Russian President Vladimir Putin has increasingly turned to education and membership groups to promote patriotism and loyalty among the country’s youth.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/3414111

Reports suggest that Russia plans to spend more than US$500 million in 2024 alone on so-called “patriot projects.” Much of this effort focuses on two areas: the creation of Russian nationalist youth groups, and the politicization of the nation’s schools – both of which have been increasingly prioritized since the war in Ukraine began.

[…]

[The most recent organization to faciliate the Russia’s politiccization of the youth] is called the Movement of the First. The organization was launched at Putin’s behest in 2022, months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It is modeled on the Young Pioneers – a youth organization of Stalinist ideology during the Soviet years.

Putin has boasted that the organization constitutes a “huge army” and routinely praises its activities, which include everything from more traditional civic activities, like tree planting, to explicitly ideological goals. Children, for example, write letters to service members deployed in the invasion of Ukraine.

[…] Another youth group, the Volunteers of Victory, was established by the Russian state in 2015 and has a similar tie-in to Ukraine, as it was launched shortly after the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

[…] Among Russia’s biggest youth organization is the The Youth Army, which claims more than 1.6 million members. It was established in 2016 under Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, with the goal of training children for future careers in the uniformed military.

The organization tries to entice young people to join by touting self-actualization and social belonging in the military. Members are instructed in ideological topics like nationalism and more hands-on training like how to handle weapons.

[…]

In 2023, officials in Russia’s far-eastern regions came up with another general curriculum patriotic project, “The ABC of the Important Matters”. The alphabet, which includes words like “army,” “faith,” “honor,” “fatherland,” “homeland” and “traditions,” is already being taught in many kindergartens and elementary schools.

[…]

  • Baggins@beehaw.orgEnglish
    10·
    3 months ago

    This has been going on in some form or another for quite some time. There is an excellent BBC documentary by David Dimblebly from a few years ago that is worth watching. He travelled across Russia and this was going on all over. Ex military in schools teaching weapons drill and love for the motherland. Nor sure when it changed from motherland to fatherland. Maybe when Putin decided to come out of the nazi closet.

    • mayooooo@beehaw.org
      7·
      3 months ago

      This is a global right wing project, it’s been going on pretty much everywhere to some extent and under some guise

      • GiveMemes@jlai.lu
        3·
        3 months ago

        I mean shit we’ve been having this under a different name (Boy Scouts) brought to us by the British and the US for the past 100+ years.

        Scouting today is obviously a lot different than back then (literally a training program for the british scouts section of the armed forces), but still an astounding number of scouts from the US and UK go into military service as a result.

  • Che Banana@beehaw.org
    6·
    3 months ago

    500,000,000 USD is 47,426,915,583.93 Rubles. Also, the boomer generation is already indoctrinated from the old Soviet era, which is why they’re so entrenched in their stoicism.

      • Che Banana@beehaw.org
        1·
        3 months ago

        My point is the ‘regular’ people who are completely indifferent to the regime because ‘well, that’s just the way it is’.

        • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
          1·
          3 months ago

          You don’t get a war like this going with out critical mass of these “regular” people larping it…

          Think Iraq and Afghanistan… Yeah the people who supported nowhere to be found today but back in mid 2000s you would get hounded by these “regular” people for not being a war crime apologist…

          The same regular people in Israel… BTW

          • Che Banana@beehaw.org
            3·
            3 months ago

            What… exactly are you trying to lecture me on?

            I mean, you’re not wrong, but neither am I?

            I’m not so sure we’re on opposite sides here because you’re argument is that most people are actively for the war and I’m saying that if they’re not actively for the war (apathetic, stoic) then they are supporting it as well?

            Toss in an analogy here and there about the last 20+year war and Israel, and we might as well go for UAE in Yemen and Syria’s proxy war and we got a stew going!

            Plenty of people out there ready to listen to you up there on your soap box that actually are worth the time and effort.