Russian children are being taught cult of murder and death

One of the most important components of this process at the time was the debunking of the personality cult of Joseph Stalin. It was repeated and, as it seemed at the time, more effective. Thirty-two years earlier, in 1956, Stalin's accomplice in terror, Nikita Khrushchev, had declared the inadmissibility of the cult of personality and blamed all the sins of the Communist Party on his leader. However, 'Uncle Joe' was not demonized in the public consciousness. He was simply forgotten for ten years, only to begin a creeping rehabilitation during Leonid Brezhnev's rule, primarily as a commander whose strategic genius won the Second World War.

But in 1988, Stalin turned into absolute Evil. Firstly, Pravda, the main printed organ of the CPSU Central Committee, wrote about this on Fridays. Then cartoons and jokes entered the information space, and movies and TV films appeared in which Stalin frightened adults. In the same year, it was decided to finally use this figure to intimidate children.

This is how the three-minute story “Time Machine” appeared in the mega-popular children's humorous film magazine “Yeralash,” which had no analogues anywhere in the world at the time. Specialized children's sketches with child actors were the aerobatics of Soviet children's cinema. In the story, a Soviet schoolboy demonstrates his invention, a time machine, to others during a clean-up day in support of 'perestroika.' The first person he summoned from the past was Joseph Stalin. His appearance frightened the pioneers so much that they stood at attention and thanked Comrade Stalin for their happy childhood. And when he disappeared, they attacked the inventor: an idiot, luckily you didn't call Beria.

“In the story, a Soviet schoolboy demonstrates his invention, a time machine, to others during a clean-up day in support of 'perestroika.' The first person he summoned from the past was Joseph Stalin. His appearance frightened the pioneers so much that they stood at attention and thanked Comrade Stalin for their happy childhood. And when he disappeared, they attacked the inventor: an idiot, luckily you didn't call Beria.”

In 2016, the Yeralash film magazine was still alive, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine was still in its third year. Crimea had been annexed, and fighting was ongoing in Donbas. On the eve of May 9, a new issue of the children's movie magazine was released on the eve of the sacred May Day for Russians. It was labeled as a social video. According to the plot, modern schoolchildren met a ten-year-old boy in a Red Army uniform. He turned out to be... a dead patriot who fought for his homeland and was killed by a German sniper. In the end, the ghost answered the question whether it was scary to die: “It doesn't matter. The main thing is that we won.”

The year is 2023, Tyumen region, Russia. Fellow Russian soldiers who took part in the war against Ukraine came to the school in the village of Lugove to meet with third-graders - the same ten-year-old boys and girls! They organized the event as part of the Heirs of Victory project. The militants came to meet with the children wearing caps with the inscription: “Tell our people that we are fighting well!” and with portraits of Stalin on their chevrons. Painted Stalin allegedly complains: “There were no such things in my time.” Those who rob, rape, torture, maim, and kill Ukrainians in Ukraine have been teaching children a lesson in patriotism and love for their homeland by their example. They are no longer frightened by Stalin, they are encouraged to fight with his portrait. He is not evil, but the victor of evil.

“The year is 2023, Tyumen region, Russia. Fellow Russian soldiers who took part in the war against Ukraine came to the school in the village of Lugove to meet with third-graders - the same ten-year-old boys and girls! They organized the event as part of the Heirs of Victory project. The militants came to meet with the children wearing caps with the inscription: “Tell our people that we are fighting well!” and with portraits of Stalin on their chevrons.”

Let's go back even further, to 1986, when the Soviet-Afghan war was still going on. They tried to talk about it and, most importantly, about its goals in a minimal, dosed manner. The Kremlin was ashamed of that war, or at least tried not to publicize it too much. Moreover, Afghanistan was not discussed in schools. So when we, tenth-graders, were brought to a military training lesson by a veteran who was only four years older than us, there was a huge scandal.

Nowadays, in neo-Soviet, even neo-Stalinist Russia, it is the norm to invite participants in wars of aggression to schools. Under the sign of Comrade Stalin, they teach children how to love Russia, fight for it, and, most importantly, to die for the sake of an illusory victory and not to think too much about it. Since the beginning of the large-scale invasion of Ukraine, videos from Russia have been popping up on the web time and time again, showing their schoolchildren, from the youngest to the oldest, forming the letter Z from their bodies in school classrooms, gyms, and yards. It's not as difficult as their fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers used to make living sculptures in the shape of the five-pointed star, the official symbol of the USSR.

“There are dozens, if not hundreds, of examples of massive militarized propaganda from across the curb. The message is the same: There is no need to be afraid of Stalin, dying in war is not scary, but honorable, and you are surrounded by enemies.”

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of examples of massive militarized propaganda from across the curb. The message is the same: There is no need to be afraid of Stalin, dying in war is not scary but honorable, and you are surrounded by enemies. By the way, the permanent editor of Yeralash, Boris Grachevsky, supported the war, turned his brainchild into a propaganda tool, and died of covid a year before the large-scale invasion. Without seeing the fruits of his work. But beyond that, the integration of Russian children into propaganda should have finally proved to those in Ukraine who still believe that it is possible to cure Russians someday.

Russia no longer has a future in the form that naive citizens both here and in the West want to see it. There was a small chance in 1988, when Stalin was frightening. But there is no chance now, when Stalin's profiles are decorating the uniforms of the participants of the so-called 'special operation,' who are heroes and patriots for Russian schoolchildren. And for their mothers, they are 'our boys.'

The American TV series The Walking Dead has a storyline that illustrates the impossibility of re-educating such children. A farmer keeps a group of zombies in his stable because he sincerely believes that they are people, they are seriously ill, and they can be cured. Only the death of his granddaughter from the teeth of the 'patients' allows him to change his mind. The farmer recognizes that they should either be destroyed or, if possible, forever isolated from the world.

And while the Armed Forces and all those fighting in different parts of the front are ready to destroy the enemy, even among the current government, not everyone is ready to isolate Russia and isolate themselves from it. Not to mention some cultural figures, officials, and even some Western leaders. But believing in some illusory recovery of Russia against the background of how children are being raised there now is like believing in the possibility of curing zombies.

Especially for Espreso.

About the author: Andrii Kokotiukha, writer, screenwriter.

The editors don't always share the opinions expressed by the authors of the blogs.