Translated material
Foil bonnets
During the SVO, politicians proposed fifty ideas about educating a new generation. Some have already become laws
Photo: Donat Sorokin / TASS
During the SVO, children became a priority target of propaganda and one of the main objects of application of the creative forces of various kinds of political figures. In Russia there is a real surge in initiatives concerning the future of children and their upbringing (we found at least 51 proposals). New ideas sometimes seem completely absurd. The more terrifying is the speed with which they are embodied.
#Give birthat work
Let's start with eggs - in the spirit of the ideas of the currently fashionable prolifers. After all, concern for the future electorate begins with them.
Several initiatives were received from State Duma deputy Tatyana Butskaya to increase the birth rate. One of which is “to oblige employers to ensure that every woman in the team gives birth to a child a year.”
“We have now begun to calculate an interesting coefficient. Governors must report on fertility rates. Not only they, but every employer should do this. At his workplace, he should look: what is your birth rate in your team? Do you have plus one baby this year from everyone who can have a baby, or not? This is exactly how we should pose this question,” 72.ru quotes her as saying.
Butskaya hinted that now there are all the financial opportunities for a birth, remembering that in 2001 she actually received a salary in mayonnaise and chickens. And if someone does not have the financial capabilities, then banks can be used to stimulate the birth rate, although at the expense of less favorable conditions for people who want to live for themselves.
“A family man should have a better life in life than a non-family man. Starting with the fact that if a young guy goes out to take out a mortgage today and decides that he wants to live for himself first, he will get a mortgage at 20%,”
Butskaya suggested. And if this same young man starts a family and has children, then the mortgage should already be 6%.
However, taking into account the actual closure of family mortgage programs by the largest banks, Butskaya’s initiative does not seem to be fully developed. And taking into account the increased rate, an ordinary, non-preferential mortgage of 5.5 million, taken out for 30 years with a 30% contribution, will cost an ordinary citizen already 25 million rubles.
State Duma deputy Zhanna Ryabtseva was also inspired by the topic of childbirth. And she came out with her famous slogan:
Zhanna Ryabtseva:
“We need to give birth, give birth and give birth again. You can give birth at eighteen or nineteen... Grandparents should help, and this is mandatory. We need to form families in institutions - these are the best families, student ones, who then go through life together.”
The head of the Ministry of Health, Mikhail Murashko, also called on people to think about having children as early as possible, calling a woman’s education and career a completely vicious practice.
Mikhail Murashko:
“It’s a completely vicious practice that has developed in society: the belief that a woman should get an education, then make a career, then secure a financial base for herself and only after that... worry about childbearing... The situation must be reconsidered. The message should be different. The sooner she gives birth, the better for her health.”
Why not immediately issue certificates along with certificates for baby strollers?
Although this kind of idea already exists: Senator Andrei Kutepov proposed giving benefits when entering a university to women who gave birth the year before. That is, it turns out, in the 10th–11th grades?
Patriots in diapers
President Putin, at a meeting with teachers, agreed to introduce “Conversations about Important Things” in kindergartens from the age of 5. From September 1, 2023, all kindergartens, including private ones, began working according to the updated program. Now, apparently, instead of ordinary games, children will learn to love their country and respect its traditions. For children under three years of age, classes about the Motherland are provided. And the elders will get acquainted with the anthem and the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Apparently, children should be prepared for political debate before they even learn to read. Well, after kindergarten they will be treated to “Conversations about Important Things” for schoolchildren - everyone is already accustomed to this extracurricular but compulsory cycle, and absenteeism faces consequences. There is a well-known case in which a fifth-grader in Moscow was taken to the police department because of a complaint from the school principal about missing “Conversations about Important Things” and a blue and yellow avatar on social networks.
State Duma deputy actor Nikolai Burlyaev proposed introducing chastity classes in schools. He believes that girls need to be explained how to be keepers of the hearth, and boys - defenders of the Motherland.
Nikolay Burlyaev:
“When perestroika happened in our country, a stream of foreign films, often vulgar, came to us, but the purity in the relationship between a man and a woman was gone. Therefore, it is necessary to teach schoolchildren the correct attitude towards adult life.”
I wonder what books will be recommended for reading? For now, only the list of prohibited content is being updated...
Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee for Family Protection Vitaly Milonov proposed canceling the six-day school week. In his opinion, Saturdays should become days of family rest. Milonov really believes that family ties become stronger on weekends.
In a uniform and a tin foil hat
The same Vitaly Milonov proposed introducing a unified school uniform in the style of Imperial Russia and the USSR. He wrote about this in his telegram channel . Another headdress appears when you hear the proposal of a senior researcher at the Institute of Biochemical Physics. N.M. Emanuel RAS Natalia Khorseva about electromagnetic safety of using technical equipment. She believes that such security should be a priority for educational organizations.
Natalya Khorseva:
“ We propose to adopt a law on electromagnetic safety, develop a specialized SanPin for all types of electromagnetic radiation, ban the use of WiFi in educational institutions, as well as electronic textbooks.”
After all, the only uniform kids really need is one to protect them from absurd initiatives like these.
Evolution vs creationism
Assistant to the Prime Minister, ex-Prime Minister of Chechnya Muslim Khuchiev called for Darwin's theory to be excluded from school textbooks because, according to him, it is “erroneous” and contributes to the “spiritual decay of children.” The chairman of the Patriarchal Commission of the Russian Orthodox Church on family issues, protection of motherhood and childhood, Priest Fyodor Lukyanov, also agreed with this idea, believing that Darwin’s theory “misleads children.”
Priest Fyodor Lukyanov:
“The theory of evolution is initially immoral, since it assumes the orphanage of the human race, the absence of a Creator in such a complex and beautiful creation as our Universe.”
Social studies, apparently, is also misleading, since the Ministry of Education has published an order that will exclude it from the curriculum for grades 6–8 from September 1, 2025. Democracy, choice and human and civil rights will become redundant concepts for the school curriculum.
GULAG, good luck!
In 2023, deputies decided to remove books from the school curriculum whose content is untrue. Well, more precisely, the reality that Russians should believe in. For example, Solzhenitsyn is now under threat of exclusion from textbooks. As State Duma deputy Vyatkin stated, “many facts were “sucked out of thin air”:
“Historians have checked all the facts. There was an attempt to get a bonus for this - for the fact that he smeared his own homeland in the mud,” Vyatkin said.
After Ivan Filippov’s dystopia* “The Mouse” was banned in Russia under the pretext of spreading fake news (and it’s true, since the zombie apocalypse hasn’t yet arrived), one shouldn’t be surprised at the logic of the censors.
Somewhere to reduce, and somewhere to add. The A Just Russia party proposed introducing the subject “Important Things” at school, where schoolchildren can learn how to make camouflage nets and trench candles for special operation soldiers. The head of the National Parents Committee supported this idea; she believes that this “skill will be useful to them in life,” and “it also develops fine motor skills!”
Through a goat - with love for the Motherland
First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Education Yana Lantratova (A Just Russia) proposed introducing patriotic and religious education in children's sports schools. In the sections, you can show children and parents “correct films” about Russian sports and “glorious moments in the history” of the country. You didn’t win, but you were the most loyal...
Also, in the 2024/2025 school year, a new subject was developed for students in grades 5–11—family studies. Politicians also propose to create a pilot for the exchange of school students within Russia. And the deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, director Vladimir Bortko, proposed to oblige teachers to address students, from first grade to graduation, only as “you.” The teacher is asked to ensure that during class activities, students also address each other using the pronoun “you”, as if they have no other concerns except this.
Labor service
The head of the department of the Ministry of Education, Natalya Agre, proposed sending young people under 35 years of age to all-Russian construction sites to instill patriotism.
Natalia Agre:
“The idea has been brewing in my head for a long time. Rosmolodezh should have a project of all-Russian significance: not an event, but a man-made, public, active one that would affect everyone, our new BAM. So that everyone, from 14 to 35 years old, would participate, for two weeks or a month, like an army, but for boys and girls, they built something TOGETHER. So that every young person invests his time, skill, labor, leaves this contribution to the common cause and memory for the rest of his life.”
True, Agre kept silent about the role of the labor of 2 million prisoners during the construction of the BAM. It is noteworthy that officials also wanted to involve them in the completion of the highway - this was discussed even before the SVO. So children will be able to communicate not only with each other, but also with older comrades.
Senator from the Yaroslavl region Natalia Kosikhina believes that the time has come to send schoolchildren and students “to the potatoes.” After all, work in the fresh air, the senator believes, is not harmful to health, helps to distract from unpleasant thoughts and gives a chance to gain new acquaintances and skills.
Even in the State Duma, they proposed obliging schoolchildren to work in an age-appropriate manner and without parental consent, including cleaning the classroom, planting trees on school grounds, helping in the library, or sewing theater costumes.
Not everyone has it
The governor of the Bryansk region, Bogomaz, proposed sending only those school graduates who have a “natural gift” to study at institutes. The rest, who do not have this gift, should be sent to training in blue-collar jobs.
Alexander Bogomaz, in an interview with Regnum:
“It’s clear that not everyone can become Lomonosov. But the natural gift in children needs to be developed. If it doesn’t exist, the children need to be given working professions, and not a virtual higher education, which does not even reach the tenth grade level. So there are a lot of tasks. They need to be addressed by everyone - both regional and federal authorities.
“They will tell you that this is a violation of human rights.”
“You always have to sacrifice something.”
And State Duma deputy from the United Russia faction Sergei Kolunov proposed encouraging especially patriotic children. The parliamentarian believes that activists of the First Movement should be given additional points when applying to universities in the Russian Federation.
As you know, SVO participants and their children can already enter universities without exams. And disabled children of SVO participants will be able to receive a double pension.
SVO is a holiday!
Many of the initiatives are puzzling. However, among them there are also more serious ones - which are alarming.
Deputy Yana Lantratova proposed holding a “Start of Military Military District Day” in Russian schools on February 24, during which students will be told about the goals, objectives and course of military operations in Ukraine. Participants are invited to attend the events.
At the same time, it is obvious that the idea of bloodshed as a reason for celebration leads to its perception as a norm, and not a tragedy. Meetings with participants in ongoing hostilities can become a trigger for children whose families are directly affected by them. Not to mention that not all of these guests belong in schools - just remember the recent story of Claud Rommel, accused of pedophilia, who toured schools as a hero of the SVO during a pre-investigation investigation.
However, if, as he assures journalists, despite the “bad” article, he returns to duty, at the end of the contract he may get the chance not only to attend schools, but also to work in them.
After all, the deputies proposed to make “corrected” prisoners with expunged convictions school teachers. A document proposing changes to the pedagogical articles of the Labor Code will allow prisoners who have served time for serious and especially serious crimes to work as school teachers. For now, however, murderers and rapists are excluded from this list. To be employed, they must have a higher pedagogical education, and if this is not the case, then former convicts with a thirst for knowledge can undergo retraining. But for this they again must have at least some higher education.
But not all children have a place in the classroom. Russian schools and preschool education organizations are being asked to limit the number of foreign citizens in groups and classes. This follows from the “Methodological recommendations for determining approaches to establishing the ratio of the number of foreign citizens studying together and citizens of the Russian Federation...”. Izvestia reviewed the document that the Ministry of Education sent to the regions.
From the recommendations of the Ministry of Education:
“With poor command of the Russian language, especially in combination with expressed other special educational needs, effective teaching is obviously no simpler than teaching a child with disabilities, so it is necessary to strive to ensure that there are no more than three children in a class (group) who have poor command of the Russian language."
Essentially, this proposal promotes discrimination based on national origin. In addition, the Constitution of the Russian Federation so far guarantees the right to education to every child, regardless of his citizenship. Will they really rewrite it again?
A member of the State Duma Committee for Family Protection, Evgeny Marchenko, proposed punishing parents for crimes of minor children if it is proven that they are indirectly guilty of the child committing a crime due to his poor upbringing or a difficult psychological situation in the family.
At the same time, he emphasized that if the examination establishes the presence of a mental illness in a child who committed a crime, then in this case the parents should not be held responsible for this.
Evgeniy Marchenko:
“If the reason lies in poor upbringing in the family, the investigation and the court will look into this, then it is possible to bring the parents to criminal liability, but if there is a corresponding article in the Criminal Code.”
(RIA Novosti)
What will this lead to? A family with difficulties is likely to feel ashamed of their problems. This can aggravate the situation and cause new difficulties. Additionally, parents may be afraid to talk about their problems or ask for help because they fear the consequences. Tension in the family will increase, parents will begin to see problems and threats in their children, and this will further damage the relationship.
The initiative could lead to government authorities shifting responsibility for social problems to parents rather than addressing the root causes, such as a lack of social services, education and support for families in difficulty.
And, perhaps, the worst thing is that criminal liability of parents can lead to the child ending up “in the system” - in an orphanage, in the care and power of the state.
And for what? And for anything! At a meeting of the State Duma, Moscow deputy Sergei Kolunov proposed introducing criminal and administrative penalties, up to and including deprivation of parental rights, for families in which children engage in quad training. So be careful when choosing a costume for the New Year's party. Otherwise, bunny ears will become evidence in a criminal case.
And, of course, the State Duma could not refrain from issuing a new “law of scoundrels”: now it is introducing a ban on the adoption and guardianship of Russian children for citizens of countries where gender reassignment is allowed. It has already been adopted in the first reading. This ban may affect 80 countries, including even Belarus.
The slogan “Children are our main value” has become literal - the state perceives children as property. The right of possession extends to both mind and body, and is followed by total indoctrination.