For many years, russia portrayed children as victims who allegedly died for an idea. Since the establishment of Soviet power, pioneer Pavlyk Morozov, who betrayed his father to the Chekists and was killed by his own relative, became the hero of propaganda. Later, underage partisans of the Second World War became popular, who spied, pasted caricatures of the Nazis, collected weapons and ammunition, and sometimes killed Nazis. The main rule of the Soviet agitprop was the fact of the “heroic death” of children, which made it possible to create the necessary biography for them and ideologically justify their “feats”.

A new stage of canonization of “hero boys” unfolded with the beginning of the 2014 events in Donbas. With the help of outright fakes about the “atrocities of the Nazis”, the propagandist unleashed a real information war to dehumanize Ukrainians. The most famous fake of that time was the story about the “crucified boy” in Slovyansk, who was allegedly executed by the Ukrainian military in front of his mother and the residents of the city. The propaganda lie was so obvious that the russian media were forced to admit the fakeness of the plot, and the “crucified boy” immediately became an Internet meme and a laughing stock for the whole world. After that, russia repeatedly spread fakes about the “children of Donbas” who are supposedly being killed by Ukraine.

But with the beginning of a full-scale war, the image of the “child-victim” turned into the image of the “child-hero.”

Thus, in the spring of 2022, the hero of the publications of the most popular russian news media was the boy “Alyoshka”, a resident of the belgorod region of the russian federation, who ran along the track wearing a helmet and greeted the armored vehicles that were driving towards the border with Ukraine.

The last “information bomb” of russian agitprop in 2023 was “hero Fedor”. This 10-year-old boy from bryansk region was on his way to school, but during the shelling of the bus by the “Ukrainian DRG” he did not get lost and, despite being wounded, saved two girls. As always, it turned out later that everything was not so smooth with Fedor’s heroic act. At first, the injured girl played the role of a “hero” in the reports, but then she was forgotten and the boy, who was also injured but saved two girls, was brought to the fore. Also, the information about the bombed bus turned out to be an “exaggeration”, because on that day there was distance learning in the bryansk region. The wounding of the child has not been documented either, in all the stories the boy is tightly covered with a blanket right up to his chest, no traces of surgical intervention are visible anywhere. In addition, against the background of the legends about the “Ukrainian DRG” and the military of the russian volunteer corps, another version is increasingly cited: the events in the bryansk region are an unsuccessful provocation by the russian special services.

However, the boy in russia began to be heroized and turned into a new symbol of Z-propaganda. putin awarded him the medal “For Courage”, leaflets with the inscription “Fedya – Hero of russia” appeared on fences in bryansk region. But the dubious circumstances of the “feat” swept across russia, where they even joke that the boy Fedor is none other than a baby who survived the crucifixion by the Ukrainian “Nazis”.

Such examples are only part of the systematic use of children in the interests of propaganda.

Increasingly, young men and women are becoming direct participants in numerous actions with the Z symbol in support of the war against Ukraine. In Ukrainian schools during the occupation, schoolchildren are told the russian version of what is happening in Ukraine, about “heroes of special operations”, “friends and enemies of moscow”. They are trying to attract young people to the Youth Army organization, which is overseen by the ministry of defense of russia. In the schools of the occupied part of the Kherson region, 10-11 graders are openly campaigning to join the russian army.

By the end of 2023, russia plans to “ideologically process” more than 3.3 million Ukrainian children in the occupied territories.

Why did the russian federation renew the trend of “hero boys”?

Firstly, it is an attempt to turn children into a symbol of russian Z-patriotism and to make russians believe that “war is revenge for the children of Donbas”, which justifies shelling of Ukrainian cities and the death of civilians.

Secondly, fakes like the “crucified boy” are used as an emotional trigger to generate another wave of anger in russians for the “crimes of Ukrainian Nazism” and consolidation around the common goal of “denazification” and “liberation” of Ukrainian territories.

Thirdly, this is a logical continuation of the kremlin’s policy of inculcating “correct” behavior in the youth of russia and the temporarily occupied territories, the key element of which is the creation of a Ukrainian as an enemy. In this way, the mobilization reserve or “volunteer battalions”, which are being formed in russia, are being prepared from the youth.

❗️Manipulation using children as protagonists is a failed attempt by russian propaganda to evoke emotions and feelings in the audience and create an informational background to justify its war crimes in Ukraine.