Experts reveal what Russian narratives are being taught to schoolchildren in occupied Ukrainian territories

The school year for some schoolchildren in Ukraine began under the occupation of Russia, while in Crimea, it continues for the 10th year. The Russian authorities are actively implementing their education to glorify Russian culture, military-patriotic education, and the loss of Ukrainian identity. The de-occupation of a part of Ukraine allowed law enforcement officers to seize Russian educational literature, which Ukrainian students were supposed to study, for research.

Experts revealed during a briefing at Ukrinform Media Center Ukraine the narratives in Russian textbooks, whether Russian education in the occupied territories is legal, and how they plan to "liberate" Crimea at the educational level. Also, experts presented the analytical research "Textbooks and War: Educational Literature of the Russian Federation in the Occupied Territory as a Tool to Destroy Ukrainian Identity," and Rubryka recorded important moments.

Imposing a Russian identity on Ukrainian schoolchildren

After the de-occupation of the Kharkiv region, the local prosecutor's office seized 23 Russian textbooks for junior, middle, and high school students. They were designed to teach children the alphabet, literature, geography, social studies, world history, and Russian history.

As Valentyna Potapova, the head of the national advocacy department at the NGO Almenda, said, during the analysis of the textbooks, experts identified 20 narratives that influence a person's worldview from elementary to high school. Among the most widespread were: "Living means serving the motherland," "Russian ethnicity and ego culture are your motherland," "The Russian language is great and powerful," "Russia's opposition to the West, NATO, and the USA," etc.

The expert added that the analysis of the narratives made it possible to identify several main clusters, including the following:

• Forming the "All-Russian identity." This cluster's narratives aim to make the child in the occupation cease to feel a connection with Ukraine. Despite the fact that Russia had different historical names (such as the Russian Empire and Muscovy), this is not in the textbooks. The entire multinational people are called "Russian people."
• Heroization. All textbooks are permeated with war. Separate chapters are devoted to literature about courage, war, and heroizing the Russian army.
• Forming a positive attitude towards power and its deification. There is even a quote in the textbook for the 7th grade: "The king's function is to pray and go to the monastery, and the king cannot be criticized. If there is a mistake, it is the boyar's fault, not the king's."
• Absence of Ukraine. Ukraine is simply not mentioned in textbooks. Ukraine is considered either as the territory of Poland or as another territory that does not have subjectivity.

"After collecting all this material, you understand: when you worked with these textbooks every day for almost two months, even with a developed critical thinking, you fall under the influence of these narratives," Valentyna Potapova shared.

She emphasized that these narratives more quickly affect a child in such an information space. From this, they can form a Russian identity — the identity of a person who must "serve the motherland."

Legality of Russian education in the occupied territories

According to Anastasia Vorobiova, an analyst at the NGO Almenda, international humanitarian law states that the country must respect the laws that were in force on the territory before the occupation began. Exceptions are only in cases when it is absolutely impossible. That is, the change of laws can occur in a limited number of cases and relate to maintaining public order and security.

"The occupying state must, in cooperation with the state and local authorities, promote the proper functioning of institutions responsible for the care of children and their education," says Art. 50 IV of the Geneva Convention on the Protection of the Civilian Population in Time of War.

Anastasia added that the occupation authorities cannot introduce any fundamental institutional changes, even on a temporary basis. The spread of Russian laws in the occupied territories violates the rules of occupation established by international humanitarian law.

Educational de-occupation of the Crimean Peninsula

While Russia allocates more than 82 million rubles for military and patriotic education in Crimean schools in 2023, the Ukrainian authorities are working out the stages of reintegration of the peninsula, which has been under occupation since 2014, says Yevhen Bondarenko, head of the Information Support Department of the Representation of the President of Ukraine in Crimea.

He emphasized the importance that children born in Crimea, which has been occupied for almost ten years, have been studying in schools with Russian narratives for more than one year.

According to him, Ukraine has already created a Council for the cognitive de-occupation of Crimea, which will develop a road map with two sectors: educational reintegration and a policy for children and youth aimed at the return of Ukrainian identity and the preservation of indigenous peoples. Cognitive de-occupation is to be implemented in three stages: before the peninsula's liberation, during the liberation, and after de-occupation. Roughly, it will last from 10 years to one generation.