Russia’s Propaganda Schools

Last March, Irina began noticing strange changes in the Moscow school where she was a ninth-grader. A computer class was replaced with a mandatory 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.

Irina’s friends had at first been scared or confused by the war in Ukraine, which began in February 2022. But that began to change.

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

Irina was a ninth grader at her school in Moscow. Last March, she began noticing strange changes at the school. A computer class was replaced with the viewing of a state television report on Ukrainians who surrendered to Russian troops. There was also a lecture explaining that only information from official Russian sources was to be trusted.

Irina’s friends had at first been scared or confused by the war in Ukraine. The war began in February 2022. But that began to change.

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

Irina challenged her friends about Russian war crimes in Bucha. (Irina’s last name is being withheld to protect her privacy). In Bucha, many Ukrainian civilians were found dead after Russian troops withdrew. Her friends said: “It’s all propaganda.”

The changes in Irina’s school are part of a broad plan to change how students in Russia’s 40,000 public schools are taught. President Vladimir Putin launched this plan. Putin has long been trying to consolidate control over education. But the invasion of Ukraine last year has pushed the government to accelerate these plans. There are new nationwide education initiatives. They are part of the Russian government’s push to teach children Putin’s militarized and anti-Western version of patriotism. It’s all part of Putin’s campaign to use the war to rally Russian society and stop any potential dissent.

Last July, Putin signed a new law. The legislation required Russian schools to teach the Kremlin’s worldview and to promote the government. Students will now be encouraged to join a patriotic youth movement. It’s similar to the one that existed under the Soviet Union.

Starting in first grade, Russian students must now sit through weekly classes featuring war movies and virtual tours of Crimea. That’s the peninsula in southern Ukraine that Russia seized in 2014 and illegally annexed. Students are getting a steady dose of lectures on topics like “the geopolitical situation,” “traditional values,” and Russia’s “rebirth” under Putin.

Experts say that the basic goal of the changes is a wholesale reprogramming of Russian society. The idea is to end 30 years of openness to the West.

“We need to know how to infect them with our ideology,” senior Kremlin bureaucrat Sergei Novikov recently told thousands of Russian schoolteachers in an online workshop. “Our ideological work is aimed at changing consciousness.”

The Kremlin has already jailed or forced into exile all activists speaking out against the war in Ukraine. It has criminalized what remains of Russia’s independent journalism. It has cracked down on academics, bloggers, and even a hockey player with suspect loyalties.

Irina’s family has joined the exodus. Her parents didn’t want to raise their children in the increasingly militarized environment that Russia has become. They left for Poland last spring.

Kremlin’s grand plans will work quickly. But it’s clear that the propaganda is already changing the minds of some young people.

Irina Milyutina is a 30-year-old English teacher in the city of Pskov, near the Estonian border. She says that the children at her school at first argued about whether Russia was right or wrong to invade Ukraine. Sometimes they even came to blows.

But in the weeks after the invasion, the government directed her school to hold a series of pro-war propaganda classes. And soon the voices of dissent disappeared. The children wrote Z’s and V’s on chalkboards, desks, and floors. Those are symbols of support for the war. At recess, fifth- and sixth-graders pretended to be Russian soldiers. Milyutina says, “and those whom they don’t like very much they call Ukrainians.”

She adds, “The propaganda did its job here.”

Schools across the country received similar orders, according to activists and Russian news reports. Daniil Ken, the head of an independent teachers’ union, says teachers have passed along many examples to him.

In one class, students are taught about “hybrid conflicts being carried out against Russia.” A BBC report about a Russian attack in Ukraine and a statement by President Volodymyr Zelensky were presented as examples of “fakes” meant to create discord in Russian society. An accompanying quiz teaches students to distrust any opposition activists in their own communities.

The decree says that Russian history classes will be required to include several new topics. These include “the rebirth of Russia as a great power in the 21st century,” “reunification with Crimea,” and “the special military operation in Ukraine.” And Putin’s two decades in power are to be honored in the standard curriculum as a historical turning point (see “Is Putin in Trouble?” below).

Schools were directed this year to add an hour of class every Monday promoting the Kremlin’s version of patriotism. To mark the March anniversary of the annexation of Crimea, first- through seventh-graders take part in “virtual excursions” through the Black Sea peninsula, according to a schedule of the weekly classes posted by the education ministry. A session scheduled for October for fifth-graders and up was apparently meant to discourage emigration; its title was “Happiness is being happy at home.”

The new push represents an intensification of Putin’s yearslong effort to militarize Russian society, building on officials’ ad hoc efforts after the invasion to convince young people that the war was justified.

At a workshop for teachers hosted by the Education Ministry last June, the message to be communicated to students was clear: “Patriotism should be the dominant value of our people,” according to one Kremlin official.

Novikov, the head of the Kremlin’s “public projects” directorate, says that with the invasion of Ukraine, teachers faced “a rather urgent task”: to “carry out explanatory work” and answer students’ “difficult questions.”

“While everything is more or less controllable with the younger ones, the older students receive information through a wide variety of channels,” he says, acknowledging the government’s fears about the internet swaying young people’s views. A poll conducted last June by the independent Levada Center found that 36 percent of Russians ages 18 to 24 opposed the war in Ukraine, compared with 20 percent of all adults.

The new push represents an intensification of Putin’s long effort to militarize Russian society. It builds on officials’ efforts after the invasion to convince young people that the war was justified.

The Education Ministry hosted a workshop for teachers last June. The message to be communicated to students was clear: “Patriotism should be the dominant value of our people,” according to one Kremlin official.

Novikov, the head of the Kremlin’s “public projects” directorate, says that with the invasion of Ukraine, teachers faced “a rather urgent task”: to “carry out explanatory work” and answer students’ “difficult questions.”

“While everything is more or less controllable with the younger ones, the older students receive information through a wide variety of channels,” he says. He acknowledged the government’s fears about the internet changing young people’s views. A poll conducted last June by the independent Levada Center found that 36 percent of Russians ages 18 to 24 opposed the war in Ukraine. That’s compared with 20 percent of all adults.

Even with all the new directives, propaganda aimed at children remains far more limited than during the Soviet era. That was a time when young people sought out ideas smuggled in from the West. Sergei Chernyshov runs a private high school in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk. He believes the Kremlin’s current attempts to sell its militarism to children will also eventually run up against the young mind’s common sense.

“A 10-year-old child is much more of a humanist than the typical Russian citizen,” he says. “It’s simply impossible to explain to a child in plain language why, right now, some people are killing others.”

As government employees, most teachers have little choice but to comply with the directives. But there are signs of grassroots resistance. Ken says his union has given legal guidance to dozens of teachers who refused to teach propaganda classes, noting that political agitation in schools is technically illegal under Russian law. In some cases, he says, principals have simply canceled the classes, knowing they were unpopular.

Chernyshov, the school director in Novosibirsk, has resisted the propaganda as much as possible.

“You just need to find the moral strength not to facilitate evil,” he says. “If you can’t protest against it, at least don’t help it.”

As government employees, most teachers have little choice but to comply with the directives. But there are signs of grassroots resistance. Ken says his union has given legal guidance to dozens of teachers who refused to teach propaganda classes. He also noted that political agitation in schools is technically illegal under Russian law. In some cases, he says, principals have simply canceled the classes, knowing they were unpopular.

Chernyshov, the school director in Novosibirsk, has resisted the propaganda as much as possible.

“You just need to find the moral strength not to facilitate evil,” he says. “If you can’t protest against it, at least don’t help it.”

Anton Troianovski covers Russia for The New York Times.

Anton Troianovski covers Russia for The New York Times.