Executive Summary:
- Russia is expanding military training in schools, increasing basic military instruction in grades 6–11 as of September 1 and adding drone and artificial intelligence training to prepare students for military service. The Kremlin is also introducing a class on the “Spiritual and Moral Culture of Russia.”
- Russia’s 2026 budget for military-patriotic activities reached approximately $910 million, a twentyfold increase compared to pre-war levels in 2021. Moscow has increasingly embedded military training, drone instruction, ideological indoctrination, and pro-Russian narratives into the education system in both Russia and occupied Ukraine.
- Since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Kremlin has invested in nationalistic school curriculum, propaganda films, television series, video games, and other digital content to normalize military service, glorify war, and shape youth attitudes toward Russia’s war against Ukraine.
On June 25, Russian Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov announced that half of the “Fundamentals of Homeland Security and Defense” class, which Russian children take from grades 6–11, will focus on basic military training as of September 1 (Interfax, June 25). Previously, only 20 percent of the class comprised basic military training. The additional military training will include instruction on artificial intelligence, and job training classes will include instruction on the use of drones (Perviy Technicheskiy, July 4).
Increasing military training in schools is a part of Moscow’s drive to militarize the Russian education system to prepare Russian children for military service and wartime jobs. There have been increasing calls among Russian politicians, particularly in the Russian Duma, to prepare children for war with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union after elementary school (Gazeta.ru, June 23).
The Kremlin has made the development of youth indoctrination and militarization a major state priority. Moscow allocated approximately 70 billion rubles ($910 million) for military-patriotic activities in 2026, 20 times more than in 2021, when it only allocated 3.4 billion rubles ($44 million) (Novaya Gazeta, June 4). Moscow plans to further increase the budget to 72 billion rubles ($940 million) in 2027 and 2028 (Vedomosti, October 1, 2025).
Moscow has combined the militarization of education with broader efforts to tighten ideological control over historical memory, embedding wartime narratives into the education system in parallel with military training. In May, Russia’s Ministry of Education approved a new concept for historical education in schools, kindergartens, colleges, and universities (Interfax, May 10). Its objective is to bolster a common Russian civic identity among young people and expand history clubs and competitions, placing special emphasis on preserving the memory of “defenders of the Fatherland,” including participants in Russia’s war against Ukraine (Izvestiya, May 10).
As of September 1, the Russian authorities will also introduce a class on the “Spiritual and Moral Culture of Russia.” The class will start for fifth graders in the second half of the 2026–2027 school year. As of the 2027–2028 school year, sixth and seventh graders will study the subject for 34 hours a year (The Moscow Times, July 2). Moscow intends the “Spiritual and Moral Culture of Russia” class to shape children’s worldview by drawing on traditional Russian spiritual and moral values and on lessons from the lives of Russian military, cultural, and social activists.
On June 20, Kravtsov said that the class was designed to communicate pro-Russian values and shape children’s identities (TASS, June 20, July 1). The Russian Education Ministry has issued instructions on how to teach the “Spiritual and Moral Culture of Russia” and is currently working to finalize a set of textbooks for it. The subject will play an increasing role in standardized nationalistic Russian education, alongside regularly held Russian flag-raising ceremonies, anthem singing, and “Conversations about Important Things”—mandatory weekly lessons across Russian schools instituted in 2022 that promote Kremlin narratives (TASS, June 20).
Moscow has been expanding state-funded “patriotic education” programs that indoctrinate children, normalize military service, and create recruitment pathways into the Russian Armed Forces and law enforcement agencies since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Schools have increasingly served as an entry point for the indoctrination and militarization of children. Many schools in both occupied Ukraine and mainland Russia have hosted regular military-patriotic activities, ranging from letter-writing campaigns for soldiers to the production of military equipment as part of their mandatory curriculum (Komsomolskaya Pravda, May 30; Regions.ru; United Russia, July 2). These include sewing military uniforms and camouflage nets, preparing trench candles, and producing medical and auxiliary items for wounded soldiers, combining education and wartime propaganda (Meduza, March 25).
In late 2025, the Russian authorities announced a new system for assessing schoolchildren’s physical condition. Key criteria are explicitly related to preparation for military service. Health indicators for children are increasingly being correlated with fitness for the Russian army (Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, December 31, 2025; Censor.net, January 2).
Since 2022, the Kremlin has implemented digital initiatives to militarize children. This year, Moscow allocated around 23 billion rubles ($300 million) to support the Internet Development Institute (IDI), a key state-backed operator of online content aimed at the “spiritual and moral education” of young people (Novaya Gazeta, June 4). IDI has channeled funds toward patriotic films, music, television series, websites, games, and other digital content designed to promote pro-Russian narratives and spread anti-Western and anti-Ukrainian messaging (Meduza, March 5; Novaya Gazeta, June 4). On July 1, IDI finalized the winners of its competition for the creation of patriotic content, allocating around 22 billion rubles ($285 million) to 152 projects for 2026–2028 (TASS, July 1).
Since 2024, IDI has increasingly allocated funding to militarized video games that promote Russian wartime narratives (Novaya Gazeta, February 11). In April, the Cats Who Play studio released the IDI-funded computer game, Gostomel Warriors, based on the Russian airborne operation at the Gostomel airfield near Kyiv in late February 2022 (Gazeta.ru, April 4). In February 2025, the game Detachment 22: ZOV, developed by Studio 22 with support from the Russian Ministry of Defense, was released, allowing players to participate in Russian military operations, including the assault on Mariupol and the capture of Melitopol (Novaya Gazeta, April 16, 2025). IDI selected, for an undisclosed amount of funding, nine more games for personal computers and phones, including role-playing game (RPG) shooters such as War of Worlds: Siberia, and strategy games such as Victory Banner, as winners of its last competition for the creation of patriotic content (TASS, July 1).
Moscow has increasingly invested in the gamification of war through state-funded video games that glorify Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, normalize military violence, and promote pro-Russian narratives around its war against Ukraine. The Kremlin has transformed youth education into an integrated system of ideological indoctrination, military preparation, and wartime socialization. Moscow has substantially increased the military component of childhood by providing school-based military activities, drone use instruction, physical readiness assessments, and state-funded digital propaganda delivered through video games, movies, and television series that increasingly reinforce one another. Moscow is normalizing violence and promoting pro-Russian narratives about its war against Ukraine to prepare children in Russia and occupied Ukraine for long-term aggression against Ukraine and the West.
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