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1/ 'Patriotic education' has become very profitable in Russia, with the federal and regional governments pouring millions of rubles into propaganda for schoolchildren. An entire industry selling ready-to-use patriotic educational equipment has appeared to capitalise on demand. ⬇️
2/ The 'Not the Norm' Telegram channel documents the Russian state's extensive efforts to imbue children with militaristic propaganda. It highlights how Russian companies are profiting from the requirement to integrate 'patriotic education' with the school curriculum.
3/ In one recent example, pictured above and here, an 'AVK Kremlin' "interactive complex of civic and patriotic education" was installed in the pre-school department of school No. 10 in the Moscow Oblast city of Lyubertsy. It's stylised to look like the Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower.
4/ The manufacturer and school head claim it "should stimulate the child's interest in studying the history of his own homeland and encourage the development of patriotism" and "allows us to create in children, in a relaxed way, a sense of patriotism and pride for our country".
5/ It's certainly not cheap, costing 375,000 rubles (nearly $4,000, or about a third of the average Russian's annual salary). As this shows, there is a lot of money to be made from Russia's patriotic education programme.
6/ The AVK Kremlin is manufactured by a company from Novocherkassk, which offers a range of interactive civil-patriotic education systems for prices of between 89,000–399,000 rubles. It's signed educational contracts worth 25 million rubles ($263,500) in the last 12 months alone.
7/ Alma LLC from St. Petersburg sells patriotic educational equipment costing from 10,900 roubles to 475,000 roubles ($5,000). The company has earned over 19 million rubles ($200,000) in state contracts over the last year.
8/ Another company, Novatsiya LLC from Tyumen, supplies patriotic paraphernalia and folk costumes in addition to patriotic equipment – for instance, 10 caps for 3,860 rubles ($41). They have supplied 7.9 million rubles ($83,300) worth of such goods over the last 12 months.
9/ The manufacturers and resellers are clearly charging inflated prices – one company, Globus LLC from Yekaterinburg, is adding a 32 percent markup to the items it redistributes. However, the state is seemingly happy to pay out even as schools' funding suffers. /end
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