This is a blues for those,
Who didn't pass the OGE,
This is a blues for those,
Who are in complete mess.
Band Fire Granny, «OGE»
(a song about the Basic State Exam, taken by ninth graders)
Moscow, January 1, 2025. The President of the Russian Federation instructed to «present proposals for the creation of a unified balanced (interconnected) methodology for teaching the Russian language and literature in the implementation of basic general and professional educational programs» by May 1, 2025. Instruction by June 1, 2026: «... with the involvement of leading universities and other interested organizations, ensure the creation of a unified state line of school textbooks on the Russian language, literature, and literary reading for use in the implementation of educational programs of primary general, basic general, and secondary general education, providing for the creation of teaching aids (Russian language dictionaries) in the set with them».
In a country where everyone marches in step and thinks (and behaves) in unison, where several school unified history textbooks with a Stalinist bias are already in use, where universities teach «scientific Putinism» as part of the ideological course «Foundations of Russian Statehood», where a «law of laws on banning everything» is being prepared, of course, the lines of unified textbooks must be replenished.
And these textbooks, regardless of the subject, must be ideologized—this has always been the case throughout history in totalitarian regimes. In math classes, the percentage of outsiders and the number of people who could fit in a bomb shelter of a certain size were calculated, in native language classes, an example with the prefix «non-» implied describing the titular nation as «invincible, incomparable, unique, indomitable». «Orthodox sociology», which suddenly emerged at MSU, only opened the gates for various institutions in different universities, the latest being the Ivan Ilyin Higher Political School at RGGU under Dugin's leadership. There, «Western Studies» will be taught—a charlatan discipline for turning young people into fierce nationalists and imperialists.
What will be in the textbooks is roughly clear. At least from the national-patriotic literature textbook by Lebedev for the 10th grade, which we Newtimeshave already analyzed, including passages like: «Russian literature from Pushkin to Chekhov retained a powerful charge of affirmation, linked with popular ideals, Orthodox-Christian in their essence». The line (in every sense of the word) on Russian will be built according to the ideological canon, meaning fragments from secondary writers who wrote something about the war using pompous language and official poster style will be analyzed. Drop by drop, but Putin's ideology will be instilled. By any means. As, for example, in the «Graduate's Training Set. EGE-2025», a manual from the Federal Institute of Pedagogical Measurements (FIPI), which school teacher and publicist Irina Lukyanova drew attention to.
Here too, as in history, there are monopolists—control and measurement materials (KIMs) are prepared by a specialist in his field no less loyal than Medinsky, Igor Doshchinsky. Here is an example of an assignment based on texts by Boris Gorbatov, not the most brilliant military writer, but twice a Stalin Prize laureate and a native of the Luhansk region, which is important in the context of current mythologies and ideologies penetrating the young mind:
«...1. In clear weather, the loader Fedoruk sees his native mine from his dugout. The mine is dead, there are enemies.
2. In battles for the native Donbass, the miner division of Hero of the Soviet Union Colonel Provalov was formed, tempered, and grew.
3. My family name has one opinion: to stand for Donbass to the last.
4. Songs will someday be composed about the battles for Donbass.
Assignment 1: Independently select a personal pronoun that should be in the blank space in the first (1) paragraph of the text. Write down this pronoun...»
The technology is straightforward and simple. Although its effect is not obvious: when a teenager completes an assignment, he pays more attention to the form rather than the meaning. But subconsciously, the meaning seeps into the brain—this is the logic of those who are ready to mold propaganda clichés from any trash and material. Erika Mann in «School of Barbarians» explained the mechanics of infiltration this way:
«...In the past, absurd sentences were used to illustrate grammatical rules. <...> But when you see the phrase: «The bomber of my homeland brings destruction», you have to think only about the content. You realize the essence! And the essence is that «the bomber of your homeland brings destruction»!...»
Nevertheless, both personal school experience in the peak years of stagnation and practical ideas about how modern teenagers are arranged indicate the opposite effect of such ruthless pressure on the immature brain—a natural reaction of rejection may occur. And the OGE and EGE themselves are extremely challenging, including psychologically, tests for a young person, and here are examples infinitely distant from the life and interests of a teenager, involving «slag removers». There are so many examples of real military prose, if you really need to envelop a child in military themes, take Boris Vasiliev, Vasil Bykov, Konstantin Simonov, finally. It didn't work very well in the 1970s either, but at least it's literature. Not to mention the then-banned, although also awarded the Stalin Prize, Viktor Nekrasov. Viktor Astafyev, however, in today's times, is unlikely to fit into empty patriotism. As well as Bulat Okudzhava, whose song from «Belorussian Station» was not disdained by the «creators» of the New Year's concert on central TV: when Leps and Shaman sing «We need one victory»—this is an unheard-of desecration of the memory of the war and Bulat Shalvovich, this is the regime's privatization of what not only does not belong to it but also directly opposes it with all its meaning and pathos. Everything that regime propagandists touch turns into grandiose vulgarity.
N. Rastorguev, G. Leps, SHAMAN. Photo: 1tv.ru
The same fate awaits «unified textbook lines». The problem is that this is not the end, but only the beginning of the road to degradation: work on a «glossary» of concepts related to «traditional values» has already been announced, which will allow not only to enter even more tightly into the private life of Russian families and invade the consciousness of children but also to make repressive legislation even more repressive. The «Institute for the Study of Traditional Values» will work on applied traditionalism with taxpayers' money, as announced by Duma Vice Speaker Anna Kuznetsova.
Not all children are susceptible to vulgarity. And especially in a situation of coercion to it. The sacred is desecrated if it falls into the hands of those who use this sacred for unintended purposes. For example, to maintain power or build an autocratic regime. And then skepticism and irony come to the stage (not to be confused, by the way, in this case with cynicism). So in one incredibly popular teenage play in today's Moscow, where the truth about high school students' attitudes towards what is happening around them is told, young actors wonderfully play out a scene of attempts to write an essay on the hypocritical topic «Why good always triumphs over evil». And sing a song by the band Fire Granny:
«...Why does good
Triumph over evil?
Because evil
Was unlucky.
Because evil has growing children,
Because evil's nets are worn out,
Because evil decided to quit—
And good came to defeat it...»
Absurdity and archaism are powerless against all-conquering smart irony. Children will take the OGE and EGE according to the templates of ideologized and embittered uncles and aunts. But more so to get rid of formal requirements and bargain for the right to do their own thing, what is truly interesting. The regime of militarized old people will try to use these growing children, for that purpose they are being indoctrinated with Putinism. And children, though not all, will resist the world imposed on them by today's adults. It's just a pity that many of them will leave Putin's Russia, Leps, and the «Institute for the Study of Traditional Values», not wanting to waste their lives fighting vulgarity.
* Andrey Kolesnikov is considered a «foreign agent» by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation.