My name is Jonna Alava. I don’t have a typical academic background, since I entered university when I was already thirty. Before that, I spent a few years traveling and working in Russia, at Finnish embassies and consulates.
I have a Master’s degree in Russian language from the University of Turku, and I had already taken many courses at the Aleksanteri Institute. I never dreamed of an academic career, but when I was writing my thesis, I realized how much I enjoyed research. Most importantly, I was still so interested in Russia that I didn’t want a “normal” job: I wanted to think about these issues every day.
For the past five years, I’ve been working on my dissertation, which focuses on military-patriotic education in Russia. I explore how these programs shape young people’s understanding of patriotism, the state, and society.
The Aleksanteri Institute has become my academic home and given me great networks. Many colleagues have become real friends. I value how it connects people from different countries, backgrounds, and disciplines. You naturally learn a lot from these perspectives.
As a PhD researcher, I’ve also worked with the Russia Research Group at the National Defense University, sharing my time between the two campuses. This has been challenging but beneficial, allowing me to see both sides and understand how civilian studies and war studies intersect.
The Institute’s course offerings are excellent. I could choose courses that supported my dissertation and interests. The yearly Aleksanteri Conference is another key meeting point, and also so much fun!
I hope Finnish decision-makers better understand the Institute’s value. Resources and funding are increasingly scarce, but essential to train the next generation of Russia experts at an international level.
Two major events, the COVID pandemic and the war in Ukraine, affected my project, as I couldn’t travel to Russia for empirical research. At the same time, the war transformed patriotic education: it kind of exploded in scope. Adapting to these changes required improvisation and making decisions quickly.
I was also surprised by how much I learned beyond academic knowledge: managing myself, projects, and balancing work and life. Attending international conferences expanded my networks. Doing a PhD is extremely challenging but also highly rewarding.
I have always been interested in how states influence people, which led me to ideology and Russian influence. I also wanted a feminist perspective. My supervisor, Professor Katri Pynnöniemi, encouraged me to explore a topic between ideology and youth, connecting it to war studies.
I discovered Yunarmiya, a militarized youth organization, and was struck by images of girls wearing white bantiki (big Soviet-style bows) holding guns. This contradiction between traditional gender roles and militarization led me to my topic: understanding heavy militarization in Russian society.
Patriotic education now represents a paradigm shift. Patriotic education has been expanded and forcefully integrated into the school curriculum. It is no longer limited to extracurricular activities but has become a form of purposeful indoctrination grounded in the Putinist worldview. Within this framework, military-patriotic education now plays an increasingly central role. Teachers, young people, and children are coerced in various ways to demonstrate support for the war effort. At the same time, there remain significant regional differences, as well as forms of resistance — something Russians themselves often describe as “silent sabotage.”
The topic of patriotic education has become a major ideological focus for the political regime, and I argue, contrary to many earlier studies, that it is effective. It may not foster genuine patriotism but produces ritualized support for Putin and the war. In today’s Russia, state patriotism and war-related practices are normalized as part of everyday life. To pursue a normal career, education, or social life, one must perform patriotism to some degree.
Young children tend to take this education seriously, and history shows, such as in Nazi Germany, that deeply internalized worldviews are hard to change later. Even for those who resist, these overarching metanarratives like portraying the West as an enemy and Ukrainians as inferior likely persist in Russia. Resistance is often about rejecting the state’s interference in everyday life rather than opposing Putin or the war directly. Russian youth remain politically apathetic, which can be seen as one of the Kremlin’s successes.
For this reason, I am skeptical about Russia’s democratic future, especially as the next political elite is shaped within this patriotic system. That said, Russia’s history shows that unexpected and dramatic shifts are always possible, making it a fascinating subject of study.
As Putin himself has said, wars are not won by generals but by priests and teachers. This is why education in Russia is such a decisive factor in shaping what kind of a neighbour we will have in the future. In Finland, I believe we must be very cautious not to militarize our own education, even if that might seem like a tempting option in today’s political climate. Genuine patriotism and a strong will to defend one’s country, in my view, are born from very different values and premises.
It is always a privilege to receive comments from different people. I do not think the feedback from supervisors and fellow researchers is necessarily very different: everyone notices different aspects, gaps, and strengths, and some of these insights turn out to be more useful than others.
Learning how to give and receive feedback is one of the most important skills in the PhD process, as it really develops one’s thinking and argumentation. Early-career researchers are often vulnerable when facing criticism, but one of the best pieces of advice I have received is to think of your research as a potato field: everyone is working there and helping, but in the end, it is still your own field.
I can recommend going for it, if you are interested in Russian, Eastern European, or Central Asian studies! If someone reading this is going to pursue a PhD on a topic that relates to my field of study, I am more than happy to collaborate.