Indoctrination in Russia

Abstract

Drawing on original evidence from the Varieties of Indoctrination dataset, this article reviews changes in the politicization of school education in Russia between 1945 and 2021. It also puts Russia in comparative perspective, comparing Russia's indoctrination efforts and content to those of other non-democratic regimes. The evidence suggests that although Putin has insisted that students learn patriotic values in school ever since first coming to power in the early 2000s, his initial efforts at education reform had limited success. The annexation of Crimea in 2014 coincided with renewed investments in patriotic education and a clamp down on freedom of expression in the classroom.