Systemic Indoctrination and Its Ideological Foundations in Russian Education after 2022

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Krassimir Stojanov
• Subject Area: General Education and History of Education
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 564760304

In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, and since then hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian men and women have died in the bloody war, which has also caused immense material and mental costs. Nevertheless, a vast majority of the Russian people continue to approve of the invasion and Putin’s regime in general. We believe that one important reason for this is the massive indoctrination that has taken place in the Russian education system for about one and a half decades. In this project, we aim to find a theoretically and empirically well-grounded answer to the question of how and on the basis of which ideological constructs this indoctrination functions. The traditional studies on indoctrination are primarily focused on individual forms of classroom brainwashing. However, we argue that indoctrination can no longer be seen solely as a matter of teaching. As Cristopher Martin shows, a broader concept of institutional indoctrination is needed for the cases, in which indoctrination extends beyond the individual teacher-student interaction and is carried out by educational institutions that indoctrinate, even if the teachers at these institutions do not intend to do so or are not aware of the indoctrinative character of their teaching. In this project, we go even one step further by trying to explore how not only single educational institutions, but also an entire national education system can indoctrinate. The central research question of the project – how does systemic indoctrination operate within contemporary Russian education, and on the basis of which ideological constructs – is operationalized in the following sub-questions: 1. What content is being inculcated through education? 2. Which indoctrinative methods are used in teaching and to what extent? 3. What are the intentions behind the actions of the regime, educational institutions, and teachers? 4. Consequences: What are the actual manifestations of closed-mindedness in Russian education? What are the collective outcomes of these practices? How apparently critical thinking, when operating within a closed mindset, could lead to ideologically 'correct' outcomes? 5. Which values are being promoted through education, educational policy, and through institutional management? 6. How the indoctrinative practices are enforced? In order to answer these questions, we will study textbooks, curricula, and institutionalized practices in the current Russian education system by applying the approaches of the conceptual analysis, the normative analysis and the critical discourse analysis.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Canada
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Christopher Martin, Ph.D.