With the new school year starting on 5 September 2022, "Conversations on the Important" were launched in schools in Russia and the occupied part of Ukraine to explain to children the goals of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and to prepare them for "service to the Fatherland".
For the proper functioning of ideological teaching, a politruk, officially called the principal's adviser for educational work, was added to each school. However, in addition to their own regular classes, the schools also hold so-called heroism lessons, inviting veterans of the various wars in which Russia took part.
Civic-patriotic education
On 23 December, a trio of photographs with the brief text "teaching with children" appeared on the Telegram channel of the Rusich Offensive Reconnaissance Group (ZÚPS Rusich/ДШРГ Русич). The school expressed its gratitude to Rusich's founder and commander, 34-year-old contractor Alexei Milchakov, for his contribution in the field of "civic-patriotic education."
Recall that the Rusich unit under Milchakov's command participated in the war in Ukraine from 2014 to 2015, and since 2022 has been participating in it until now. In addition, it has also operated in a number of African and Asian countries. Milchakov himself first used the nickname Fritz (Фриц), and now uses the nickname Srb (Серб).
The Astra portal and Radio Liberty, after publishing the post on the Telegrama, discovered that the school in question is number 538 in St. Petersburg, and according to the school's post on the VKontakte social network, Milchakov visited it as recently as May 2025.
The editor of Slovak daily Štandard broached the subject of the presence of war "heroes" in Russian schools as recently as April 2025 with a teacher who educates pupils aged 11 to 17 in Moscow. The Štandard know her identity.
In her own words, the teacher we contacted is fortunate to teach at one of Moscow's schools, where the so-called Conversations of Importance schedule is not strictly supervised and participants in the invasion of Ukraine are not invited to the school.
"I encourage the children not to be proud of drunks from Russian prisons murdering in a foreign country, lie about our Russian writers, scientists, composers, painters... Occasionally, I call some World War II memorialist to the school so that they won't be told, and the school has peace from the denunciators," the teacher commented.
Immediate reaction
"My old friend Alexei Yurievich 'Serb' Milchakov, the commander of the Rusich ZUSF, taught a lesson in heroism with the kids," a Russian army officer with the combat nickname Panda wrote on his Telegram channel shortly before midnight on December 23, for which the Rusich group thanked him on its channel the next day.
In his post, Panda listed all fourteen of Milchakov's war decorations: some of them were given to the Russian contractor directly from the Central African Republic and Libya, some from Russia's Wagner Private Military Company for his service in Syria and Africa, a few from the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, and the rest from Russian state institutions.
It was the number of decorations and orders that Panda used to justify why the school had chosen Milchakov to give a lecture on heroism. "Alexei has served in such locations as Donbas, Syria, Libya, and Special Military Operations, as well as working trips to Sudan and the Central African Republic," Panda wrote.
In addition to Radio Svoboda, the investigative Astra and pro-Kremlin Telegram channels, the post on the Rusich unit's channel was also noticed by expatriate Russian media such as Novaya Gazeta, Vazhneye Istoriji and Meduza, which directly or indirectly condemned the school's actions.
"The b*tches are angry, so we are doing everything right," Rusich commented on the response from the media, adding that the unit intends to organize similar lessons in schools in the future, as well as to "open children's camps for combat training for children and adolescents."
An incoherent Nazi?
Milchakov became well-known in Russia back in 2011, when, as a 20-year-old , he posted photos on the VKontakte social network of the execution of a puppy whose head he had cut off and eaten raw.
Milchakov publishes many details of the war crimes on a closed private telegram channel, which can be subscribed to for 600 roubles (about 6.5 euros) a month, but there is ample evidence on the free channel of the Rusich unit.
The death of Russian nationalist Denis Nikitin, commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps(RDK) fighting on the Ukrainian side, was described by Milchakov's unit or himself as "simply good news for the morning". A month earlier, the Rusich unit had urged Russian soldiers to rape captured Ukrainian female soldiers before handing them over to the command.
There are known deleted, but still available, posts about Ukrainian soldiers being executed on the spot rather than taken prisoner. The Rusich group even posted videos of Russian soldiers being tortured as they tried to defect to the Kiev side.
Milchakov gave an interview to the Štandard in early 2025, in which the editors, among other things, asked him about his ideology, as he tends to be labelled a Nazi in the media, even though he celebrates the defeat of Germany on 8 May 1945.
"Units such as the Rusich or the 88th Reconnaissance and Infiltration Brigade Española (...) use symbolism associated with the Russian Empire, Orthodoxy, paganism, and many in Russia and beyond consider these and other units 'neo-Nazi' (Alexei Milchakov has openly declared that he is a 'Nazi'). However, these units are fighting on the side of an army in which ethnic Russians and ethnic non-Russians (Chechens, Yakuts, Afro-Russians...) from Russia, as well as Arabs, Blacks or Koreans, are fighting side by side; and one of the goals of the RF OS is the 'denazification of Ukraine'. Thus, the troops in question are acting contrary to the ideology of national socialism. What is your position on this?" Milchakov was asked by the editor of the Štandard.
"We take a calm attitude towards anyone who fights for Russia's interests," he replied at the time, adding that anyone who fights for Russia has the right to obtain Russian citizenship.
Milchakov is famous for the quote "I have no moral scruples - don't let you have them either." The unit sells this quote in the form of stickers and large-scale posters. One of them can even be found in the office of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) in Krasnodar.