From Arkhangelsk to Ussuriysk, a growing network of Orthodox military-patriotic camps in Russia teaches children not to love their neighbors, but to shoot, throw grenades, and fly drones. At the same time, under the auspices of the Russian Orthodox Church, they are instilled with a cult of power, blind obedience, and hatred for the enemies of the “Russian world.” The church, which is supposed to protect childhood, has become part of a system that prepares teenagers for war, not peace.
Source: Vot Tak
After the annexation of Crimea and the start of a full-scale war against Ukraine, the number of children’s military-patriotic camps in Russia has grown rapidly. The Russian Orthodox Church has been actively involved in this process. Although the “Fundamentals of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church” in 2000 warned against aggressive nationalism, in 2024 Patriarch Kirill blessed the concept of the “Russian World,” which justifies the war in Ukraine as a spiritual struggle for Russia’s historical borders.
In this new ideological context, children have become the object of special attention. According to Vot Tak, there are at least 30 large Orthodox military camps in Russia today. Some of them are organized at churches and monasteries, others are based on clubs like Peresvit, where students receive the title of “knights” and swear allegiance to the ROC and Russia. The geography of these camps covers the entire country, from Arkhangelsk (Archangel camps) to Transbaikalia (Preobrazhenie camp) and St. Petersburg (ZOV Orthodox club).
In addition to physical training and religious education, the children are taught how to handle weapons, fly FPV drones, night marches, and self-defense techniques. The instructors are career military officers and “veterans of the Special Forces.”
Similar camps also operate in Belarusian cities allied to the Russian Federation, such as the St. Elizabeth Monastery in Minsk or the Orthodox Druzhba camp in Vitebsk. There, children, members of Orthodox units, are openly trained for war under the guise of a church mission.
However, the clergy, who remain faithful to the Gospel, express deep concern. Priest Georgy Roy (Patriarchate of Constantinople), who emigrated from Belarus, calls such camps “trauma for the child’s soul” and a way to impose a culture of war that is contrary to Christianity.
“Vertical relationships are imposed on children, where there is only a superior and a subordinate. They learn not to think, but to follow orders. And the church’s participation in this is the sacralization of the cult of power, which has nothing to do with the Christian faith,” emphasizes Father Georgy.
The priest notes that there is an alternative to such camps: the scouting movement, where children learn cooperation, physical development and independence without violence and militarism. However, in his opinion, the main customer for the mass militarization of children is the state, which needs “an army of obedient and psychologically trained soldiers.” The Church, instead of opposing this evil, has become a part of it.
Orthodox military camps that teach children to fight under the guise of spirituality are a new form of ideological indoctrination that contradicts the Christian principles of peace, love, and protection of the innocent. Where the words of Christ are supposed to be heard, we hear the orders “shoot” and “obey”. True Christianity is not about aggression, but about the Cross.
