An online backlash has undermined Russia’s attempt to indoctrinate schoolgirls to fight for Vladimir Putin.
Most of the country’s propaganda war has been against boys, but now the war is targeting girls.
An example is the Primorsky region, where for the first time schoolgirls aged 15 and 16 are being initiated into ‘military-patriotic education’.
In neighboring Belarus, beauty pageant participants were recruited to “inspire” girls and women to join up and fight for Putin’s ally and vote-rigging dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
In Primorsky – in faraway Russia – some 75 schoolgirls were trained in military ‘basics’, including drills, tactical, fire, and physical training, and instruction in radiation, chemical and biological protection.
By the end of the year, another 300 girls – and 1,000 boys – will be enrolled in intensive five-day courses seen as precursors to military careers or mobilization.
Such moves are underway across Russia’s eleven time zones, amid Putin’s war against Ukraine.
This comes as the number of members of Putin’s Yunarmia, or Young Army, compared to the Hitler Youth, has increased by 1.4 million people.
The organization is accused of militarizing young people in Russia.
In Primorsky, senior education official Oksana Novikova told the girls: “Love for the motherland, patriotism and responsibility have always been instilled in young people, regardless of their gender. You are the first in our female team, so I want to wish you the best of luck, and patience and of course unlock your potential – go for it.”
In Belarus, participants in the Miss Belarus 2023 pageant had to take a course of military instruction.
Nadezhda Tolstikova, who won the Miss Top Model of Miss Belarus 2023 contest, said: “The impressions are simply amazing, I have already practiced shooting, I shot a gun, and now it’s just…The smell of gunpowder… I’ll definitely continue shooting again.”
Colonel Sergei Grebennikov, deputy commander of dictator Lukashenko’s internal forces, suggested the event was intended to glorify the military.
“They will see firsthand what our strong, respectable boys are capable of,” he said.
Girls are being ‘inspired’ to join the military and security services in the repressive state, according to a report.
But in the Telegram comments, the Primorsky militarization of girls was attacked.
One said: ‘Girls, girls, girls, what are you doing? Who did you fight, who attacked you? Hitler? Obama? Zelensky? Or idiocy?’
Katerina commented on the ChTD channel: “The girls have not even lived yet, but they are already washing their brains and preparing to die at the whims of crazy grandfathers.”
Another said: ‘I don’t have the strength to watch this.’ Tatiana asked, “I would like to understand why?”
Another complained: ‘We are being inundated with military indoctrination, first for boys and now, as we see, for girls. This war has already killed enough. How long? How many more have to die?’
But Svetlana Tulinova said: “There are only traitors in these comments. Good job, girls. Let them learn to fight.”
