“Special military operations” museums are springing up like mushrooms in Russian schools following a decree by Vladimir Putin. The children should learn from an early age: Ukrainian “neo-Nazis” must be destroyed, and a death in the fight against them is a “heroic act.”
The town of Labytnangi lies a few kilometers above the Arctic Circle. Around 25,000 people live here in the remoteness of the Russian north. The region is known internationally primarily because of prominent prisoners of the Russian regime who served their sentences here. The Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov was imprisoned for years in the “White Bear” penal colony on the outskirts of the city, while the opposition leader Alexei Navalny was imprisoned in the “Polar Wolf” in the village of Charp, 30 kilometers away – until his unexplained death in mid-February. There is little else going on here, the capital Moscow and other important cities are thousands of kilometers away. Ukraine, which was invaded by Russia more than two years ago, is also 3,000 kilometers from Labytnangi.
Although the distance to the front line in Ukraine is approximately the same as that between Lisbon and Stockholm, the war plays a significant role in the everyday lives of people living here. It is not known how many Labytnangians are fighting in Vladimir Putin’s army. But the authorities apparently want there to be more in the future. A full 17 cadet classes were founded at school number eight, one says proudly Contribution from local television announced. Children receive basic military training from an early age, learning how to march properly and how to use machine guns. The second war museum was recently ceremoniously opened at the school – this time a museum for “military special operations”. A permanent exhibition celebrating the “heroes” of other Russian wars, such as the Second World War, the Afghan War and the two Chechen wars, has existed for some time.
“The neo-Nazi is dead, but his clock keeps ticking”
Images on local television show children in uniform demonstrating their skills in handling weapons at the ceremonial opening and leading visitors through the exhibition. This tells the stories of the city’s residents who fell “heroically”. Uniforms of Russian soldiers, cartridge cases and alleged parts of a fired HIMARS missile are also on display. One of the “highlights” is a wristwatch of a killed Ukrainian soldier – in the local television report, this exhibit is commented on with: “The neo-Nazi is dead, but his clock keeps ticking.”
The creation of “special operations” museums in schools is no longer an exception. Since the beginning of this school year, they have been springing up like mushrooms all over Russia. There are now hundreds of such exhibitions in Russian schools. Radio Liberty was able to count more than 200 “museums of special operations” based on media reports alone. The total number is probably even higher. Almost every report on the opening of such an institution mentions the “desire of ordinary people” to talk about “the heroic deeds of yesterday’s schoolchildren.” But the initiative comes from the very top. At the end of April 2023, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin ordered the establishment of such museums in schools and other educational institutions.
Since the beginning of the war of aggression there have been pictures in which… small children posing with weapons or form a giant “Z” symbol, no longer uncommon. A weekly propaganda lesson called “Conversations about Important Things” is part of the school schedule, as is the daily singing of the national anthem together. Soldiers who fought in Ukraine are invited to the class as guests of honor. Media reports about former criminals who were pardoned after serving in the war and are now welcomed into schools as “heroes” are also common. With Putin’s regulation, propaganda work for children is given more structure and is officially part of the Ministry of Culture’s responsibility.
Future “cannon fodder” should go to war voluntarily
It is striking that the vast majority of reports about the opening of “museums of special operations” come from small, remote places. During its research, Radio Liberty was only able to find two reports about such exhibitions in Moscow. The US-funded broadcaster quotes a teacher who explains this fact by saying that the propaganda museums are mainly opened in the places from which a particularly large number of soldiers are sent to the front and which suffer the most casualties. These are usually poorer regions that are far away from the big cities.
The Ukrainian human rights activist Vera Yastrebowa sees the reason for the mass creation of such museums in the need to motivate future “cannon fodder” to go to war voluntarily. Such museums aim to foment “hatred against Ukraine, against human rights and democratic values,” the lawyer told the Ukrainian television channel Freedom. “Russia will soon run out of resources – today they can still motivate people to kill Ukrainians with high compensation and white Ladas. But soon there will be no more money for it,” said Yastrebova, referring to reports of high compensation paid to families in Russia if their relatives are wounded or killed in Ukraine. In the summer of 2022, a report about parents who used the “coffin money” to buy a new car from the Russian brand Lada for their son caused opponents of the war to shake their heads.
“Weld the population together around an enemy image”
According to the human rights activist, the Kremlin regime is not just concerned with instilling hatred of Ukrainians in children. The entire regime is based on a policy of invasion, Yastrebowa explained. “They are welding the population together around an enemy image. Today it is Ukraine. But they will have no problem adapting the exhibits of these so-called museums in such a way that other countries such as the Baltic states, Poland and others become an enemy image.”
A psychologist quoted anonymously by Radio Liberty is also certain that the government is preparing the population for a long war. “We see that war is presented as something good and right. In the biographies of the fallen soldiers, war is not a one-time event, but literally a way of life and a career approved and supported by others, a right choice.” At the same time, children should be given the feeling of living in a country surrounded by enemies and under constant threat. This makes the war seem justified, the psychologist explained, according to Radio Liberty. The goal of these museums is to impress upon children the idea: “Participating in war and dying in it is the right way of life and a good way to be recognized and admired.”
Despite strong propaganda, not all Russian students will take this path. For the cadets from school number eight in Labytnangi, after completing basic military training, it is only a small step from the classroom to the battlefield.