Poisoning young minds: Russia's insidious indoctrination of Ukrainian youth under occupation through twisted propaganda

"Ukrainian neo-Nazism is the embittered national, linguistic, and cultural violence of an aggressive minority against the majority." How does this baloney sound? This is a quote from a textbook that the Russian occupation authorities have been pushing on schoolchildren in Donetsk since the beginning of the all-out war.

For more than 10 years now, they have been trying to brainwash local Ukrainians in the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. Information isolation, intimidation, "fostering patriotism" (not for Ukraine, of course) – all for the sake of erasing national identity.

hromadske explores how Russians are brainwashing young people in the territories occupied since 2014, and how at least some of them managed to maintain a pro-Ukrainian position.

How it all began

“2015. Second-graders in a Donetsk school were brought into the classroom. They were shown a video on a projector. In it, a war criminal nicknamed Givi made a Ukrainian soldier kneel, cut off his chevron with a knife, and forced him to chew it," an eyewitness told us.

At the beginning of the occupation, there were still Ukrainian-language schools in the city. At that time, students were given textbooks on the Ukrainian language and literature, but were forced to glue together the pages with the symbols of Ukraine. Over time, the number of lessons began to decrease, and by 2020, these subjects disappeared from the curriculum altogether.

During Ukrainian lessons, we sat and listened to how bad things were in Ukraine and what a wonderful future awaited us in Russia.Daniil, a former student from Donetsk Oblast

"I hardly knew Ukrainian. And what was the point of learning it in Donetsk if you couldn't speak it anyway," recalls Daniil, a current student at a Kharkiv university. It is worth noting that these lessons were taught by a teacher who continued to travel to the government-controlled territory to collect his pension.

He recalls how his school forced him to attend all sorts of events like the "Republic Day" and similar rallies. He tried to avoid it – for example, his parents would say that their son was "sick."

"The work in schools had its own peculiarities," explains Ihor Solovey, head of the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security. First, the occupiers removed all references to the Ukrainian school system. For example, they canceled the 12-point system and introduced a 5-point system.

Teachers of the Ukrainian language were systematically sent to courses at the "institute of advanced training," where they were trained to teach Russian. At the same time, Russian educational literature continued to be imported, and libraries were purged of Ukrainian books.

Fabulous citizenship

Later, the subject "Lessons of Civics and Spirituality of Donbas" was introduced in schools. The program states that its goal is to "promote identification as a citizen of the 'Donetsk people's republic'."

Students were required to "characterize Donbas as the industrial heart of Russia" and explain its "greatness" and why "Donbas is part of the Russian world."

One of our interlocutors notes that after the full-scale invasion, this subject was removed – albeit only to teach an even more explicit propaganda lesson.

Ihor Solovey noted that this specific approach was generally not endorsed by Russian handlers in the occupied Donetsk Oblast.

The compulsory program "Lessons of Civics..." was not good enough in the eyes of the Russians – it was simply indoctrinated again and again from the third to the final grade, so this lesson turned into a mere nothing.Ihor Solovey, an expert on information security and strategic communications

That is why Russian is now taught as a "native" tongue in the occupied territories. And every Monday, there are mandatory classes called "Conversations about Important Things" from the all-Russian school curriculum. At the beginning, students play the Russian national anthem. Then they talk about propaganda topics, from "Nazis" to "LGBT and gender."

Russia's "Putin-Jugend"

The occupation administration also pays attention to youth organizations in the occupied territories, such as the offices of the Russian paramilitary groups "Young Guard - Yunarmiya" and the political pioneer "Movement of the First". The local Young Republic also operates in the occupied Donetsk Oblast.

Recently, students were invited to one of these events organized by the Movement of the First in a school in the occupied Donetsk Oblast. There was a young man who said that he was a student from Donetsk who mobilized into the Russian armed forces in 2022. He talked about his service and promoted propaganda ideas: "Ukraine will not win", "in Mariupol, the Ukrainian Armed Forces hid behind civilians", etc. Nor did he forget about the "brotherly nations".

But the occupation media focus on the activities of the "Yunarmiya": students "swear allegiance to Russia" and participate in painting over Ukrainian symbols in Mariupol, as well as "collecting aid" for the Russian occupiers.

Our eyewitness says that schoolchildren may attend such events out of fear, as refusal would arouse suspicion. There are also other motivations: students are promised extra points for participating in the Yunarmiya when applying to universities. Some have accepted this offer, while others still do not take such movements seriously. For example, Hanna, a student at a Kyiv university who lived in Donetsk until 2021, recalls this fact.

They were a joke to me. All engaging in some kind of bullshit.Hanna, a former schoolgirl from Donetsk

Daniil, then a schoolboy, added that he was forced to join the Young Republic. He tried to avoid it, which is why his grades were lowered, without even hiding the reason. And the principal would call him for a private conversation.

"History lessons deserve a mention separately: they were only about Russia. The teacher was comparing Russia and Ukraine in the times we lived through.

If you made an argument in favor of Ukraine, they would yell at you and call you an ‘ukrop’," the boy recalls.

The "correct" colors of the flag

Ihor Solovey, head of the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security, notes that work with youth and children in the occupied territories is perhaps the only item of funding that has never been interrupted by Russia since the beginning of the occupation.

Even military expenditures cannot be compared as the salary of an occupation school teacher has always been twice as high as that of a member of the "DPR People's Militia" - 30,000 rubles ($323) in the classroom versus 15,000 ($161) in the trenches.Ihor Solovey, an expert on information security and strategic communications

Ihor Solovey points out that the work with youth and children has always been characterized by systematic approach as the foundation was laid in 2015. As early as kindergartens, children were taught the "correct" colors of the Russian flag and the "republics" created by Russians in the occupied Donetsk Oblast.

For children aged 4 to 7, a rigorous program of "patriotic education" was already underway. For the very young, it was carried out, in particular, through numerous "kindergarten pageants" that educators had to conscientiously film, send to handlers, and send to parents to share.

With the system's transition to Russian standards, all educators received a new mandatory training and reporting program. The expert says that watching those "webinars" is strictly controlled – without impeccable reporting, the educator is fired.

He adds that after the outbreak of the full-scale war, teachers in the newly occupied territories were also completely transferred to Russian teaching standards. High salaries were set for teachers who agreed to work for the Russians. This acts as a bribe.

In the newly occupied territories, teachers' salaries are on average 20,000 rubles ($215) more than their "colleagues" from Donetsk Oblast. This is significantly more than teachers received before the occupation.Ihor Solovey, an expert on information security and strategic communications

"They started in 2022 with 50,000 rubles ($538), and now they have raised it to 70,000-80,000 ($753-861) per month," Solovey said.A substantial part of the salary is accrued for "extracurricular activities," "class hours," and other "patriotic education" activities.

A separate factor of pressure is the security guards assigned to each school, who are sent from Russia on two-month contracts. Men dressed in black with holsters or batons on their belts are supposed to maintain "Russian order" in schools, the expert says.

The Center conducted research among Russian prisoners of war. Experts met fighters from Dagestan in the Zakhid-1 camp who "guarded" schools during the occupation of part of Kharkiv Oblast.

However, according to the expert, Ukraine can still turn the situation around and keep Ukrainian youth in the occupied territory. To do this, in particular, it is necessary to distinguish between working with specific occupied territories, taking into account when they were seized – before 2022 or after.

"We also need a mechanism for confirming the specialty for young people who have received vocational education in the occupied territories. We need to fight for young people," explains Ihor Solovey.

In conclusion, the expert emphasizes that it is necessary to work with social networks and media, support distance schools, and give children the maximum to ensure that in the future they study in the government-controlled areas.