nam 22 uu 4500 10.59704/9a740bba5080df20 DE-Verfassungsblog cr||||| 250903s2025||||xx#|||||o|||| ||| 0|eng|| 10.59704/9a740bba5080df20 doi eng 342 23 Vorobiova, Anastasiia Author aut (orcid)0000-0002-4470-1269 The School Bell That Rings for War - How Russia is Weaponizing its Education System Vorobiova, Anastasiia Verfassungsblog 2025-09-03 Text txt rdacontent Computermedien c rdamedia Online-Ressource cr rdacarrier On 1 September, known in Russia as Knowledge Day, thousands of schoolchildren were once again welcomed back with the ringing of the symbolic first bell, marking the beginning of new school year. However, this school bell does not toll for knowledge or peace. Instead, it symbolizes how Russia has transformed schools into factories for transmitting state-sponsored propaganda to younger generations. In this blog, I explain how Russia is strategically weaponizing the educational system to raise a militarized generation of subjects that accepts and embraces the normalcy of war. It seeks to achieve this goal, inter alia, through military training and involvement of children in the production of combat equipment; obligating teachers to teach state-mandated falsification of history; and forcing cultural assimilation of Ukrainians living in occupied territories.   CC BY-SA 4.0 Disinformation Educational policy History Right to education Russia Russian War against Ukraine Ukraine Max Steinbeis Verfassungsblog gGmbH Verfassungsblog 2366-7044 https://verfassungsblog.de/the-school-bell-that-rings-for-war/ raw object