HANOI. June 20 (Interfax) - Patriotic upbringing can be built on examples of heroism, but this must be done gracefully, using modern methods, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
"It is on this [outstanding examples of patriotism and heroism] that young people should be raised. One can raise whole generations on this, of course. But of course, this should be done gracefully, in a modern way, using modern methods of informing the target audience. This is not an easy job," Putin said at a meeting with alumni of Soviet and Russian universities on Tuesday.
That does not mean destroying the forms that existed in Vietnam, the Soviet Union or in Russia initially, he said. "No, these forms must certainly be preserved, only filled with the right, interesting substance, [or] as they say nowadays, with modern content. And of course, new forms and possibilities should be sought out," Putin said.
Russia has created the Movement of the First for children, and its armed forces are developing their own platforms for training future military personnel and for patriotic education, he said.
"The sooner this work begins, the better. But the main thing is, of course, that it all starts with the family. And so the task of the state is to support families in this respect and to make society organize this educational process from within. If this fails, then doing so at the formal administrative level is nearly impossible," Putin said.
"This work should be changing every day, because life changes every day. That is when success will definitely await us," he said.