Russia’s Education System – Patriotism Morphs Into Military Indoctrination (2025)

During his December 2023 end-of-year “Direct Line” broadcast, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared, quoting Otto von Bismarck, that “Wars are not won by generals, but by schoolteachers and parish priests” – a principle that is being increasingly applied to his country’s education system.

Monday’s UK Defence Intelligence update, referencing an investigation by the independent Russian media outlet Verstka, concluded that the military indoctrination of Russia’s schoolchildren had noticeably accelerated since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

It says that along with the removal of any mention of Ukraine, school texts are increasingly being filled with positive references to the so-called “special military operation,” anti-Western literature and ideas, Soviet literature, and patriotic/pro-Russian military texts – reinforced by the introduction of veterans of Putin’s war as [unqualified] tutors.

This conclusion had been reached earlier in the year by two separate academic studies. One was published online by Jonna Alavaa, a researcher from Finland’s Helsinki University in January. She examined how social media posts by teachers, pupils, and parents had been affected by increasing “state-driven patriotism” and various militaristic initiatives since the start of the war against Ukraine.

A March 2025 study by the UK think-tank Chatham House’s International Affairs journal examined Russia’s ongoing efforts to militarize its youth following the 2022 invasion. It looked in detail at the activities of two state-sponsored patriotic youth groups – the Youth Army and the Victory Volunteers of Ukraine. It concluded that their activities were intended to prepare “future generations of Russians to accept the idea of war,” with the prospect of reinforcing the need for Russian society to support the current and future wars deemed necessary by the Kremlin into the foreseeable future.

In February, Verstka drew attention to the introduction of a new subject into the school curriculum called “The Fundamentals of Security and Defense of the Motherland (FSD),” which called on cash-strapped schools to purchase expensive equipment many could ill-afford. To avoid prosecution for failing to implement FSD, schools have been reducing the purchase of essential textbooks and seeking donations from parents.

The UK’s intelligence analysis encapsulated these conclusions in its own assessment that: “The Russian state highly likely seeks to use the education system to develop a more militarized, nationalistic society.”

It said that the Kremlin’s 2024 Youth Strategy placed importance on “increasing the prestige of military service and providing support to young military personnel and their families.”

It added that “The intent is almost certainly to facilitate both deeper support for Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine, and greater willingness amongst the young to join a military suffering significant casualties.”

It said that Russia was attempting to “indoctrinate Russia’s young into a rejection of the legally mandated, and internationally recognized basis for Ukraine’s nationhood and sovereignty.”