Russian authorities are building the largest military-patriotic youth education center in the countrys northwest amid a wider militarization of young Russians that has accelerated since Russia invaded Ukraine, pro-Kremlin media hasreported.The Avangard teaching center in the Vologda region is expected to hold its first training camp in 2023, with 5,000 children and teens expected to go through its doors every year, according to the World War II-themed news website pobedarf.ru.High school and college students there will practice shooting sports, learn navigation skills and gain knowledge in robotics and the use of drones, Vologda region Governor Oleg Kuvshinnikov was quoted as saying.Military-patriotic educational center Avangard in Moscow region.avangard.centerWeve started to create the largest training and methodological center of military-patriotic education [in northwest Russia] on the instructions of President Vladimir Putin and with the support of the Russian Defense Ministry, he said.We will prepare high school and college students for military service, military-patriotic education and physical development, Kuvshinnikov said at a teachers council this week.The first Avangard teaching centeropened at a sprawling military-themed park outside Moscow in 2020.Defense Minister Sergei Shoigusaid in May of this year that the Avangard military-patriotic youth education centers would be built in other Russian cities with populations of more than 100,000.The education centers are part of Kremlin efforts to raise a new generation of loyal citizens which include afast-growing Youth Army,youth-oriented televisionprogramming, and patriotism and war historyin Russias education law.
Polls have said younger Russians are generally less likely to support their countrys so-called special military operation in Ukraine than older generations.Since the invasion began, Russian authorities have extended compulsory patriotic history education toinclude 7-year-olds, ordered theappointment of patriotic school advisers andtweaked the curriculum to teach high schoolers about Ukraine from a viewpoint favorable to the Kremlin.Putin enshrined patriotic education in Russias school curriculum in 2020, part of controversial constitutional reforms which allowed the president to extend his 20-year rule into 2036.