Inside Putin's Attempts To Indoctrinate Russia's Youth

The Kremlin has rolled out new school textbooks claiming Ukraine is an 'ultranationalist state'

- Alexander Butler

Russian textbooks praising Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine are an attempt to encourage “self-sacrifice” among schoolchildren, experts have warned.

In September, Russia rolled out new history textbooks to schools that claim Ukraine is an “ultranationalist state” being used as a “battering ram” by the United States to “destroy Russia”. One chapter claims that Ukrainian membership of Nato could have led to a catastrophic war and “possibly the end of civilisation”, an outcome it says Russia had to prevent.

Jaroslava Barbieri, an academic and the author of dozens of articles on Russian affairs, says the textbooks and lessons instructing children on how to use drones (UAVs) are all part of a wider plan. “Patriotic education is nothing new,” Barbieri, a doctoral researcher at the University of Birmingham, tells The Independent. “But it has acquired new momentum under Putin. It is an attempt to indoctrinate the next generation, by equating patriotism to self-sacrifice.”