Another lesson from the “Conversations About Important Things” series was held in Russian schools, dedicated to Russian Science Day. Students were told about the role of science in the country’s development and why it is important for state sovereignty. The key value emphasized by the authors of the lesson was patriotism.
Students were told about the “great contribution of Russian scientists” to the global history of discoveries. The lesson script stresses that “many discoveries that changed people’s lives around the world were made in Russia,” and claims that today scientists receive state support that helps them “generate new knowledge for the country and the world.”
In grades 5–7, teachers asked students to reflect on what unites scientists and heroes, guiding them toward the idea of “selfless service to the Motherland and to people,” and to consider how scientific work can be a form of serving the country.
“How do you understand the phrase ‘to work for the benefit of your country’?” — the teacher asks.
Special attention was given to sovereignty. Students were told that in a rapidly changing world, it is important for the state to have its own technological, digital, and food sovereignty, and that science is seen as a key tool for ensuring it.
At the end of the lesson, older students were shown a fragment from Nikita Mikhalkov’s program BesogonTV, which claims that many ideas behind foreign discoveries actually originated with Russian scientists.
“This is just one hundred-thousandth or one millionth of what was created by the minds and efforts of talented people from Russia — both Russian and non-Russian, but rooted in Russian culture,” — Mikhalkov says.
