Third graders visited by ‘guest of honour’ Wagner Group fighter in Russia’s Krasnodar region

A fighter from the private military company Wagner has attended an Important Conversations lesson for third graders in a Krasnodar region school, the news is shared on the school’s website; in it, he is called a “guest of honour”. Outlet DOXA was the first to report this.

During the lesson, the fighter showed the schoolchildren his personal things and equipment that he had used during combat in Ukraine and also told them about the “important role” that PMC Wagner had played in Donbas, the message on the school’s website says. Furthermore, he showed the schoolchildren his medals For Courage and For Capture of Popasna and a golden cross of the first class.

“The kids were interested in everything: what weapons the fighters use during the special military operation, how and where they rest when they don’t partake in combat, whether women serve in their division, who and how provides first aid to the injured, how military medics find out about the injured, whether the fighters use phones,” the message continues.

During the lesson, the children also wrote letters to soldiers to “support our fighters”.

Important Conversations is a class that is, according to the training manual, taught to “protect the Russian society from destructive information and psychological influences” and “strengthen the traditional Russian spiritual and moral values”.

In particular, there are plans to explain to third and fourth graders that love of one’s country is demonstrated via “courage and determination to protect one’s Homeland during dangerous times”, while fifth, sixth, and seventh graders will be lectured on the “special military operation” and its goals, for example “defending the population of Donbas from the Kyiv regime” and “disarming Ukraine”.

At the end of September, the Teacher’s Alliance reported that Russia’s Education Ministry had updated the training manuals and all materials for the Important Conversations class and deleted all mentions of the war in Ukraine from them. However, the Russian Education Minister Sergey Kravtsov declared later on that there would still be lessons dedicated to the topic of war conducted during the entire school year in Russian schools.