After the media, the official discourse on the war in Ukraine is essential in Russian education. From schools to universities, the government has set out to control the narrative, and does not tolerate any dissent.
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While the Russian media are locked and relay only the official word, access to social networks is limited, and the propagation of information contrary to the line of the government strongly repressed, the Russian government now wishes to teach its version of the story from childhood.
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Kamran is 28 years old, and he taught history and geography in Moscow. He indeed had to resign when his colleagues began to relay government propaganda on the special operation. He has, he tells us, posted a message calling to live in accordance with his conscience, not in line. He must now even leave the country. Its director searched her Instagram account and found the photo of a conference in Strasbourg. Here he is accused of being a foreign agent.
Both teachers and students must adhere to the official discourse. Even at university, students have to learn Putin’s speech on Ukraine, explains Gregory Yudin, a teacher at the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences in Moscow: “In all schools, we study the content of this very long speech by the president on the history of Ukraine. If you ask too many questions, it is already criminal.”
Because young people ask questions, refuse that Russia is cut off from the world. The battle for brain control is therefore launched in education. Meetings are organized even in schools to explain which are the good media, what one can believe and to denounce the lies of the West. State-appointed rectors of public universities are overzealous. Dasha, a political science student, explains to us that she feels uncomfortable: “No student here has been expelled yet, but everyone can feel the pressure and it affects our ability to study at a university that holds positions so different from ours.” she says.
A video thus shows a course at the University of Kazan, where the professor explains that Russia did not start the war and that it protects the Donbass against the Ukrainian Nazis. It’s not even about revisionism anymore. It is history in the making that is completely rewritten.