The Russian Ministry of Education launched a subject in Russian schools with the aim of stopping Russia’s population loss.
A new optional subject appeared in Russian schools this fall: family studies.
About the tutorial it turns outthat the ultimate goal of the subject is to solve the problems of the Russian population. The authors of the curriculum believe that by teaching 5th to 9th graders about decency, traditional family values and patriotism, the birth rate in Russia will rise.
asked the historian From Ian Garnerwhat kind of generation is growing up in Russia.
Garner has studied the mindset of young people brainwashed by the Russian regime and has written a non-fiction book about the war-loving Generation Z.
– The Russian state is now doing everything to ensure that the next generation of Russians sees the world through a really simple lens.
According to Garner, Russia’s recent school reforms are in line with the Russian leadership’s efforts to influence young people’s attitudes related to the fatherland, family and the West.
– Boys are taught to be soldiers and women to be caregivers. In the background, both the ideology of the current administration and the concern about the shrinking of the Russian population have an effect, Garner sums up.
According to the expert, the Kremlin is strongly pushing young people towards traditional gender roles, and it can have surprising consequences if the generation born in the 2010s does not agree to the identity pushed on them.
Brainwashed alpha generation
In recent years, the Russian administration has tried to influence especially those born in the 21st century, i.e. the so-called representatives of the Z and Alpha generations.
According to Garner, we can talk about a kind of brainwashing practiced by the Kremlin.
– The Kremlin is trying to erase the memories and experiences of these generations from the Russia of the 2000s and early 2010s, when you could still operate quite freely in the country, Garner states.
Those born between 1997 and 2010 are considered representatives of Generation Z. Alphas have been born since then.
Both generations have outlived the Russian president Vladimir Putin under the sway of.
Patriotic education began to strengthen in Russian schools in the 2010s.
The administration purged the school curriculum of stories, identities and perspectives that did not fit the ideology of the current Russian administration. History books started writing for new ones.
In 2022, mandatory patriotic lessons were introduced in Russia.
Last year, the chairman of the Committee on Family, Women and Children’s Affairs of the Russian Duma Nina as Ostanina and a member of Russia’s ruling party Tatiana Larionova suggested family studies as a new subject.
Larionova reasoned that Russian schools needed a subject dealing with traditional family values, which would help young people fight “aggressive influences coming from the West”.
Garner considers the new subject to be Russia’s reaction to the West’s discussion about the rights of sexual and gender minorities.
Two possibilities
Garner has spent dozens of hours interviewing young Russians who call themselves patriotic. He sees two scenarios of what kind of young people brainwashed by Putin can grow up to be.
– Much depends on how the war in Ukraine ends, he states.
Some of the representatives of Generation Z have become militarized and have grown to support the nationalist doctrines of the administration.
– In the worst case, ten years from now there will be suspicious adults in Russia who believe that war is the only option to secure Russia’s existence.
Another possibility is that Putin’s doctrines do not sink in as expected.
The historian reminds that the majority of young people in Russia behave as they do in other parts of the world: they rebel against the ideas of adults.
– It is possible that these young people will revolt against the forced identity.
In Garner’s experience, many young Russians are unenthusiastic about compulsory patriotic education in schools, despite the fact that the Russian regime spends huge amounts of money on making attractive propaganda materials.
– Even though professionally produced games and interactive slide shows are made, many young people find patriotic lessons boring.
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