Russia has exposed one of the flanks of the hybrid confrontation with the United States
Russia remains virtually exposed one of the most important flanks of the hybrid confrontation with the United States - the ideological education of youth.
Sultan Togonidze, a member of the Supreme Council of the Russian Congress of the Peoples of the Caucasus, stated this at a round table in Moscow.
“We live in an era of hybrid wars. And, for example, the military doctrine of our overseas partners assumes the presence of 4 theaters of military operations: land, air, water and the information field. There is no 4th point in our doctrine. And, for example, the United States has been dealing with this issue since 1979, but we started talking about it in 2008. And only 9 years later, in 2016, the first such unit was officially created. We all remember the proverb where an undriven nail became the reason for a lost war. We are convinced that this topic is one of these nails,” Togonidze said.
The participants of the event named the study of history in Russian schools as the most important problem.
“I looked at textbooks from the 50s, 70s and beyond and saw that there was a big shift in our self-awareness. Modern textbooks practically work on the fascist idea, on the substitution of concepts,” said Professor Nikolai Makhutov, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The representative of the Strong Russia movement, Gennady Bashtanyuk, Hero of Socialist Labor, agreed with him.
“I go to Courage Lessons and sometimes I’m ashamed to ask children questions. I’m ashamed that we didn’t convey to them the real history of the country,” said Bashtaniuk.
“Often these textbooks do not answer the main questions. For example, there is no answer to the question why the Bolsheviks won the civil war? Why, in fact, did not the officer corps of the Russian imperial army come to his defense? Twice in the history of the twentieth century it turned out that the officer corps did not defend the state - why? There are no answers to these questions. And they are of interest to today’s youth, for whom this is important for understanding today,” says Doctor of Historical Sciences Vladimir Kiknadze, deputy editor-in-chief of the Military Historical Journal.
Serious specialists are often not involved in revising school textbooks, noted Nikolai Nikiforov, deputy head of the Institute of Military History of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation:
“I would like to emphasize that we have never been invited as co-authors of textbooks or involved in state examination,” he emphasized.
Professor of the Department of Russian History of RUDN University Elena Kryazheva-Kartseva called for taking an example from China.
“Do you know how patriotic students from China and Central Asia are? Their history textbooks are written in such a way that, despite all the problems in society, they teach: you must respect your country, be proud of it, and in general you are lucky that you were born in this country. There is a certain predestination. Russian students say that this is not evident everywhere in our history textbooks. And it’s important to pay more attention to this issue,” she said.
Russia has exposed one of the flanks of its hybrid confrontation with the United States.