Overview
- The joint Vyorstka and Ne Norma investigation, published Wednesday, says more than 1,000 schools in 77 regions report making gear for Russian forces during required shop or technology lessons.
- Researchers mined over 50 million posts from school pages on VKontakte, Russia’s main social network, and excluded after‑hours drives and letters, which makes the totals a low estimate.
- The posts show at least 57 item types made in class, including helmet covers, ponchos, camouflage nets, trench candles, sleeping and hygiene kits, and food.
- The work is unpaid and built into the core curriculum, and teachers interviewed said some students resisted but joined under pressure.
- Reports are most common in Bashkortostan, Krasnodar Krai and Tatarstan, least common in Moscow, and the number of such classroom reports has grown each year.