Russians bomb, pillage, rape and murder Ukrainians, then force their children to study ‘Russian traditional values’
Russia is soon to unleash a new school textbook and school course on occupied parts of Ukraine entitled ‘Spiritual-moral culture of Russia’. The aggressor state will be using this both on its own territory and in occupied Ukraine to push what it claims are Russian ‘traditional values’. What is meant by this term has never been clearly defined, however they have long been touted both by the Kremlin and by the Russian Orthodox Church, whose hierarchy supports Russia’s war against Ukraine. It is, allegedly, in defence of such ‘traditional values’ that the regime pushes homophobic, racist and imperialist ‘Russian world’ ideas, and seeks to militarize and zombify children and young people at home, and on occupied Ukrainian territory.
The new textbook is due to be presented by the end of 2025, with the school course for Grades 5 to 7 introduced from 1 September 2026. The Russian education ministry document stated that, as part of this subject, school students would learn about the life path and the views of “outstanding state, public, cultural figures; academics and military people’, with the latter including those who fought in what Russia continues to euphemistically refer to as its ‘special military operation’, i.e. its. full-scale invasion of Ukraine. While supposedly forming “traditional universal values, at the basis of all religions’, this is difficult to take seriously given the current regime’s appalling track record on religious freedom. All faiths except those affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church came under fire immediately after Russia’s invasion of Crimea, and the same trends have been seen in all parts of Ukraine while under Russian occupation.
One of the authors of this new ‘textbook’ is reported to be Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov), widely referred to as Russian leader and former KGB agent Vladimir Putin’s ‘spiritual mentor’ and supporter of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Although the course is new and illegal as it will be foisted on children in occupied Ukraine, it is, in fact, a rehash of an old course which the Russian education ministry had tried to integrate with a local history course. This was strongly opposed by the Russian Orthodox Church and its patriarch Kirill (Gundyaev) who clearly succeeded in getting the plans overturned.
The course looks set to push ‘Russian world ideology’, with Ukrainian children taught that occupied Ukrainian territory ‘was always Russian’ and that there is no such thing as Ukrainian identity. Emphasis is placed on so-called ‘patriotism’, with Russia aggressively pushing the idea that Ukrainian children should feel patriotic with respect o Russia, and even wanting to fight and ‘defend’ the aggressor state. All of this is accompanied by extreme militarization and glorification of mercenaries, convicted criminals who agreed to kill Ukrainians in exchange for their freedom, a presidential pardon and a lot of money; and, in many cases, suspected war criminals. In April 2022, as more and more details emerged of the horrific crimes committed by the Russian army in Bucha, Putin issued a decree honouring the 64th Motor Rifle Brigade believed to be behind the plunder, rapes, torture and executions. The presidential decree talked of “mass heroism and daring, tenacity and courage”, In February 2025, Putin honoured Anton Struyev and his 15th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade, other members of which are accused of sexually assaulting a 4-year-old child and gangraping her mother in occupied Kyiv oblast. Struyev himself is suspected of other war crimes in Kyiv oblast, including ordering subordinates to kill a civilian and himself taking part in the brutal beating of others. That same month, Putin promoted Sergei Atroshchenko, the Russian commander whom Ukrainian investigators believe issued the order to bomb the Drama Theatre in Mariupol on 16 March 2022, although the Russians knew that it was being used as a shelter by up to a thousand civilians, mostly women, children and the elderly.
Children in occupied Ukraine and Russia will presumably be told that individuals like the above represent ‘Russian traditional values’. They are treated as heroes, while those who condemn Russian war crimes in Bucha, Izium, Mariupol and other Ukrainian cities are charged with ‘fakes’ and sentenced to 7 years or more.
On 25 July 2025, Russia’s upper house, the ‘council of the Federation’, approved a law which blocks films deemed to discredit ‘Russian traditional values’. The law will come into force from 1 March 2026.
With no agreed definition of such supposed ‘values’, this is a carte blanche to block anything that the regime chooses. In fact, the first targets are likely to be any films which touch upon homosexual relations or any issues regarding the LGBT community. Russia began introducing repressive legislation back in 2013, and in 2023, Russia’s increasingly subservient Supreme court declared something that it called ‘the international LGBT movement an extremist organization’. There is no such thing as an international LGBT movement, but this only makes such a ban even more dangerous, with it left to Russia’s enforcement bodies to decide whom to harass and persecute.