ロシア新年度、新しい軍国主義教育開始　軍事訓練も

【モスクワＡＦＰ＝時事】ロシアで学校が新年度を迎えた１日、ウクライナ侵攻についてロシア政府の解釈を教えることを目的とした新しい軍国主義的な教育課程が始まった。ロシアでは既に、「重要な対話」と呼ばれる愛国的な授業が行われている。（写真はロシア・モスクワで、始業式で国旗を持って行進する児童ら）
　ウラジーミル・プーチン大統領はこの日、成績優秀な児童・生徒３０人を選抜して授業を行った。第２次世界大戦に言及し、「わが国は絶対無敵だった。今もそうだ」と語った。
　プーチン氏はまた、ビデオ通話を通じてロシア占領下にあるウクライナ南東部マリウポリにある学校の開校式に出席した。占領後、公共の場からウクライナを象徴する物を撤去してきたロシアが任命した当局は、市中心部に長いロシア国旗を広げた。
　新教育課程には、基礎軍事訓練が含まれる他、長らく廃止されていたソ連時代の科目が復活。さらに、プーチン氏の側近で、強硬派のウラジーミル・メジンスキー大統領補佐官が監修した新しい歴史教科書が使われる。
　ウラル山脈のふもとに位置するエカテリンブルクで歴史教師を務めるタチアナ・ バラバノバさんは、新しい教科書を絶賛した。表紙には、プーチン政権の象徴となっているクリミア半島と本土を結ぶ橋が描かれている。
　 バラバノバさんは「若者はわが国を中傷する大量のフェイクに惑わされている」と、プーチン氏の演説を思わせる言い回しを使った。
　「この新しい教科書には、勇気や英雄的な振る舞いについて、非常に分かりやすい例が紹介されている」と話した。
　教科書には、ウクライナ侵攻を称賛する箇所だけでなく、２０１４年のクリミア併合についてロシアが「平和を守った」と説明する箇所もある。
　 バラバノバさんの同僚で体育教師のエレーナ・ソバキナさんは、新たに始まる基礎軍事訓練で使用するガスマスクや、救急訓練用のダミーの手を見せた。
　基礎軍事訓練の対象は１５～１８歳。ソバキナさんは「子どもたちは兵役とはどのようなものかを理解するだろう」と話した。
　同校は「戦闘用無人機の戦術訓練と理論訓練」も実施。ソバキナさんは、ウクライナの前線で戦う兵士から話を聞く機会も設ける計画だ。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/09/04-15:03）

Girls with big white hair bows and boys in blazers held hands as they lined up for their first day back to school in Moscow, with parents watching proudly and, for some including Sergei Angelov, anxiously.
Like children across Russia, Angelov's 12-year-old daughter will study the country's new militarised curriculum, amid Moscow's grinding assault in Ukraine that has seen increasingly frequent strikes on the Russian capital.
We are living in difficult times, the 39-year-old driver said.
All sorts of things are happening and can happen.
Nineteen months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his troops in Ukraine, drones now hit Moscow almost daily.
The conflict has spilled to schools, with a new program designed to instil the Kremlin's version of events in Ukraine to younger generations.
Since the beginning of the offensive Russia had already introduced patriotic lectures called Important Conversations.
For the start of the new school year, Putin taught the flagship lecture in front of 30 teenagers selected for their academic achievements.
We were absolutely invincible during World War II, Putin said, and we are the same now.
The Russian leader also opened a new school via video-call in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which was razed to the ground last spring before being seized by the Russian army.
Moscow-installed officials, who since the city's capture have undertaken to erase Ukrainian symbols from public spaces, rolled out a long Russian flag across the centre of the city.
- 'Courage and heroism' -
Russian children's updated school program includes basic military training, reviving a Soviet-era subject that had long been abandoned.
Teachers are also to use a new history textbook praising the offensive, written under the curation of Putin's hardliner ally Vladimir Medinsky.
More than 2,000 kilometres (1,300 miles) eastwards in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, local history teacher Tatiana Barabanova applauded the course book, whose cover features Putin's flagship bridge linking annexed Crimea to Russia's mainland.
Young people are disorientated by various mass fakes slandering our country, she said, using terms reminiscent of Putin's speeches.
In this new textbook, there are very clear examples of courage and heroism, she said.
The book praises Russia's assault on Ukraine and features sections explaining Moscow was saving peace in 2014 when it annexed Crimea.
Her colleague, first aid and sports teacher Yelena Sobachkina, meanwhile showed off gas masks and plastic hands with fake wounds that will be used in the new primary military preparation courses.
They will understand what military service is like, Sobachkina said, adding it was aimed at 15- to 18-year -olds.
She said the school would also introduce the teens to tactical training and theoretical training of combat drones.
Sobachkina plans to bring soldiers from the Ukraine front to speak to her students.
- 'Prepare the children' -
Sergei Varalov welcomed the prospect of seeing his child getting more teaching on the conflict in Ukraine.
The political situation is such that the whole world has collapsed on us, the 55-year-old builder said.
He also expressed support for military trainings and increased patriotic education.
We need to prepare (the children), he said, while clarifying, I am not saying that it should be like North Korea.
Back in Moscow, 83-year-old Nina Ivanova, watched her grandson start his new job as a teacher.
The pensioner hoped the job would relieve him from the army in the event that Russia would introduce another mobilisation.
In the crowd, painter Irina Dobrokhotova, just back from annexed-Crimea, was dropping her son Daniil to school.
There are reasons for concerns... You just need to be prepared for anything and not be afraid, Dobrokhotova said.
But she added: Everyone is hoping for the best.