Russia is adding military training to its school curriculum, marking a reversion to a Soviet-era practice that teaches students how to handle rifles and perform first aid

• Russian schools are adding a basic military training course to their curricula, per TASS.
• The course is a Soviet-era practice that teaches students first aid and how to use rifles.

Russia is adding a basic military training course to its school curricula starting next year, Education Minister Sergey Kravtsov said on Wednesday, per Russian news agency TASS.

"It will be introduced in schools starting from the next academic year. Now it is being drafted and after January 1, it will begin to be tested," Kravtsov said, per TASS.

According to TASS, the students will be put through around 35 hours of training.

The announcement came amid a push from Russian pro-war leaders to reinstate a Soviet-era practice where high-school age students learn first aid, navigation skills, and how to handle rifles, according to state-affiliated daily Izvestia.

Interest in the policy resurfaced in light of the combat performance of Russian troops in Ukraine, the outlet reported.

"Even many volunteers do not have the necessary experience to participate in hostilities," said Sergei Mironov, the head of pro-Kremlin political party A Just Russia For Truth, per Izvestia. "With the beginning of the special military operation, this issue became especially acute."

The war in Ukraine has revealed major flaws in the logistics, equipment, training, and war doctrine of Russia's forces, with Moscow's troops performing so poorly that the Kremlin had difficulty finding volunteers to replenish its numbers, one senior US official said in September. After Russia mobilized 300,000 reservists to fight in the war, reports emerged this week of hundreds of draftees dying in bungled skirmishes.

Mironov and deputy defense minister Valery Gerasimov have vocally supported reinstating military training in schools, with Gerasimov suggesting that students in the 10th and 11th grades be given 140 hours of training, per Izvestia.

Both Mironov and Gerasimov said the courses should be taught only by combat veterans or law enforcement agents, the outlet reported.

Other Russian politicians were quoted by Izvestia praising the concept. "If you want peace, prepare for war. When we were engaged in military training at school, it worked only as a plus," said Adalbi Shkhagoshev, the deputy chairman of the United Russia party, per the outlet.

The basic military training program was retired in 1993, two years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, per independent Russian news outlet The Moscow Times. Russian leaders tried to revive the practice several times in the past, but failed, per the outlet.