Russian youth under the ideological pressure of the Manchurian and Japanese authorities (Manchukuo, 1930s)

The article is focused on ideological indoctrination as one of the key directions of youth policy pursued by the commandment of the Kwantung army and the government of Manchukuo in relation to Russian emigrant youth in the years before the World War II. The authorities of the Manchurian Empire and Japanese occupants regarded as “Russian emigrants” not only those who had left the Bolshevist Russia as the result of the revolution and the Russian Civil War, but also all the Russians by nationality being citizens of China and Manchukuo. On the basis of archive documents, primarily, Bureau for Russian Emigrants in Manchuria, most of which are used for the first time, the authors examine the activities of Russian youth organizations and Russian schools, as well as the ideological pressure upon them from the authorities of Manchukuo and the commandment of the Kwantung army. Using the state machinery of Manchukuo and skillfully imitating the independence of this puppet state, the Japanese occupational authorities first supervised the proliferation of ideological indoctrination among the Russian youth and then proceeded to directing ideological work among them. For exercise the ideological pressure, both Russian primary and secondary schools were used, which were transitioned to the Japanese curricula, as well as state institutions of Manchukuo presiding over all Russian children and youth organizations. Their common ideological task was to educate Russian emigrant youth in the spirit of anti-communism, militarism, monarchism and loyalty to the Manchurian and Japanese empires. According to the Japanese occupational authorities, such ideological pressure was to prepare the Russian youth morally, physically and militarily to participate in the coming war against the USSR.