"Mandatory military schooling would not militarize the learning process -- it is a natural element in education, which makes a boy into a man and prepares him for military service, which is the honorable duty of every man," Nikolai Bezborodov told AFP.

Bezborodov said the bill proposes giving schoolkids military lessons at least twice a week, plus a four-day camp stay where they will learn the orders and exercises needed for the army draft that is mandatory for all Russian men over the age of 18.

The youth will also learn how to shoot guns and sing the Russian national hymn, he said.

"They will spend four days in exercise camps, receiving the moral, psychological and technical preparation needed to do their military service," Bezborodov told AFP.

The defense committee passed the bill on for consideration in the Duma, or lower house of parliament, on Tuesday.

Bezborodov insisted that the defense, emergencies and interior ministers had convinced Education Minister Vladimir Filippov to join them in supporting the bill.

Mandatory military schooling for children was abolished two years ago, and since then children can choose whether they want to go through a special program preparing them for the military service that awaits them after graduation.

The bill is not being well-received by many in Russia, where many also criticize the mandatory military service as being fraught with violence, harsh initiation rites and corruption.

"Some people are protesting -- they see a return to violence -- but today's youth are subject to much stronger violence from the media, the anarchy that rules. A little order, some organization -- that will only help them," Bezborodov said.

SPACE.WIRE