Propaganda in Russian Schools // What Russia “Teaches” Kids

Russian propaganda is something I always try to keep track of, and in Russia it's pretty much omnipresent at this point, with the Russian news and TV being full of it. Recently, however, Z propaganda reached a new level - Russia now officially conducts propaganda "patriotic lessons" in schools for children of all ages. These "patriotic classes" are meant to drive up patriotism, teach kids about "traditional family values" and give them the "correct" version of current events between Russia and Ukraine. Kids are also now forced to sing along to the Russian anthem and raise the flag of Russia in a ceremony at the start of every week. How did we get to this point? What does Russia teach in the new propaganda classes? Let's talk about it. Smash like and sub for more thx xoxo
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Outro music ► MajorLeagueWobs/Holder - D I S T A N T

[ffwast]

The bit that gets me is the part about the importance of a father in a family while their fathers are being conscripted. The government is simultaneously telling them how important it is to have a father and taking away their father.

[imhellag]

Reading Cyrillic (or any other language) and instantly translating to speaking english in your head feels like a super power

[epin_gamer]

thanks for talking about this! I'm a Russian kid and I sometimes feel like I have no one to tell why I'm so disgusted and concerned about this, and I'm really glad that a channel as big as yours is finally bringing attention to it!

[russetmantle]

"It's not scary to die for the Motherland." Stunning. In the UK, many secondary school (high school) students study what we call the War Poets in English literature classes. They were basically poets writing during World War 1 criticizing the glorification of war while fighting as soldiers and seeing the reality. One of the most famous of the poems was by the poet Wilfred Owen and it's called "Dulce et Decorum Est". It's a poem that really punches you in the face about the brutal reality of war and the final stanza, which describes a soldier who has been gassed, goes:

"If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, —
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori."

That last bit in Latin about the old lie is from the Roman poet Horace: “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.”

This is the polar opposite of what you're describing here. Whatever the imperial crimes the UK committed in the past - and there were many - at least these war poets are now taught as standard in our schools, so most British people now have a scepticism towards anyone suggesting war is a glorious thing. And that's how it should be. Children should be being taught about how terrible war is, not how wonderful it is to die for the sake of old men staying in power.

[TofranBohk]

One scary thing is if the parents of the young kids disagree with the teachings of the school, they are going to tell their kids what they believe. Then the kids are going to go back into school and maybe speak out against the school teachings.

"Where did you hear that?"

"My parents."

"Ohhh, well, let's just call in the authorities to have a nice talk with your parents."

[brittislove]

You can see Roman is finally feeling free to say what he thinks. I still think about how upset he was at something a few months ago and he was afraid to say what he wanted. It's almost like abuse trauma where even though he is free from the grip of Russia, he still has been 'trained' to behave himself.

We love you Roman, please take care of yourself!

[phothl]

As a person who was rational enough to understand to leave Russia (I actually just posted a video about it) i can tell u that no matter how shitty the propaganda is, it still works. It took me years to get rid of all the garbage they put in my head in school. It’s both scary & disgusting, honestly

[Chebaa]

I am a schoolboy from Russia, we have a huge load on subjects now, we have to sit for 7-8 lessons every day and do a huge amount of homework, because of this new lesson about propaganda, high school students (like me), junior high school students have to sit another extra lesson. Russian schools are killing the personality of children and creating robots that can only do clerical work 24 hours a day, it was like this before, it will always be like this

[mdwalther_writer]

Having grown up and gone to school in one of the Soviet satellite states during the 80s I can sort of relate. The massive load of dissonance between what the kids are being force fed and what they perceive at home is cruel. Especially ages 11 / 12 kids are already pretty smart and starting to become aware and capable of having genuine thoughts or ideas of their own. They constantly have to walk eggshells within their own heads balancing a narrative where your homeland can do no bad nor evil and an environment where this also isn't true.

[robiho]

Born in 85, central Europe. I remember when I went to 1st grade of primary school, we still had spelling books essentially celebrating the soviet soldier. I was the last generation to see them after the collapse of soviet union as they changed them mid-year. Its incredible how history just repeats itself again...

[anthonyschwartz]

Man, it is a real shame Russia decided to go this route. We were all so hopeful, sad times.

[Lugmillord]

"It's important to embrace our Russian values like having a dead father."

[nickcipher]

As a Russian we have the situation...
I remember how our parents were telling us listen carefully what school tells you
Now, we tell our kids don't listen to what school tells you

[nutriplanet]

I'm from Estonia (43 yo now). Until I was 12, our country was part of USSR. I was an "October child" (which preceded to pioneer) since the first grade -- I remember how proud I was when I received my pentagon badge. And I clearly remember how we were taught to sing a song that praised Lenin (I still recall the melody and the first verse). And... the scariest of all -- until a certain age I truly believed everything that the teachers were forced to tell us. The parents were smart enough not to confront us at home because they knew what the consequences might be. So, it was basically a double world -- people thought one thing and spoke something completely opposite. But you never knew who to trust. Luckily, 1991 happened before I could become a pioneer 😊 However, it's very scary what they are doing to those young children in Russian schools today.

[DudokX]

My dad grew up in socialist Czechoslovakia so when I told him that Russia is bringing back Pioneers he replied with "ALWAYS READY!" and laughing.

[eln]

"It's not scary to die for the motherland."
"Oh, so I should not be worried about leaving my children to grow up without a father? That's mighty good to know."

[z.a.]

I'm a student in a pedagogy university in Russia and have just finished my first kind of internship (??idk, we call it "practice") in school as a assistant of a class teacher and had to do one of these lessons. Usually this time of the year these class lessons are dedicated to the international tolerance day, but this year, of course, it was all about Russia and patriotism. But we still managed to get rid of everything war related in our lesson and only left things about diversity in our country. The thing is that many teachers do the same. Our teacher told us that in this school they're trying to not speak about war and this toxic patriotism in these lessons. So, not all the teachers in Russia are that bad and that stupid.

[tdb]

In Australia we would sing the national anthem each week at the school assembly (where the school would tell you what's happening, a class would put on a performance, kids get awards etc.) but there were no classes on "dying for the motherland". You would definitely never see marching or anything military related. We're supposedly the third most patriotic country, after the USA at 1 and Thailand at 2, but people just like living here and our culture, we're not about to invade New Zealand.

[nmiller]

In Canada actually we sang the anthem every day in the morning. The flag was not involved. My kids still do it now. Albeit our anthem is pretty low key. On the other hand, the history lessons that followed during the school day were free to be duly reflective and self-aware regarding things like colonization etc. in Canada's past.

[LashaRides]

From vlogging to top-notch journalism. Well done!