A Belarusian blogger managed to convince dozens of Russian teachers to make and wear tinfoil hats as means of protection against radiation from NATO satellites.
Vladislav Bokhan, a Belarussian blogger and activist known for his elaborate pranks, made headlines earlier this month when he released several photos of dozens of Russian teachers wearing tinfoil hats decorated with the Russian flag. He reportedly contacted multiple schools in Russia’s Voronezh region, introducing himself as an official from the local branch of United Russia (the country’s ruling party), and ordered them to hold a patriotic master class called “Helmet of the Fatherland.” Bokhan demanded that teachers working at these schools make tinfoil hats to “demonstrate their readiness to protect themselves from radiation from NATO satellites,” and to his surprise, seven of the schools he contacted actually followed his instructions without question.
“Evil NATO members are planning to irradiate the Russian people physically and biologically. Therefore, our teachers will have to learn to resist this with the help of primitive means of protection, like a tinfoil hat,” Bokhan wrote in his letter to the Russian schools. “The goal of the master class is to strengthen patriotism, increase awareness and skills of teachers in the field of practical classes in civil defense, the ability to work with improvised materials to make primitive means of protection against the threat of the use of satellite and electronic equipment by NATO, and to develop skills in working with foil.”
To make sure that the teachers didn’t google ‘tinfoil hats’ and realize that the whole thing was a prank, the Belarussian activist provided clear tinfoil-making instructions compiled using ChatGPT. His plan worked, and teachers in at least seven Voronezh schools organized master classes on creating “improvised means of protection” from NATO radiation, with some even decorating their handmade headgear and posing with them on their heads, and one demanding “a diploma or certificate of participation” in the masterclass.
“Let the helmet you make with your own hands become a means of protection against external enemies of our beautiful country,” one of the teachers said in a video sent to Bokhan, and others came up with added benefits of wearing tinfoil hats, “attracting positive vibrations from space,” “reducing anxiety,” and “protecting against the leakage of vital energy.” The blogger says that he has no idea how they came up with these concepts.
Vladislav Bokhan revealed his prank earlier this month, and the Voronezh Ministry of Education confirmed that several schools in the region fell victim to his deception in July. However, in their statement, Russian officials tried to sugarcoat the incident, praising the teachers’ “creative approach” and “patriotic spirit.”
“On the one hand, the teachers once again demonstrated their patriotic spirit, high efficiency and creative approach to any task (the foil “helmets” look very convincing). On the other hand, of course, it was disappointing that they could not distinguish a genuine party initiative from an inappropriate joke,” the official statement read. “We believe that this is partly due to the special attention to the safety of citizens in the region – even in this joke, cautious teachers decided to find a grain of truth.”
In a recent interview, the Belarussian blogger said that he was inspired to pull off this clever prank by an essay of the late Italian writer Umberto Eco in which he discussed the 14 features of fascism, adding that he wanted to encourage people to think about “what reality they live in”.
“Every autocracy generates conspiracy theories, they help to unite society around the Government as the sole guarantor of protection from an unseen but pervasive enemy,” Vladislav Bokhan said. “I don’t believe this [experience] will make the teachers reflect. First of all, they will see me as an enemy.”
