Russian society must protect pupils from militarization and forced dissemination of state ideology

An appeal to the Russian public and non-government organizations:

The nationalistic majority in the Russian State Duma voted for the anticonstitutional legislation which authorizes obligatory basic military training of teenagers. In compliance with the legislation, pupils are obliged to learn to manage arms and to undergo "military and patriotic training".

These regulations are in rough conflict with the Russian legislation and international legal engagements of our country. The law provides that parents are free to determine the methods of their children's upbringing. Anyhow the use of arms contradicts principles of some religious organizations, as well as of many irreligious adversaries of armed violence. Therefore to constrain teenagers to master arms means to mock at the beliefs of pupils, their parents, as well as at the principles of a religious or some other organization, if they belong to it.

Furthermore, if a boy has military training at school, it may serve as a ground for refusing to admit the conscript's right to alternative civil service as the fact is fixed that the young man is ready to get military training. "Military and patriotic training" under our conditions is the dissemination of a state ideology in educational institutions, which is also expressly forbidden by the law." "Military and patriotic training" inevitably involves tendentiously presented historical facts, the apologia of military state violence, the suggestion of the thesis that the national interests have superiority over the general humanistic and religious values, the creation of the "black-and-white" picture of the world.

The return to "Leninist" general military training is another sign of totalitarian reaction in our country.  Not having any defense sense, the authorities' new initiative destroys one more democratic achievement of the last decade.

We call on non-government organizations to lodge protests to Russian State Duma deputies urging them to turn down the legislation in the second reading. If the legislation is adopted in its today's form, we call on parents and pupils to go to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation and the European Court of Human Rights in view of the infringement of the European Convention, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Constitution of the Russian Federation.