Nienke's blog

Putin Aims to Shape a New Generation of Supporters, Through Schools

“We need to know how to infect them with our ideology,” Mr. Novikov said. “Our ideological work is aimed at changing consciousness.” The Russian government is attempting, led by president Vladimir V. Putin, to impart a state ideology to schoolchildren, starting in first grade. Students in Russia will soon have to sit through weekly classes featuring war movies and other lectures on topics like “the geopolitical situation” and “traditional values.” These education initiatives are happening worldwide and they are a part of the Russian government’s scramble to indoctrinate children with Putin’s militarized and anti-Western version of patriotism.

Students are already noticing changes in their classes and among their classmates. Irina, a ninth-grader, said that one of her classes was replaced by the viewing of a state television report on Ukrainians surrendering to Russian troops and a lecture explaining that only information from official Russian sources was to be trusted. Suddenly, some of her classmates started to repeat everything after the television report. They started saying that this was all deserved and that it had to happen. At another school, fifth and sixth graders pretend to be Russian soldiers during recess, and they would call the people that they don’t like very much Ukrainians. “Patriotism should be the dominant value of our people,” another senior Kremlin official, Aleksandr Kharichev, said.

This propaganda infrastructure aimed at children remains far more limited than it was during the Soviet era. During that time, young people actively sought out underground cultural exports smuggled in from the West. Mr. Chernyshov, the Novosibirsk school director, believes that the Kremlin’s attempts to sell its militarism to children will now also eventually run up against the young mind’s common sense.

In my opinion, this is a very well written article with strong points. The set up of the article is very clear. It is meant to inform people of the events that are happening in Russia. It starts with explaining some of the background and basic information about this event. But later in the article, a lot of real life experiences are being shared. The results in the fact that people can put themselves in other people’s experiences and understand better what is actually going on in situations like these. The children in Russia are only being told and shown one side of the story. Their minds are shaped to not have an option of their own and, in my eyes, that’s unbelievable and ridiculous. This post is very informative and it gives a clear view on how this situation is playing out in Russia. It is definitely a newsworthy topic, considering that the entire world is aware of the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Comments RSS