By Galina Korol | 2024-08-05

KYIV -- Propaganda-stuffed museums glorifying Russia's invasion of Ukraine -- the so-called "special military operation" -- are popping up throughout Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory.

Moscow plans to put these museums in every school and every village under its control, Ukrainian media reported, citing the National Resistance Center.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)'s Novyny Pryazovya project reported on July 28 on the spread of such museums.

These museums will be overseen by specialists who are working with the occupation authorities in schools or personnel cells of the so-called administrations, RFE/RL reported.

Russian military units, with the participation of "war correspondents" who deliver Kremlin falsifications rather than the facts, are expected to provide the objects for exhibitions.

These museums follow a Soviet precedent, Kostyantyn Batozsky, a political analyst and director of the Azov Development Agency, told Kontur.

"In 1939, when the occupiers entered western Ukraine [at the time, part of Poland] ... they put Lenin monuments in every village," he said.

"Monumental propaganda" is "very typical for the Russian occupiers," he added.

Today's Kremlin is relying on Soviet methods of propaganda, agreed Yevhen Shatilov, a historian from Kherson.

These invasion-celebrating museums evoke "the 'museums of glory' that sprang up [all over the Soviet Union] and were affiliated with schools and [universities], and sometimes workplaces in the 1960s and '70s," Shatilov, a researcher at Ukraine's National Military History Museum, told Kontur, referring to museums dedicated to World War II.

The goal at the time was to foster a "cult of victory" among Soviet citizens, and to do that, they even distorted history, he said.

"Very often with these exhibitions there was a story, which, to put it mildly, they fabricated or distorted quite a bit ... But this was all supposed to immerse schoolchildren in the history of the great victory [over Nazism]," Shatilov said.

Focus on children

Now the Russians are portraying their invasion as "Russia's great fight with so-called Ukrainian Nazis," said Shatilov.

However, the new museums have a much more difficult time propagandizing this war, he said.

"It's harder to trick the local residents and to push an untruthful story on them because these museums reflect events that are unfolding right now," he said.

When memories are fresh, "you can't just take some [present-day] guy who wasn't really a hero, who robbed residents of his own village or committed various crimes, and now say that he's a hero," he said.

Faced with this problem, the museums "often invoke an abstract person wearing a balaclava," he added.

Museum curators and other propagandists are focused on brainwashing children, he continued.

"Their personalities aren't formed yet, so it's possible to somehow influence them and reap 'future dividends,'" Shatilov said.

Forcing children to visit and to imbibe the Kremlin's message is part of the strategy.

"So far, certain methodological materials have been created to develop school museum art ... The museum is also becoming a place that [children] must visit," Oleg Ohredko, an analyst at Almenda, told Kontur.

Almenda is a Ukrainian NGO that publicizes Russian abuses in Crimea.

The work of whitewashing history and brainwashing children grinds on, Ohredko said.

"In Melitopol [educators] have unveiled a schoolroom desk honoring [Pavel] Sudoplatov," he said.

Melitopol native Sudoplatov (1907-1996) was an assassin in the 1930s and 1940s for Stalin's secret police.

Extolling that old Stalinist henchman is part of a campaign to "spread the word about the actions of World War II troops," he said.

Clearly, schools in Russian-occupied Ukraine now exist to indoctrinate children, Batozsky contended.

"Their primary interest is to produce more cannon fodder for future wars," Batozsky said.

Dying for their occupier

Already, generations of indoctrinated young Ukrainians are fighting for Russia.

Men who were about eight years old when Russia occupied Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk in 2014 are now receiving draft notices and being sent to fight for the Kremlin.

This phenomenon has been confirmed by an Almenda study, "Commemorative Plaques as Evidence of Crimes of the Russian Federation in Crimea," that came out last summer. The plaques honored Crimean men who were killed fighting for the Kremlin in Ukraine.

The goal of Moscow in the occupied territories is "to raise true patriots of Russia, who, if necessary, will defend the 'Motherland' with weapons in their hands," reads the Almenda report from July 27, 2023.

The proof can be seen in "memorial plaques ... on the walls of educational institutions in temporarily occupied Crimea," Almenda said. "Some of them were over 12 years old at the time of the occupation -- and they fully experienced the ... destruction of Ukrainian identity, militarization and assimilation."

Given what the Kremlin is doing, only two factors can save young Ukrainians growing up in occupied territory: liberation and what they hear in their own homes, say analysts.

"Many people remember the Soviet experience," said Batozsky. "Children ... trust information from their families more than the information they get in school."

Therefore, Ukraine must "support a living connection with [residents of occupied territories]," he said. "Everyone needs to understand that Ukraine does not pose any danger."