Moscow has unveiled new history textbooks that defend Russia’s invasion of Ukraine before children return to school in September.
The Kremlin has tightened its control over the historical narrative in schools under Vladimir Putin – a trend that has hugely accelerated since the president launched the full-scale war on Ukraine in 2022.
The invasion of Ukraine, which the Kremlin calls “a special military operation”, has increasingly been presented to young Russians as part of Moscow’s historical mission.
Presenting the new book aimed for the 11th grade – 17-year-olds – at a press conference in Moscow, Russia’s education minister, Sergey Kravtsov, said the material was aimed at “conveying the aims [of the Ukraine offensive] to schoolchildren”, which he said were “demilitarisation and denazification”, repeating Putin’s stated aims when he sent troops to Ukraine last February.
The book covers a period from 1945 to the 21st century and Kravtsov said it would be “in all schools on September 1”.
The book was written in “just under five months”, Kravtsov said. “After the end of the special military operation [in Ukraine], after our victory, we will further supplement this book.”
The book features sections on Russian soldiers “saving peace” in 2014, when Moscow annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine, which is repeatedly labelled as a “nazi state”. It also denounces western sanctions, describing them as worse than Napoleon, who marched on Russia in 1812.
The new history book also states that the “main goal” of the west is to “destabilise the situation inside Russia”, and casts Moscow as a victim of western aggression fighting for its very existence.
When describing the origins of the war in Ukraine, the book cites Putin, who has repeatedly claimed the invasion of Ukraine war started in order to “end the fighting started by the west”. The history book also describes Ukraine as an “artificial state”, parroting Putin’s long essay On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians, which states that “Russia was robbed, indeed” when Ukraine gained independence in 1991.
Presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, who is known for his conservative view of history and has been criticised by some historians, praised the speedy production of the book. “No textbook has ever been created in our country in such a short time,” he said. “The authors wrote it practically with their own hand.” He added that the textbook presents “the state’s point of view”.
Medinsky appeared to boast that the book rewrote past history. “We completely rewrote the sections ‘70s’, ‘80s’, ‘90s’ and ‘2000s’. A new section has been added from 2014 to the present, including the special military operation,” he said.
Russia has unleashed an unprecedented crackdown on dissent during its Ukraine offensive, which has extended into education.
In April, a Russian girl was taken away from her father after she drew a picture in support of Ukraine at school.
A Russian court also sentenced a former history teacher to five and a half years in prison for referring criticising the war online.
After the start of the Ukraine operation, a new subject – “Conversations about important things” – was introduced in Russian schools, meant to instil patriotism in children.
The subject included the need for students as young as eight to understand that loving one’s country means a readiness to “bear arms in its defence” in dangerous times.
There has also seen an exodus from Russia of prominent historians and philosophers who disagree with the war in Ukraine.
Aleksei, a former history teacher at an elite school outside Moscow who quit last April after a disagreement with management over the new “patriotic” curriculum, described the new history textbooks as “total fiction”.
“They are rewriting both the past and the present,” Aleksei told the Guardian, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“I worry for the children that will be brought up by lies.”
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
