Educational occupiers: from Buryats to Serbs. Who is re-educating Ukrainian children

After the full-scale invasion began, Russia's first concern was the future - Ukrainian children. The occupiers change the education system immediately after capturing cities or villages. The aggressor country uses various methods of educational occupation: it sends Ukrainian teachers to Russia for "re-education" and vice versa - it sends Russian educators to temporarily occupied territories, luring them with increased payments.

But not all Russian teachers go to the occupied Ukrainian territories for money. There are also those who spread Russian propaganda into young minds because it is the call of their heart. "Glavcom" talks about such characters.

Deputy teacher Buholceva and her family

50-year-old Oksana Buholtseva (née Konoshonkina) was born in a village near Ulan-Ude. In 1993, she graduated from the Buryat State Pedagogical University and became a professor of physics. Next - marriage with a colleague by profession, Sergey Bukholtsev, moving to Severobaikalsk, birth of a child, advancement through the career ladder from teacher to school director. Everything went like other people's.

However, Oksana Buholtseva's ambitions extended beyond the educational system: in 2013, she participated in the elections for the People's Kural of Buryatia, becoming a representative of the fifth and sixth convocations from the "Just Russia" party. The elected representative was active: she sued the mayor of Severobaikalsk, criticized the government of Buryatia and even ran for the State Duma of Russia. In general, Buholtseva is a respected person in Buryatia: she was recognized as the "most open" deputy on social networks in the framework of the "Cristal Valjanok" award!

The woman actively manages social networks. On his pages in "Vkontakte", "Odnoklasniki" and Telegram, he talks about his life and professional activities. Her husband is also a teacher, the head of North Baikal Lyceum no. 6. Sergej Bukholtsev's page on the social network Odnoklasniki is full of likes and reposts of his posts containing Russian propaganda: posts about "fighting Buryats - storm", military and sports games of schoolchildren, congratulations on May 9, etc.

 

In an interview with the publication Lenta.ru, Buholtseva said that her son died during the coronavirus pandemic before he was 30 years old. He has a five-year-old grandson. In the same interview, she said that with the beginning of the so-called "special military operations", she and her husband became aware that teachers are needed in the Donetsk region.

They decided: they will surely go there together. But in the end, Bukholtseva went to Ukraine on her own - in September 2023, she got a job as a physics teacher at the Lyceum in Donetsk, found a job vacancy on the Internet and applied for the job through the so-called Ministry of Education of the DNR.

And a few months after she moved to Donetsk, Russian journalists filmed a mini-film about Bukholtseva. In it, in addition to her personal life story, the teacher from Buryatia repeated Russian stories, in particular she told about an 11th grade student who allegedly told her about "the real reasons for the uprising in Donbass in 2014": people rebelled for the right to speak Russian and for the right to study Russian literature. In a Donetsk lyceum, a teacher eventually replaced a physics teacher who "defends his Donetsk region with weapons in his hands." Oksana's husband also takes part in the propaganda film.

But the "occupation" tour in Donetsk was not limited only to the pedagogue from Buryatia, Buholtseva was then taken to the tested territory of the Zaporizhzhya region. There she received a promotion: she began to perform the duties of the director of school number 5 in Tokmak. As she claims, she also found this job through an advertisement.

The salary he receives is 47,328.06 rubles, taking into account a 50% bonus for special conditions and teaching experience over 30 years and a manager of about 15 years. The apartment has only electricity, gas and water. This is how Buholtseva describes working and living conditions. But he also complains, he has to pay for many things at work with his own money - travel, printer repair, etc

He describes his first emotions about meeting the Ukrainian schoolchildren from Tokmak by thinking about Surzhik, which the children talk about. She calls it "a language that arose due to the fact that two peoples - Russian and Ukrainian - lived side by side". She is proud to say that her school's teachers are getting ready for "Talking About What Matters" - a lesson that takes place every Monday. The initiative was launched by the Russian Ministry of Education. He reports on the "voluntary help" the school received in the form of books, especially from the propagandist Zahar Prilepin.

Buholceva's many years of experience as a deputy and director of an educational institution are noticeable here. On her Telegram channel, she organized the "distribution" of the Azov State Pedagogical University, calling it "Sharashka's office". The occupiers created this fake educational institution on the basis of Berdjan State Pedagogical University.

 

Buholtseva is not only the head of a school in Zaporozhye, but also actively volunteers for the benefit of the Russian army.

"In her spare time, Buholtseva helped soldiers' relatives to pay for the mobile phones of our mobilized compatriots, organized fund-raising for the most necessary things for soldiers, participated in the transfer of expensive technical equipment from residents of Severnobaikalsk, Tegda, Nesterov, from kindergartens and creative homes from Buryatia, went to the place of their schedule, listened to complaints," this is how one of the Russian websites reports on the activities of educators.

Separately, together with her husband, Buholtseva was engaged in weaving and transferring camouflage nets to the front.

Oksana Buholtseva is an idealist. She deliberately came to the temporarily occupied territories to Russify Ukrainian children. Additional proof of this are her words published by one of the Russian public media: "We live in Russia, we work, we look forward to our joint affairs. We, too, create victory. As one fellow countryman, whom I respect a lot and not only myself, says: "So, you're doing everything right." Dogs bark, caravans pass. Repainting the school in the red color of victory is a big deal!"

 

From Serbia to Luhansk

70-year-old Serb Svetislav Stojanović demonstrated another teacher's "call of the heart". He worked as a mathematics teacher in his homeland for 40 years, and after retirement, when the war in Ukraine started, he went to occupied Luhansk. He was helped by the representative office of Rosspivorobnitstva in Serbia (Russian House in Belgrade). In 2023, Svetislav Stojanović became a mathematics teacher at Luhansk High School no. 60. A man was assigned a room in one of the dormitories.

"My family has always felt great sympathy for Russia, its people and history, so this decision was quite natural. Here I was accepted as a local. I feel good in Luhansk, I work with children, I do what I love," Stojanović told reporters.

According to him, he perceives the struggle of the Russians as his own, and the work in Luhansk - as "a personal contribution to the general search for truth, true values and the protection of Orthodoxy."

Appealing to his mathematical education, the Serb stated in an interview with Russian propagandists that all people are relatives, and that only Russians and Serbs understand this.

"This is the attitude towards nations and peoples, religion, race and other differences, except in Russia it does not exist anywhere else, only in Serbia...".

Stojanović's love for Russia is undeniable: he has been familiar with Russian culture since childhood and has "thousands" of Russian books at home. In Serbia, there is a man who is now involved in Russian war crimes in the presidency of the Serbian-Russian society.

Serbian rhetoric resonates with Russian propaganda about a "collective West that organizes wars for resources and colonization." In one of the interviews for the Russian media, Stojanović stated that "for the West, Ukraine is just a pawn on the chessboard", and that the Serbs have an extremely positive attitude towards the "special military operation".

Due to his commitment to the Russian Federation and his work in Luhansk, Svetislav Stojanović was one of the five best foreign teachers in Russia this year. Propaganda media call Stojanović "a Serb who wholeheartedly supports Russia" and "a symbol of international friendship and education."

 

"Village teacher" - teaches children in "LPR"

Aleksandar Golovinski from Stavropol wanted to become the vocalist of the group Laskovj Mai, but instead of being on stage, he ended up in the occupied village of Georgijivka in the Lugansk region.

In 2020, the federal program "Country Teacher" was launched in Russia, which aims to popularize work in small towns and cities among educators. This year, one of the winners was Aleksandar Golovinski, a native of the Stavropol Region. Together with his wife and child, he left and moved from the Stavropol region to the village of Georgijivka in the occupied Luhansk region. The occupying teacher's family must stay here for at least five years - these are the terms of the federal program.

By education, Golovinski is a music teacher, and during his work at the Stavropol school no. 43 expanded his profile and became a teacher of work, life safety and school military training. In the Luhansk region, a Russian works in secondary school number 1 as a teacher of even more subjects - physics, labor, military training and computer science at once.

Thanks to the communication of this teacher of several subjects with the journalist of the "Luhansk24" TV channel, we learn that he applied four times as a candidate for the "Village Teacher" program - he could not decide on the region he wanted to go to. As a result, he chose the Luhansk region. In the same interview, he announced that he intends to organize a military club at school. He says he likes Giorgijivka and wants to stay there forever.

The man told the Russian media that he came to the so-called "Lugansk People's Republic" to "help the children" and that it was his personal choice.

"There are about 1,500 vacancies for teachers in LNR, young professionals do not want to come here after finishing their studies, because, firstly, the salary is low and the schools are poorly equipped. And I'm not afraid of difficulties - I came here to help children who have gone through a difficult life phase, starting with COVID and ending with the current situation"-

But there are serious doubts that Golovinski came to the Luhansk region only to educate children. After all, the winners of "Teacher of the Country" receive a million rubles of "advancement money".

Despite his honesty in the interview, the teacher keeps his Vkontakte page closed, and the Odnoklasnik page has been inactive since 2012. The Instagram profile is also closed. Instead, the teacher-occupier has a YouTube channel where he has previously posted videos of himself playing the guitar and singing. Golovinskyi boasted that he wants to become the new vocalist of the Russian band Laskovy Mai, which they tried to revive in 2012.