Russian schools training children to shoot guns

Russian schools are training children to shoot guns, as they have begun spending more time teaching the “propaganda of the Kremlin’s ideas.”

In the 2024 through 2025 academic year, one of the propaganda modules included in Russian education is “Military Training. Fundamentals of Military Knowledge,” which prepares children for war. Students in grades eight through 10 will also be sent to training camps, according to analysis by news outlet Agentstvo.

Newsweek reached out to the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation for comment via email outside of business hours.

Why It Matters

Russia training children to shoot guns in schools indicates that they are preparing future contingents for battle and suggests that they are suffering a significant manpower shortage. Moscow may be prepared for the war to continue for years to come.

What To Know

The outlet’s analysis found that the total number of hours Russian schools spent teaching propaganda will double during this academic year, reaching 1,300 hours out of 11,000 total teaching hours. The ways that propaganda is being taught in Moscow’s educational institutions have changed since the beginning of the war, and one of the most significant shifts has been in teaching about defense.

Basic military training was introduced for senior students in 2023 in the course “Life Safety.” This has since been renamed “Fundamentals of Security and Defense,” and it has modules including “Military Training. Fundamentals of Military Knowledge.” In this module, students learn about the Armed Forces, weapons, and military equipment.

The stipulation that children aged approximately 14 to 17 attend training camp also comes with a fine that parents who refuse to send them must pay under the charge of “discrediting” the army, according to the Russian outlet Meduza.

The Russian schoolchildren are being taught how to shoot by Sergei Chesalin, a veteran of the Soviet Airborne Forces special units. They have also been given military training outside school, and the military sports squad “Rubezh” has been photographed training in the town of Divnogorsk in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia.

Russia’s teaching of propaganda in schools extends beyond military training, and Agentstvo found that the Kremlin’s ideas make up 12 percent of teaching hours during this school year. However, the share of propaganda in the curriculum may vary depending on class and grade.

The outlet compared Russia’s teaching of propaganda, ranging from history to defense studies, from 2022 through today and found that it increased from 3.4 percent at the beginning of the war to 6 percent in 2023 before reaching 12 percent last year.

After the start of the war, the propaganda classes were initially introduced into Russian education to strengthen “traditional Russian values” and “foster patriotism.” As the course has advanced, children not only began receiving military training, but also are now being given new history textbooks by Vladimir Medinsky for grades five through nine.

What People Are Saying

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Anton Gerashchenko, the former deputy minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, posted a video of Russian military instructors teaching children how to shoot and wrote: “Learn how to kill Khokhols [Ukrainians]!” This is how Russians teach children for the war against Ukraine. ‘Ukrainians will not kill themselves—we must do it,’ they say. Sick people. Sick Russian society.”

“Learn how to kill Khokhols [Ukrainians]!”

This is how Russians teach children for the war against Ukraine.

“Ukrainians will not kill themselves – we must do it,” they say.

Sick people. Sick Russian society. pic.twitter.com/ZWmw3QZGTJ

— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) January 10, 2025

Roman Sheremeta, an economics professor at Case Western Reserve University, Ohio, wrote: “The next generation of russians may be even worse than the current generation. It is a brainwashing machine on steroids. We are witnessing development of a mass psychosis. Here is a recent video from the Teacher’s Day that was celebrated on October 5 in Bryansk, Russia. The younger generation of ruzzians is ready to become the new generation of murderers.

“It is not just the video that worries me, but Russia’s government actually launched a military-focused curriculum in schools as a part of a broader strategy to prepare the next generation for ‘national defense.’ The program seeks to create a more militarized and security focused society. The new youth strategy which was approved by the government in August 2024 aims to prepare pre-conscription age teenagers mentally and physically for military service. This has very strong similarities with what happened in Nazi Germany before the WW2 [World War II].”

What Happens Next

It is unknown whether Russia will lower the age of conscription, currently from 18 to 30 according to The Moscow Times, as the war wages on and their manpower shortage becomes more significant.