{"id":153989,"date":"2025-09-05T15:19:02","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T12:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/153989\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T15:19:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T12:19:04","slug":"state-propaganda-lesson-in-belarusian-schools-a-relay-race-no-one-wants-to-run","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/153989\/","title":{"rendered":"State propaganda lesson in Belarusian schools: a relay race no one wants to run"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Belarusian schoolchildren began the new academic year by reading letters supposedly written by members of Soviet youth organizations of the past century \u2014 Octobrists, Pioneers and Komsomol. The exercise aims to immerse students in the values of a mythologized Soviet past.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n (Pozirk file photo)<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The official teaching guide for the nationwide lesson, titled \u201cA Relay of Generations: Preserving the Past, Creating the Future,\u201d invites children of all ages to analyze a word cloud filled with Soviet-era slogans and expressions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Younger pupils are read a letter from the Octobrists of the 20th century; middle schoolers receive a message from the Pioneers; and older students, an address from the Komsomol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Picture a teacher solemnly reading out a \u201cletter from the Octobrists of 1970,\u201d reminding children that \u201conly those who love work can be called Octobrists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fake revival<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One \u201cOctobrist letter\u201d contains a revealing line: \u201cIt\u2019s so interesting to look into the future and find out how Octobrists live in the 21st century. What are your rules, what do you do? And what has changed in Belarus over 50 years?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here the use of the modern name \u201cBelarus\u201d is anachronistic. In the 1970s the republic was almost exclusively called \u201cByelorussia.\u201d<\/em> The official shift to \u201cBelarus\u201d came only in 1991, when the Supreme Soviet adopted a law renaming the Byelorussian SSR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

High schoolers are asked to build \u201cchains of continuity\u201d from the word cloud. For example: \u201cGreat Victory \u2192 BRSM [Komsomol-style Belarusian National Youth Union] \u2192 student construction brigades \u2192 shock construction project \u2192 preservation of historical memory.\u201d Seventeen-year-olds must then explain how the Soviet victory in World War II connects to the revival of student construction brigades in 2005.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This forced narrative stitches together events separated by decades to suggest an unbroken ideological lineage. In doing so, today\u2019s pro-government youth organizations can claim their share of Soviet heroism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But why 2005? Records show that as early as 1994, the Ministry of Justice registered the League of Voluntary Youth Labor, which sought to preserve student brigades and promote volunteering. By the time the BRSM \u2014 the regime\u2019s flagship youth group \u2014 was registered in 2002, the League was already active.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The missing link is Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka\u2019s 2005 edict granting the BRSM a privileged role in managing student brigades. Since then, the organization has enjoyed priority access to state resources and budget funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teachers told to localize history<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The standardized nationwide lesson opens with a quotation from \u0141uka\u0161enka: \u201cWithout traditions, there is no nation, no state. This is about the continuity of a people\u2019s history and the preservation of its cultural code.\u201d The words are accompanied by his portrait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The central element of the lesson is the three letters from Soviet youth. One, dated 1967, is accompanied by a photo and looks authentic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The others exist only as text and appear fabricated. The guide even advises teachers to \u201csupplement the letters with region-specific information.\u201d In practice, educators are instructed to rewrite \u201chistorical documents\u201d to fit local needs \u2014 a method reminiscent of Orwell\u2019s Ministry of Truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glory of Belarusian bread and salt<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The final section of the 20-page manual praises the \u201cachievements of modern Belarus.\u201d Predictably, real issues are ignored while everyday products are elevated to national triumphs in a Soviet-style language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMinskchlebpram bakers have developed unique technologies for producing legendary types of Belarusian bread: Nara\u010danski and Radzivi\u0142a\u016dski.\u201d Another line boasts: \u201cSalt made in the Republic of Belarus, among other things, is recommended for home canning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To add weight, statistics are rolled out: \u201cMore than 1,500 students in grades 9\u201311 study at the National Children\u2019s High Tech Park,\u201d and \u201c218,000 solar panels have been installed near Re\u010dyca.\u201d These numbers may sound impressive, but their actual significance is opaque to schoolchildren.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ideological machine from cradle to workplace<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The September 1 lesson is just one cog in a much larger ideological system that the Belarusian authorities have been constructing for years. The goal is nothing less than reshaping citizens\u2019 consciousness from preschool to retirement, using familiar Soviet methods: mass events, mandatory lectures and constant reporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The underlying assumption is that students are empty vessels, easily filled with slogans and symbols. But today\u2019s children grow up in a media environment where state propaganda competes with YouTube, TikTok and peer culture. Unlike in Soviet times, the state no longer enjoys a monopoly over young people\u2019s worldview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teenagers know more about the Marvel universe than about Komsomol construction brigades. Their emotional lives revolve around video games and TV series, not Soviet heroes like Pavlik Morozov \u2014 the boy who, according to official lore, denounced his father and was murdered by relatives for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The manual, written in the language of the 1970s, is an anachronistic attempt at indoctrination in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What parents can do<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Still, the effects of early indoctrination should not be underestimated. Lessons taught in primary school are often absorbed unquestioningly, quietly shaping a worldview aligned with the state\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parents can counter this by explaining how propaganda works and offering alternative perspectives. That requires honesty: schools may distort facts, but teachers are not enemies \u2014 they are bound by imposed programs. What matters is helping children think critically without exposing them to danger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In authoritarian Belarus, open resistance carries risks. Even in the relatively \u201csoft\u201d years of \u0141uka\u0161enka\u2019s rule, students faced repression for their views. In 2008, for example, Ivan \u0160yla, a member of Malady Front, a nationalist opposition youth organization, was expelled from school on political grounds just before his final exam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The challenge is to preserve children\u2019s independence of thought while ensuring their safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A relay race no one wants to run<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By attempting to manufacture loyalty, the regime risks producing the opposite: a generation of skeptics hardened against any ideological appeal \u2014 even legitimate ones in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the government has dubbed its flagship ideological lesson of 2025 a \u201crelay of generations,\u201d in reality it severs intergenerational ties. Parents raised in the 1990s and 2000s do not recognize their own childhood in it. Children of 2025 cannot decode the language of Soviet pioneers. Teachers, meanwhile, are forced to deliver content they themselves do not believe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In proclaiming that they are \u201cpreserving the past to build the future,\u201d the authorities may instead be destroying the very continuity they claim to defend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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