Raising Citizen-Soldiers in Donbas: Russia's Role in Promoting Patriotic Education Programmes in the Donetsk and Luhansk Peoples’ Republics
Journal: Ethnopolitics
Year: 2023

This article examines the role of Russian officials, servicemen, veterans, and paramilitary organisations in coordinating patriotic education programmes in the Donetsk and Luhansk Peoples’ Republics (DNR/LNR) since 2014. Three complementary objectives underpin these programmes: first, indoctrinating youth to a worldview which promotes cultural assimilation into Russian society and denigrates Ukrainian statehood and identity; second, shoring up de facto authorities’ legitimacy by glorifying the D