Starting September 1, Russian schools and schools in occupied Ukrainian territories will switch to new unified history textbooks authored by Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to Vladimir Putin. Ninth-graders will study social studies using a textbook edited by Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Security Council, which quotes Putin, including his statement that "Russia's borders end nowhere."
Medvedev's textbook mentions the 'Movement of the First' (established in 2022) as early as page 13, and one chapter discusses the "mission of the leader in establishing a new world order." The country's problems are listed as the demographic situation, Western sanctions, and "direct military-political aggression" by Ukraine. This year, schools will also introduce a new mandatory subject — "Foundations of Russia's Spiritual and Moral Culture," officially abbreviated as "DNA of Russia." It will first be taught in fifth grade.
Military training hours within the OBZR course (formerly OBZh) will increase to 50%, up from about 20%. Students will be taught to disassemble assault rifles, assemble drones, and shoot at firing ranges. However, as Verstka reported, many schools receive no additional funding for military training, and prosecutors are suing to require classrooms to be equipped with military paraphernalia.
In total, authorities have announced seven significant propaganda initiatives in schools for this academic year — more than three times as many as last year and nearly twice as many as in the first years of the war. The Ministry of Education also recommended inviting "SVO veterans" to school assemblies and holding flag-raising ceremonies.
Writer Dmitry Bykov said on TV Rain that Russia's "mediocre, negligent, and crude" propaganda "breeds dissidents rather than loyalists." According to him, today's teaching materials give teachers the opportunity for "double morality and Aesopian language," while trusting relationships with classes, field trips, and clubs allow them to find loopholes for the truth.