Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
Teachers are even being tasked with keeping tabs on students’ online behavior and compiling opinion files.
Classrooms are traditionally safe spaces where young minds learn to question the world around them.
However, when a government decides to control every single thought, the blackboard can easily become a battlefield.
And according to a new briefing by Amnesty International, the Russian school system is no longer a place of learning.
Instead, it has been turned into “factories of compliance.”
Factories of compliance
According to the briefing, the Russian government is systematically denying children their right to a quality education.
The human rights group reveals that schools are being flooded with propaganda-filled textbooks designed to justify the war against Ukraine, suppressing free expression.
The report, titled “Only Official Sources”: Indoctrination in the Russian Educational System, reveals a dark picture of what children are being taught in Russia and Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine.
“Russian textbooks present a single view of history, which justifies any decision taken in Moscow to use force against its neighbours. They portray Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine as a historic necessity and a matter of national survival, while any alternative opinions are vilified as ‘hostile’ or ‘destructive’,” said Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
In 2023, the Russian Ministry of Education made a single set of history books completely mandatory.
Classroom surveillance networks
Human rights watchdogs warn that this setup violates international law. Under agreements like the Convention on the Rights of the Child, education must foster tolerance, peace, and independent critical thinking.
Beyond rewriting history, the state relies heavily on surveillance. To prevent what it calls ‘destructive ideologies,’ the state forces teachers to track students online and compile secret opinion files.
Even simple, legal conversations can trigger an alarm. For instance, kids who speak honestly about how the war has ruined local living standards get labeled “at risk.”
“A child’s mind is not the state’s property. Nonetheless, the Russian authorities appear to be treating classrooms as soil to be inspected for the first shoots of civic dissent, so that they can be uprooted before they grow,” Struthers concluded.
Sources: Amnesty International
