Conversations about Important Things

Conversations about Important Things (Разговоры о важном, lit. 'Conversations about that which is important'), or Important Conversations for short, is a name for a series of compulsory school lessons in Russia that covers various topics from the Russian government's perspective, such as national identity, public holidays, and world events. Important Conversations lessons take place every Monday morning during the school year, following the flag-raising ceremony.

Important Conversations was developed by the Institute for Education Development Strategy, on behalf of the Russian Ministry of Education, and was part of a 17-year long effort by the Russian government to introduce "patriotic education" to schools in Russia. The first Important Conversations lessons took place nationwide on 5 September 2022, and are generally considered to be part of the Russian government's information war in relation to their invasion of Ukraine, which they call a "special military operation".

The Russian government has defended Important Conversations, claiming that it promotes "national unity, patriotism and traditional values". However, many teachers and parents have resisted the initiative as an attempt by the Russian government to introduce political propaganda and militarism into the education system. In response, teachers and students (along with their parents) have faced reprisals for not participating in Important Conversations lessons, in the context of the ongoing crackdown on protests against the invasion.

Background


The origins of using school lessons to promote "Russian values" go back to July 2005, when then-Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov approved funding for a similar programme called "Patriotic Education for Citizens of the Russian Federation". According to geography teacher Kyamran Manafly, the government sent to schools materials for "patriotic lessons" for many years since 2005, but many teachers ignored them due to lack of interest from the students. On 21 May 2020, The Moscow Times reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin made another effort to introduce "patriotic lessons" by making citizenship and war history compulsory subjects under the Russian education law.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian government increased their efforts to introduce "patriotic education" into schools, although some schools improvised such lessons or events shortly after the invasion started. According to The Moscow Times on 19 April 2022, the Minister of Education Sergey Kravtsov announced plans for children to study history from Class 1 onwards instead of Class 4, and for schools to hold a flag-raising ceremony (similar to the Pledge of Allegiance in the United States) every Monday morning, from the start of the 2022–2023 school year. Schools in the Kaluga and Voronezh oblasts introduced flag-raising ceremonies in mid-April.

Plans for more children to study history evolved into Conversations about Important Things, which was unveiled by Kravtsov and the Institute for Education Development Strategy on 20 June 2022: according to the Institute, Important Conversations aimed to teach history and socio-political values from the Russian government's perspective.

The first Important Conversations lessons took place nationwide on 5 September 2022, although Russian President Putin hosted an inaugural lesson with selected students in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, on 1 September 2022. The initial budget for the development of Important Conversations, which began in mid-April, was 22 million rubles, or about US$326,000 in 2022.

Schedule and content
The Conversations about Important Things takes place every Monday from 09:00 local time, during the school year and after the flag-raising ceremony. Since 20 February 2023, Channel One Russia's Good Morning programme included a segment involving Important Conversations, every Monday at 08:36 Moscow Time (UTC+3).

The lessons cover various topics from the Russian government's perspective, such as national identity, public holidays, and world events. Some of the lesson plans reference developments associated with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which the Russian government calls a "special military operation", and attempt to cover up or deny widely documented evidence of war crimes committed by Russian forces. Each topic on the official website for Important Conversations lessons have separate sections for Classes 1–2, Classes 3–4, Classes 5–7, Classes 8–9, Classes 10–11 and Secondary Vocational Education.

According to The New York Times on 3 June 2023, local school administrators were responsible for implementing Important Conversations: this meant the actual amount of politics and propaganda in the lessons depended on the school administration's stance towards the Russian government. For example, one teacher forced students to sing and dance to I'm Russian (Я русский) by Russian singer Shaman, while another taught algebra as an "important conversation" in the context of mathematics.

Critical reception
The Conversations about Important Things were unpopular with many teachers and parents, with many criticising the lessons as an attempt by the Russian government to introduce political propaganda into the education system, despite laws that did not allow it.

The Associated Press reported that some parents were shocked by the militaristic nature of Important Conversations lessons, with some comparing them to the "patriotic education" of the former Soviet Union. There was notable controversy over the lesson plan for Our country — Russia, which originally instructed teachers to tell students from Class 3 onwards that Russia was "more precious" than life (Счастье Родины дороже жизни), and that it was "not scary" to die for Russia (За Родину-мать не страшно умирать).

The opposition trade union Alliance of Teachers called for parents to boycott the lessons, and for teachers to either boycott the lessons as well, or to present them from a more critical perspective than that of the Russian government. The Associated Press reported cases of teachers attempting to depoliticise Important Conversations by developing their own content for the lessons.

The initial criticism resulted in the Russian Ministry of Education making revisions to the lesson material in an attempt to reduce mentions of the military and current events (such as the invasion of Ukraine), which included the removal of controversial passages from Our country — Russia. However, there is evidence that the lessons continue to actively reference the war in Ukraine. Teachers who refused to teach the lessons risk either losing their jobs or being designated as a "foreign agent", and some teachers have left (or considered leaving) Russia in protest of Important Conversations.

Parents have also called for the right to withdraw their children from Important Conversations lessons: although the Russian Ministry of Education initially claimed that the lessons were voluntary extracurricular activities, Russian students and their parents have been investigated by the police, or threatened with expulsion, for refusing to attend Important Conversations lessons.

The Ministry of Education later admitted that the classes were compulsory, warning that students may be sanctioned for skipping the lessons. On 19 February 2023, the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group reported that the Minister of Education Sergey Kravtsov planned to force parents of students to attend Important Conversations lessons.

Analysis
In November 2022, Times Higher Education reported that academics had different opinions on how the Conversations about Important Things would affect the development of beliefs among Russian students. Professor Grigory Yudin of the Moscow School for the Social and Economic Sciences expressed concern that Important Conversations increased the risk of turning otherwise apathetic or anti-war students into "willing fighters". However, Professor Isak Froumin of the Higher School of Economics and researcher Svetland Shenderova believed that Important Conversations would fail: Shenderova in particular stated that Important Conversations may backfire in the same way as scientific communism, by fuelling the students' hatred towards the Russian government's ideology, which includes Putinism.