Over the summer of 2024, some 250 Russian kids traveled to North Korea for a 10-day-long children station. The event, which was organized as a form of social politics, was the result of a brand-new children change that saw Russian children compete for free travel overseas in 2022.
Children must write an essay on one of three subjects in order to be admitted to the Nobel Prize: the part of Russia in a unipolar world, children’s interest in North Korean lifestyle, or the account they want to inform children about Russia.
The program’s debut coincides with Moscow and Pyongyang’s closer relationships. In the aftermath of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has needed to improve its connection with anti-Western friends, not least to increase its weapons supply business.
However, under President Vladimir Putin’s leadership, there have been numerous state-sponsored initiatives to promote patriotism among the country’s children. Through education activities and the creation of new youth organizations, the Russian state is increasingly trying to instill principles of loyalty and fidelity in children.
Studies suggest that Russia plans to spend more than US$ 500 million in 2024 only on so-called “patriot jobs”. The development of Russian nationalist youth organizations and the militarization of the country’s schools, both of which have been given greater priority since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, are two areas that are significant.
The fall of Russian children companies
A Russian children firm called the Movement of the First assisted the North Korea social change programme. The firm was launched at Putin’s insistence in 2022, weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It is modeled after the Young Pioneers, a youth organization dedicated to Communist ideology during the Soviet era.
Putin has boasted that the firm constitutes a “huge troops” and routinely praises its activities, which include everything from more standard political activities, like tree planting, to directly intellectual goals. Children, for example, write letters to service members deployed in the invasion of Ukraine.
Only the most recent organization of its kind is The Movement of the First. The Russian state established a second youth organization in 2015 called the Volunteers of Victory, which is similar to Ukraine and was founded shortly after the 2014 annexation of Crimea.
The organization’s mission is to preserve Russia’s version of history and past victories and currently boasts 650, 000 members in 89 regional branches. Teenagers who make up the Volunteers of Victory’s membership range from meeting war veterans and recording and documenting their experiences to cleaning military cemeteries and war memorials.
The goal is to spread the word about the bravery of the Soviet and Russian armies and to encourage Russia’s position as a military superpower. Both of these groups have roots in Russia’s Ukraine policy, but they only make up one particular branch of a much larger ideological tree.
Among Russia’s biggest youth organization is the The Youth Army, which claims more than 1.6 million members. Under Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s leadership, it was established in 2016 with the intention of equipping young people for upcoming positions in the uniformed military.
By promoting social responsibility and self-actualization in the military, the organization tries to persuade young people to join. Members are given more hands-on training, such as how to handle weapons, in comparison to ideological subjects like nationalism.
The politicization of Russian education
Russia has increasingly sought to politicize all spheres of education, from kindergartens and elementary schools to colleges and universities, in addition to supporting pro-Kremlin ideology through youth organizations.
In addition to requiring high school textbooks that teach Kremlin-created and approved versions of history and culture, all schools in Russia and in Russia-occupied territories were updated in 2023.
The books paint a clear picture of the glories of Russian nationalism against a hostile world, replete with a glorification of the Soviet system, a rehabilitation of the crimes of Stalinism, and omissions of past state-sanctioned genocides, purges, pogroms and forced labor camps.
Russian schools nationwide started hosting” Conversations That Matter” from September 2022, ideologically heavy lessons designed to instill patriotism.
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.
Teachers in all Russian schools develop age-appropriate methods to connect children and young people with the Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine under the pressure of the state.
The youngest children are given straightforward tasks like drawing and coloring pictures of the letter” Z” ribbon or standing in formations to create its shape. The letter” Z” has evolved into a badge for those who support the conflict. Younger children send care packages to Ukrainian soldiers, especially those from their hometowns or regions, in letters.
And young people are now invited to join the classrooms with desks with images and biographical details of distinguished soldiers, which serve as a vivid reminder of the proud history of Russian military heroism. Schools have “hero desks” installed in memory of graduates who died fighting in Ukraine.
The resurgence of” Ruscism”
Education and youth organizations in Putin’s Russia hope to foster a deep and lasting sense of patriotism and respect for the military while preventing youth from rejecting competing worldviews in the long run.
Putin is not the only one who uses youth education and organizations to reinforce flagrantly nationalist values. History is full of rulers, particularly autocratic rulers, doing likewise.
Mussolini’s Italy prioritized youth organizations like the Opera Nazionale Balilla, and Figli della Lupa, or Children of the She-Wolf. These inspired similar efforts in Hitler’s Germany, like the Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalten and Hitlerjugend, or Hitler Youth.
Under Putin, modern-day Russia pursues its own nationalist and patriotic objectives in ways that are in tune with contemporary geopolitical realities and the circumstances of Russian history and society. Indeed, some scholars have defined Putin’s authoritarian approach as a uniquely Russian type of fascism, or” Ruscism“.
Like the term suggests, Putin’s approach looks to the authoritarianism of the past, including the Soviet era, and offers something specific to the Russia of today. According to a Kremlin official in 2023, Putin’s Russia is engaged in a holistic war on three fronts: an economic one against the West, one against the West, and one against the West.
On the latter front, it is the goal of Putin’s future to ensure that a younger generation of Russians inherits his brand of authoritarianism.
Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager is associate professor of critical cultural &, international Studies, Colorado State University
This article was republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.