This is a film which is currently being lauded in the West. It is based on footage filmed by a teacher in a school in a small Russian town, Karabash. The teacher pretended to be carrying out directives from the education ministry to produce films of school life, (in the Guardian version linked below). All the while he was planning to release the material to Western film makers to make a propaganda film about how Russia is “indoctrinating” children. The teacher eventually left Russia with his material and the film was produced. Nothing very brave about any of that though he is of course portrayed as a hero.
This article in the Guardian is one of many along these lines. As a teacher, (currently my main profession), I want to ask one question. Did the young people who appear in this film give their consent to appear in it? It seems, based on everything we are told, incredibly unlikely. If a teacher did this in the UK they would be breaking the UK’s data protection laws. [1] They could face legal action. There is nothing noble about covertly filming children, lying to them about why you are filming them. (It is also a huge breach of trust for a teacher to deceive children about what is going on). Naturally, the liberals, usually so strong on these kinds of personal rights, (especially of children), are totally silent!
I haven’t seen the film but speaking to the general narrative about “indoctrination” in schools. Consider one of the main complaints, repeated in this article: the state has printed new history books which “defend Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”. (In reality there has been no invasion of course, but let’s leave that one). What government in the world does not tell its children some kind of approved story? How many school teachers in the UK are teaching children that Russia carried out a special military operation in Ukraine because of threats to their strategic security from the prospect of NATO joining Ukraine and to defend the people of Donbas who were being discriminated against and repressed by ‘ultra nationalists’, (a phrase I am borrowing from Pjotr Sauer in the Guardian), who came to power in Kiev following a coup against an elected President? That is about the closest you can get to the truth but I really doubt many schools in the UK are teaching that. More likely they are flying Ukrainian flags. This happens all the time; Russia is castigated by liberals for simply doing what any other state and government does.
The film, based on the reviews I have read, is fodder for the narrative about special indoctrination lessons in schools and new militarised youth movements. There is some truth to this narrative though the narrative is simplified and distorted. There are more lessons in Russia these days about “patriotic subjects”. Schools do invite e.g. veterans to come and give talks. Again; though, isn’t this what any other country does in war time? Underlying the liberal complaint is that the Russian Ministry of Education is not teaching children the “truth”, that Russia has fallen savagely on their neighbour Ukraine in an unprovoked war of aggression, an “invasion”, and, while they are about it, your gender is something you can just pick. That is their complaint.
In terms of the new “patriotic lessons” a few comments. Yes; a new lesson has been introduced “conversations about important subjects”. I don’t know the curriculum content but if the lessons are used to promote the government’s values and ideologies, once again, that is no different from what happens in UK schools. Some schools at least also have lessons called something like “The Spiritual and Moral Basis of the Russian people”. Well; Russia is a conservative and traditional country. It doesn’t seem to this writer to be wrong to transmit these values and an understanding of their own nationhood to children. Is that “ultra-nationalist”? Liberals often complain about a new youth movement, “like the Soviet Pioneer movement”, called “Young Army”. I’ve looked at their website, (and the website of a local chapter in an industrial city in Eastern Russia). The youth movement offers young people a wide range of activities under headings such as technology, creative media skills and sport in, (reading between the lines), an atmosphere of wholesome moral values. Given the endless stories about knife violence and violence in schools in the UK I would think the UK could learn from this example. I have read, (and need to check), that older school children may also have a few (?) lessons on how to handle an automatic rifle. Again; what is so outlandish about this? When I was 14 at a famous British Public School I was marched about in a uniform and taught how to fire a rifle. (A single shot type, but all the same a rifle). This was compulsory but there was an option for more of it for those who wanted. The essential point is Russia, in promoting its version of history and its values to young people, and trying to generate a sense of social belonging via membership of youth groups, (Young Army looks somewhat like David Cameron’s “National Citizen Service”), is not doing anything any other state in the world does not do. The point appears to be rather, that they are doing it rather well. That said; I am not a very strong nationalist; I value reason and if I was working in a school I would probably want to encourage children to critically evaluate whatever input they are receiving. That would definitely cause problems in the UK. (Especially, bizarrely enough, if I tried to encourage children to be critical of ‘transgender’ ideology). It could cause problems in Russia. It is, true that the consequences could potentially be more severe in Russia, partly because Russia is in wartime mode and partly because Russia is more authoritarian. In the UK career death and internal exile is used more often than prison. But, the essential parameters are no different.
Liberals hate Russia not because Russia is a normal state which has programmes to promote its values, ideology and culture to the next generation, but because Russia is not promoting their (liberal) values! It is totally bizarre. Why on earth would Russia set to work to promote Western liberal values and ideologies to its children? This position leads liberals into bad faith positions like championing a film which appears to be entirely based on violating the privacy rights of school children.
Notes
- https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/schools/photos/ “Data protection law is likely to apply if photos or videos are taken for official school use, such as for inclusion in a prospectus or other promotional material.”