Days after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, Andrei Shestakov opened a set of files in a WhatsApp group chat for history teachers like himself in his town in east Russia.
The files — which contain dozens of pages of documents and presentations as well as video links — are instructions on how to teach teenage schoolchildren about the conflict. It’s unclear who shared the files to the group chat, but many of the documents carry the crest of the education ministry in Moscow.
The material includes lesson guides stating that Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine were heroes, that Ukraine's rulers made common cause with people who collaborated with World War II Nazis, that the West was trying to spread discord in Russian society, and that Russians must stick together.
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