a
weapon in their hands.”

“Patriotic education” has been a catchphrase in President Vladimir Putin’s
Russia since at least 2005. But now, with Moscow’s unprovoked war against
Ukraine grinding on and Russia caught up in a tense standoff with the West, the
country is redoubling its emphasis on “patriotism” in the schools. With the new
school year that opened on September 1, the Education Ministry is launching
mandatory weekly lessons first thing every Monday with the title Important
Conversations.

> [The government] is always issuing new laws that you have to follow carefully
> in order to avoid trouble when discussing the ‘special military operation.’”
> -- Ksenya, a teacher in Moscow

To demonstrate just how important these new conversations are to the Kremlin,
Putin kicked off the initiative himself by holding one with specially screened
and pre-quarantined schoolchildren in the western exclave of Kaliningrad on the
first day of school, an event that was transmitted to schools across the
country.

Although none of the children asked Putin about the war in Ukraine, he made a
point of raising the topic himself, repeating false Kremlin narratives about the
so-called “special military operation” that Moscow launched against Ukraine on
February 24.

“Everyone is saying that Russia is carrying out some sort of aggression today,”
Putin said. “No one knows or understands that after the coup d’etat in Ukraine
in 2014, the residents of [the eastern Ukrainian regions of] Donetsk and
Luhansk, at least most of them, and of Crimea did not want to recognize the
results of the coup. Our goal -- the mission of our soldiers and the militias of
the Donbas -- is to end the war, defend the people, and, of course, defend
Russia itself.”

A Moscow-friendly Ukrainian president fled the country after months of
pro-Europe, anti-corruption protests known as the Maidan culminated in a violent
crackdown and clashes in Kyiv in 2014, events that Russian officials
inaccurately describe as a coup. Although it denies being an aggressor, Russia
launched a massive military invasion of Ukraine in February involving hundreds
of thousands of troops, who have been repeatedly accused of targeting civilians
and other war crimes.

Putin and the children then sang the national anthem together.




Since April, Russian schools have been starting each day with a flag ceremony
and the playing of the national anthem. This year, however, the ceremony has
become more formal and institutionalized. Over the summer, the government
allocated 1 billion rubles ($16.6 million) to equip the country’s schools with
the necessary attributes, and in June the Education Ministry issued an official
handbook to the proceedings.

Beginning September 5, the Important Conversations classes will be a regular,
weekly feature of Russian schools at all levels, although the content of the
lessons differs for each age group. The detailed lesson plans have been posted
online. The ministry is preparing films and other materials for the classes.

The youngest children will be told about Russia’s natural wonders, while
children in the third and fourth grades will be taught that one must support
one’s country and work to enrich and beautify it. The lesson plan for this group
includes discussion of expressions such as, “It's not scary to die for the
motherland,” “Love your motherland, serve your motherland,” and, “The
motherland’s happiness is worth more than life.”


The youngest children in Russia's schools will be told about Russia’s natural
wonders. The topic of the war against Ukraine will only be presented to students
in the fifth grade and older.

The topic of the war against Ukraine will be presented to students in the fifth
grade and older.

The instruction informs students that the soldiers fighting in Ukraine are
providing “examples of genuine patriotism” and repeats Kremlin language about
the “Kyiv regime” and its supposed “bullying and harassment” of the population
of the Donbas, parts of which are controlled by Russia.

Other justifications for the war include “disarming Ukraine” and “preventing the
placement of NATO military bases” in Ukraine, a step that the Western military
alliance had no apparent plans to take before or after the invasion last winter.

The goal of the lesson is “to form an understanding of the cultural and
historical unity of the Russian nation and the importance of preserving that
unity, as well as inculcating love for the fatherland and pride in one’s
country.”

At the end of the lesson, students will have to write down “what I would like to
and am able to do for my motherland,” after which the students will attach their
answers to a birch tree, “the traditional symbol of Russia.”

Ksenya, a teacher in Moscow who asked that her surname be withheld for fear of
reprisals, said the new lessons put teachers in an awkward position because the
government “is always issuing new laws that you have to follow carefully in
order to avoid trouble when discussing the ‘special military operation.’”

“I would prefer not to discuss any political or politicized issues in school,”
she said. “That’s my opinion. How am I supposed to reconcile my personal views
with those of the school administration or with the views they foist upon the
administration? I have no idea how I am going to do that.”


Young children in military uniforms participate in a march marking the
anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II in Roston-on-Don.
(file photo)

Another Moscow teacher, who specializes in Russian language and literature and
also requested that his name be withheld, agreed: “If a teacher deviates from
the plan of the ‘conversations,’ they could wind up in a very dangerous
position.”

Technically, parents can request that their children be excused from the
Important Conversations, but it remains to be seen whether this right can be
exercised.

“We’ll have to see what would happen,” Ksenya said. “Maybe it would attract the
attention of the school administration.”

In early 2021, it was announced that a new position of “adviser to the school
director” was being created to oversee student organizations and the
implementation of “patriotic education.” At the time, critics said the
government was installing “political commissars” in Russian schools. The new
position is part of a program called Navigators Of Childhood that is headed by a
former activist of the pro-Putin youth movement Nashi.

The imposition of the Important Conversations lesson comes after previous years
of trying to get schools to implement such lessons on an ad hoc basis, said
former geography teacher Kyamran Manafly, who was fired over his anti-war
statements.

“I was a class leader, and we were sent such lessons, films, and presentations,”
Manafly recalled. “Half the teachers simply didn’t use them because the children
just weren’t interested. The other half just turned on the film and the children
watched and then left.”


Russian President Vladimir Putin kicked off the Important Conversations
initiative by holding one with specially screened and pre-quarantined
schoolchildren in the western exclave of Kaliningrad on September 1.

The new classes could be just the beginning of a new conformity across Russian
schools, said Novosibirsk historian and high school director Sergei Chernyshev.

“The people in the Education Ministry apparently dream of having all the schools
in the country teaching identical lessons using identical materials and having
all the teachers from Kamchatka to Kaliningrad telling the children exactly the
same thing,” Chernyshev said. “Essentially, they want to turn the teachers into
robots.”

In March, Margarita Simonyan, editor in chief of the RT state television
network, met with a gathering of Moscow teachers, sources told Current Time. She
said teachers can have their own opinions about Putin and the war in Ukraine,
but they must never forget that they work for the state and are obligated to
defend the interests of the government, the sources said.

Photo Gallery:

IN THEIR BOMBED-OUT SCHOOL, PORTRAITS OF UKRAINIAN CHILDREN TOUCHED BY WAR


 * RFE/RL
 * AP

As Ukraine's students begin the academic year, a group of children returned to
their shattered school in Chernihiv to reflect on how war had affected their
lives. The school was shelled in March, and two of the students speak of a
classmate who was killed in that attack. 
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At the end of his September 1 appearance with the schoolchildren in Kaliningrad,
Putin recounted a conversation he claimed to have had in the 1990s with an
elderly KGB agent with whom Putin said he shared an office some time shortly
after he joined the dreaded security force. Putin said he asked the man if he
wasn’t “offended” to now be sharing an office with a greenhorn after 25 years as
an undercover foreign agent.

“‘My motherland trusted me in a way that not everyone is trusted,’” Putin quoted
the old-timer as saying. “I was needed. And I am grateful to the motherland, and
I don’t expect anything [in return] from it.’”

RFE/RL’S SIBERIA.REALITIES AND NORTH.REALITIES CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT.

 * YEVGENIA KOTLYAR
   
   Yevgenia Kotlyar is a Kyiv-based correspondent for Current Time, the
   Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA. Born in
   Russia, she is a graduate of St. Petersburg State University and the Danish
   School of Media and Journalism. Before joining Current Time as a Moscow
   correspondent in 2019, she worked for the independent Russian television
   channel TV Rain.
   
   Subscribe via RSS

 * ROBERT COALSON
   
   Robert Coalson is a senior correspondent for RFE/RL who covers Russia, the
   Balkans, and Eastern Europe.
   
   CoalsonR@rferl.org
   Subscribe via RSS


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