Students returning to Russian schools this week will discover a change to their civics courses that puts military training at the heart of the lessons, as Bloomberg reports (paywalled).

The mandatory classes for teenagers include learning about the main types of armaments including machine guns, anti-tank weapons and hand grenades, as well as emergency field medicine and general military discipline. While some of the skills were previously taught in limited high school modules, the new version escalates this training for children as young as 13.

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Although some of these skills were previously taught as part of limited modules in upper grades, the new version of the program expands this training to children aged 13 and older.

“The updated curriculum, approved by the Ministry of Education, requires half of the weekly classes within the course “Fundamentals of the Security and Defense of the Homeland” to be devoted to basic military training,” Bloomberg says.

“This is part of the gradual militarization of Russian schools, aimed at shaping a new generation of conscripts, while the Kremlin continues its war in Ukraine, which has already been ongoing for the fifth year.”

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In addition to training in weapons handling and combat tactics, basic military training includes lessons on Russia’s national security doctrine and the structure of the armed forces. Students will also study mines and explosive hazards, first aid for combat injuries, chemical and radiation exposure and acute stress, as well as survival skills and procedures for operating in conflict zones.

The education reform effectively contributes to creating a flow of potential conscripts from schools into the army. This is reinforced by the involvement of combat veterans from the war in Ukraine in schools and kindergartens, where they speak with children, urging them to support Putin’s decision to launch the full-scale invasion in 2022.

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“The romanticization of war and violence, combined with a constant fear of external enemies, instills in young people the idea that human life holds no value and that dying for the regime and the president is normal,” says Pavel Talankin, an exiled Russian teacher who co-directed the Oscar-winning documentary Mr. Nobody Against Putin that focused on rising war propaganda in his school, according to Bloomberg.“If necessary, one must die for the motherland, taking up the flag and marching into the line of fire without asking questions.”

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Russia [also] continues to scale up practices of militarizing children in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, turning teenagers into a mobilization resource for future wars.

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