They dig trenches and throw “real bombs”… Russia trains its children for war
Russian schools from the Pacific to the Black Sea have become increasingly military in nature, with children learning to dig trenches, throw grenades, and fire real ammunition, according to a CNN report.
According to the report, children in nursery schools are also trained in military gait while wearing uniforms similar to army uniforms.
Last May, dozens of children no more than seven or eight years old walked in front of a number of officials in the city of Krasnodar, southwest of the country, wearing army and navy uniforms, and some of them were carrying imitation automatic weapons.
In a parade held in the city of Vologda, a little girl gave the military salute to an official, and said to him: “Comrade, commander of the parade!” The offer is ready. “I am Commander Ulyana Shumilova.”
In the city of Astrakhan, kindergarten children were given toy cars bearing the letter “Z,” a propaganda symbol used to show support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Similar scenes occurred from Sakhalin in far eastern Russia to Yeysk on the Sea of Azov.
Last July, a group of school children in the Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine participated in training that included how to use automatic weapons, assemble a machine gun, and cross a path full of obstacles.
The report indicated that the militarization of public schools in Russia has intensified since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and was not driven by a spontaneous wave of patriotic feelings by the owners of these schools, but rather by planning by the Russian government, which decided to “prepare its children to fight possible future wars.”
In various schools in the country, service in the armed forces and volunteering are being glorified, and the curriculum is constantly being reviewed to focus more on strengthening the concept of defending the homeland.
Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov recently said that there are now about 10,000 clubs called the “National Military Club” in Russian schools and colleges, with a quarter of a million people participating in their work, and which hold mandatory lessons for students on national military values.
Last August, President Vladimir Putin signed a law introducing a new compulsory course in schools called “Fundamentals of Security and Defense of the Motherland.”
The Ministry of Education subsequently promoted a related initiative that included trips to military units, meetings with military personnel and veterans, playing “military sports,” and receiving lessons on how to operate drones.
The ministry said: “High school students will also be taught how to use live ammunition under the guidance of experienced officers or trainers.”
The Ministry of Education made significant changes in textbooks and curricula. For example, the cover of the government textbook that students study in the basic education stage, “The History of Russia,” was changed to now contain a picture of the Crimean Bridge, and new chapters were added to it under the titles “Falsifying History” and “Reviving Nazism.” “Ukrainian neo-Nazism,” and “Russia is a country of heroes.”
A new history book issued for Russian school students titled “Special Military Operation” (AFP)
According to a CNN report, Russian President Vladimir Putin personally led a “campaign to promote Russian military values in schools.” At an event in the Kremlin this month, Putin told a group of children about a letter his grandfather sent to his father, who was fighting the Nazis during World War II, in which he told him to “beat the scum!”
Putin continued: “People with the same position as my grandfather adopted simply cannot be defeated. “We were invincible, just as we are now.”
The ruling United Russia Party launched a program in Vladivostok in which school children were paid to participate in sewing pants and hats for soldiers.
In the city of Vladimir, there are classes teaching children how to sew army masks.
Students at a technical school in the city of Voronezh were tasked with making portable stoves and a number of lamps used in trenches to give to the Russian army.
In addition, teenage girls with disabilities in the city of Ussuriysk were recruited to sew headbands and bandages for soldiers in the Northern Military District. In Buryatia in the Russian Far East, orphans sewed “good luck” charms for soldiers fighting in Ukraine.
Military personnel also visit schools. Children in Buryatia spoke of a visit by a wounded soldier who claimed to have fought Polish mercenaries in Ukraine, and said that the Ukrainians themselves “do not want to fight and are forced to do so.”
The state news agency RIA Novosti reported that according to an opinion poll, 79 percent of parents support showing videos about the war to their children.
Social media comments indicate that many Russians feel that their country is besieged and ostracized by hostile forces, and that its only option is to defend itself.
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2023-09-24 15:09:11
