New patriotic alphabet unveiled in Siberian school

A new meaning for the 33 letters in the Russian Cyrillic alphabet has been unveiled to children in an Irkutsk school. 

With letters like С (S) for Sevastopol, Я (Ya) for Yalta, and П (P) for Putin, the educational tool emphases the current wave of patriotism in the country.

Other letters are Д (D) for Donetsk, Г (G) - for Granitsa meaning 'border', E for Edineniye or Unity, И (I) for Istoriya or History, and Л (L) for Lyubov, or Love.

A is for Anti-Maidan - opponents of the forces which overthrew the government of President Viktor Yanukovych, and Б (B) is for Berkut, the special forces in pre-revolutionary Ukraine. 

The alphabet, unveiled to students at School Number 11 in Irkutsk region, is the brainchild of a new all-Russian youth project called Set' (Network). It is named the 'polite alphabet' in honour of the so-called 'polite' forces deployed in Crimea.

'By the end of spring all city schools will be provided with such alphabets,' explained the group's website. 

'We also plan to create and distribute a 'speaking' alphabet all around the country. Our alphabet helps to form strong associations.'

The group stressed: 'Children will be taught to love the motherland, respect its people and culture'.

'In the internet era the 'Polite Alphabet' will help to correctly form the children's minds.'

Set' (Network) is a youth education project working in 11 regions of Russia from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok. They describe themselves as an 'association of young people around the new Russia'. 

They are 'young activists, designers, opinion leaders, artists, social activists, young writers and directors who share the new policy of Vladimir Putin'. 

As they say, 'we understand changes taking place in Russia',  which are 'the sign of accumulated forces, the sign of reviving state, our right to a share of the world and the world’s rules’.

The full alphabet

A - Antimaidan

Б (B) - Berkut

В (V) - Vezhlivost'/Politeness (picture shows Russian soldier in camouflage giving a cat to a boy) 

Г (G) - Granitsa/Border

Д (D) - Donetsk

E- Edineniye / Unity, togetherness (picture shows the statue of Prince Dmitry Pozharky and Kuzma Minin, who gathered an all-Russian volunteer army and expelled the forces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from Moscow, thus putting an end to the Time of Troubles in 1612)

Ё (Yo) - Yoshkin kot (a much softer version of Holy C***)

Ж (Zh) - Zhizn/Life 

З (Z) - Zakon/Law

И (I) - Istoriya/History

Й (Y) - Yota (Russian mobile operator)

К (K) - Constitution

Л (L) - Lyubov/Love

M - Medved'/Bear (picture shows the image of Sochi 2014 Olympic bear)

Н (N) - Narod/People (picture shows people dressed in different national costumes)

O - Otets/Father (picture shows Patriarch Kirill) 

П (P) - Putin 

Р (R) - Rossia/Russia

С (S) - Sevastopol

T - Topol/Poplar (picture shows 'Topol' missile system under a poplar tree)

У (U) - Uverennost/Confidence (picture of Russian military)

Ф (F) - Federation

Х (H) - Hrabrost / Bravery (Picture of Natalia Poklonskaya, Chief Prosecutor of Crimea) 

Ц (Ts) - Tserkov / Church

Ч (Ch) - Chest' / Honor (picture of WWII veteran)

Ш (Sh) - Shakhter / Miner

Ъ (hard sign) - Tverdost' / Toughness (Portrait of Sergey Lavrov) 

Ы (Y) - Krym / Crimea

Ь (soft sign) - Myagkost'/Softness

Э (E) - Ekonomika / Economy

Ю(Yu) - Yuzhny Potok / South Stream (picture shows a planned gas pipeline to transport Russian natural gas through the Black Sea to Bulgaria and further to Greece, Italy and Austria)

Я (Ya) - Yalta