In Russia, a parade of children's troops

On Thursday, a parade of “children’s troops” was held in Rostov-on-Don. The event was already the sixth in a row, but the Russian blogosphere learned the details only this year and reacted with harsh criticism.

The event in Rostov was held on the initiative of the head of the city administration, Sergey Gorban, and with the support of the Ministry of Defense. The parade was attended by several hundred children aged from 4 to 10 years. For the celebrations, as the event is called in the Ministry of Defense, specially prepared military uniforms of various types and types of troops were prepared for the parade participants.

Students from the local gymnasium acted as airborne troops, and kindergarten students acted as guards reconnaissance officers, airborne troops and a security battalion at the headquarters of the Southern Military District. “Children from many other educational institutions will take to the parade ground,” it was reported before the event on the city administration’s website.

Each “unit” of the parade squad demonstrated its banner, motto, song and solemnly marched in front of the veterans of the Great Patriotic War, the press service reported.

In turn, the Ministry of Defense called the event “touching.” “In general, everything is like an adult: the parade, the military band, and a real colonel general – commander of the district’s troops,” the department concluded.

"The most militarized part of society"

Social media reacted critically to the news of the parade. For example, VKontakte user Alexander wrote: “Well, what is this! This begs terrible analogies with history! When will this end! The limit of dementia has long been passed, and everyone agrees and is calm, I understand, but there are 1% of normal people!”

Russian journalist Anton Oreh noted in his blog that the parade of “children’s troops” “does not bother him”: “Think carefully and you will understand that children are the most militarized part of society. And childhood is the most militant time of life. What boy didn't play war as a child? If he didn’t play, it means he’s some kind of unusual boy. When boys run around the yard with a machine gun and shoot, this is just normal,” the journalist believes.

Orek is sure that there is nothing wrong with marching children dressed in military uniforms, as long as the event (which he equates to a children’s game) is not reinforced by “some additional ideology” - “then the game will no longer be so innocent and will actually cease to be a game.” .

VKontakte social network user Daria posts a photo from the parade and adds: “This is how they instill patriotism in children!”

Blogger Andrei Malgin publishes footage from Buryatia, where during the Victory Parade preschoolers were dressed in military uniform and photographed against the background of tank models.

The author of the “Civitas - Civil Society Messenger” project, Rimma Polyak, in her blog compared the event to a graduation party in a Gaza kindergarten, where children were dressed in the uniform of the paramilitary wing of Islamic Jihad.

In February of this year, photographs from a kindergarten in St. Petersburg were actively discussed on the RuNet, where, according to the media, one of the parents organized a “militia day” and showed children modifications of a Kalashnikov assault rifle and an anti-tank grenade. The blogger who posted these photos claimed that one of the parents decided to please the children in this way.

Patriotism strategy

Many bloggers agreed that they are trying to foster patriotism with similar parades in children. Indeed, this is not a new idea for the Russian authorities. At the end of last year, the Russian government set about developing a strategy for raising children in the spirit of patriotism, spiritual values, respect for parents and love for sport.

The strategy began to be discussed on December 11 last year at a special meeting of the patriotic platform of United Russia, at which, as the agencies reported, Deputy Minister of Education Veniamin Kaganov noted that the concept was radically influenced by the Olympics in Sochi, the “annexation” of Crimea and events in Ukraine. Just a year ago, he said, formulations like “Russian identity” would not have found support in society.

The draft strategy stated that it was necessary to “define the priorities of state policy in the field of raising children, ensuring the formation of Russian civic identity,” and also to place emphasis on “strengthening the moral foundations of public life.”

One of the main directions was “civic and patriotic education,” for which the original version of the project proposed creating conditions for educating “patriots ready for worthy service to society.”

Active citizenship and responsibility, as stated in the document, will be cultivated exclusively on the basis of “traditional cultural, spiritual and moral values ​​of Russian society.”

In March, work on the strategy was completed. According to the head of the working group on strategy development, the rector of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia Vladimir Filippov, children should be brought up with a sense of pride in being Russian citizens.

In general, Russian citizens reacted positively to the initiative of the authorities.

As follows from a Levada Center survey, 49% of respondents expressed confidence in the need to adopt a patriotic education program due to the current presence of “external and internal threats” that require the state to educate “patriots ready to defend the interests of the country.” Only 8% of respondents were against any government intervention in the definition of “patriotism.”