The high school curriculum published on Monday August 21 by the Russian Ministry of Education mentions that teenagers will be able to familiarize themselves with “the means of military use of drones” or even the way of “carrying out reconnaissance missions using of a drone”. They will also have the opportunity to “carry out concrete drone piloting actions”, as well as learn ways to parry “adversary drones”.
The classes concerned by these courses correspond to the age group 15-17 years, within the framework of the “initial military training”. This training, which existed in Soviet times before falling into disuse, was relaunched for the start of the 2023-2024 school year. It provides in particular familiarization with weapons of war such as the Kalashnikov assault rifle and has at least 140 hours of study.
“The introduction of such a subject in schools will make it possible to systematically prepare citizens for a possible confrontation with the enemy”, justified in November 2022 the parliamentarian Sergei Mironov, at the origin of the initiative.
Drones are massively used in the conflict in Ukraine by both sides and Russian territory is targeted almost daily by attacks of this type. Since the beginning of the conflict, several innovations aimed at inculcating patriotism and bearing an anti-Western discourse have been introduced in Russian schools.
The school week thus begins with the national anthem and a flag-raising ceremony and “discussions about what is important” have been introduced, in particular to evoke the hostilities in Ukraine and justify the Russian offensive against its neighbor.
