Children under adult supervision, handle weapons that have been disengage for safety, as they play in the Family Historical Tank park in Saint Petersburg, on July 15, 2023.
Russia is training a new generation of soldiers amid the war against Ukraine. Preschoolers participate in marching practice, complete with uniforms. The older kids are learning to build trenches, hurl grenades, and fire actual weapons.
Since the invasion of Ukraine, the leadership in Moscow has increased the militarization of Russian public schools. The national curriculum is being altered to place more emphasis on the defense of the homeland, and students are being encouraged to create "voluntary companies" of teens.
Reforming the Curriculum
This expenditure is massive, as per CNN. About 10,000 "military-patriotic" organizations exist in Russian schools and colleges, and a quarter of a million students and faculty members are involved in their activities, according to Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov.
These clubs are one component of a larger initiative involving a comprehensive academic program revision. Classes on military patriotism are mandated, and new editions of textbooks highlight Russia's military achievements.
In August, President Vladimir Putin passed a law creating a new required subject in schools called "Fundamentals of Security and Defense of the Motherland."
The Education Ministry then advertised drone seminars alongside other courses that included visits to military bases, military sports games, and discussions with active duty and former military members. High school students would also be allowed to learn how to fire real weapons.
According to a document from the Education Ministry obtained by the Russian independent media outlet Important Stories, the program is being piloted this year and will be implemented in 2024. Its stated goal is to teach students to appreciate the aesthetics of military uniforms, military rituals, and combat traditions.
Reportedly, Putin has fraudulently characterized the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a "special mission" to defend Russian speakers from extermination at the hands of "neo-Nazis."
The president has spearheaded the initiative to promote patriotism in Russian educational institutions.
See Also: Ukraine Launches Two Missile Attacks on Sevastopol In A Row
Basic Military Training
According to a CNN investigation of Russian local and social media, children as young as seven or eight are undergoing basic military training.
In Belgorod in July, kids were given codenames (one of them was "Sledgehammer") and trained with automatic weapons, machine gun assembly, and an obstacle course. Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov proposed the idea of routine physical activities with elementary and preschool students.
In May, scores of youngsters no older than eight years old parade past officials on a platform in Krasnodar while dressed in military and naval costumes and carrying replica automatic guns.
There is also a celebration of the symbolic value of the Kremlin's "Special Military Operation" in Ukraine. Children as young as one year old at Astrakhan's nurseries were outfitted in uniforms and given toy cars with the letter Z as a propaganda sign of support for the conflict in Ukraine.
See Also: GOP Lawmakers Renew Opposition to More US Aid to Ukraine; Russian Command Post in Crimea Hit
