Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has touted the creation of 175 “museums” to the invasion of Ukraine inside schools in the Russian capital.
Sobyanin said in a social media post on April 23 that the museums will “help young Muscovites better understand the modern history of their homeland and its heroes.”
The stated number of 175 Moscow schools and colleges that now have invasion museums represents some 8 percent of all such educational facilities in the Russian capital. As recently as March 2024, RFE/RL’s Russian Service identified just two schools in Moscow with museums to the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Classroom exhibits glorifying the ongoing invasion and memorializing former students killed in Ukraine began appearing in schools in 2023 after a directive from the Kremlin in February that year. Until recently, however, such displays were largely limited to towns and villages in poorer regions of Russia where aggressive military recruitment has made the war a part of everyday life.
A teacher who spoke to RFE/RL’s Russian Service in 2024 said exhibits featuring war memorabilia from Ukraine “are shown to schoolchildren in towns where many people are mobilized or where they’re still raking in contract soldiers by luring them with big money.”
The educator, who asked not to be named, added that unlike the smaller Russian towns where genuine enthusiasm for the war was more likely to be drummed up, “in the capital and larger cities people are probably more sceptical and rebellious.”
The drive to open military museums in Moscow’s schools comes as reports emerge from Russia of universities being coopted by the Kremlin for military recruitment.
Students have complained of facing “colossal” pressure from their universities to sign up for the army since around the beginning of 2026. Offers of some $58,000 for a one-year contract and free tuition are reportedly being made during meetings with military recruiters that are organized by the universities.
Higher-learning facilities in Russia had long been viewed a safe haven from military recruiters.
Images of the Moscow school museums that were released along with Sobyanin’s social media post show displays echoing many of the historical talking points used by the Kremlin to justify its ongoing invasion.
One school museum shows a map of Ukraine divided into various chunks of land, listing the Soviet and Tsarist leaders who “gifted” the territories to Kyiv.
A teacher in St. Petersburg told RFE/RL’s Russian Service that the school exhibits are more likely to generate awkwardness than support for the war.
“The problem is that teenagers develop cynicism. They’ve already realized that their elders routinely lie, yet they have to play this game.”
