New textbooks should come into force in Russia for secondary school students from September 1, 2023. Textbooks rewritten in just five months, and giving pride of place to the military operation in Ukraine, among other more “patriotic” changes.
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The Russian Minister of Education had recently denounced to President Vladimir Putin a “ ongoing war against history by the enemies of Russia ”, that is to say, the Western bloc, which therefore had to be remedied. Faced with this, we must to understand “to Russian students” the objectives of the military operation in Ukraine, according to Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov. Or even give the point of view of the Russian state ” so “ simpler and more human for the very conservative former minister and Kremlin adviser, Vladimir Medinsky. Here are the official reasons for these in-depth modifications.
The new manuals will therefore focus on celebrating the Russian servicemen who have ” saved the peace – a word much appreciated by official discourse – in 2014 in Crimea.
A fundamental movement already underway
On the cover of the manual should also appear the kerch bridge, now regularly targeted by the Ukrainian army. A critique of Western sanctions would also be on the agenda. As for the older story, Mikhail Gorbachev would notably be shouted down there as the gravedigger of the Soviet Union, or even the period of stagnation of the 1970s described as a “ wellness revolution “, as repeated by the Russian media Agentsvo.
But a fundamental movement in Russian schools has also started as early as 2022 across Russian regions and documented by various independent media. Independent Ukraine, for example, disappears from history lessons. Workbooks have been modified accordingly. Excursions to museums or patriotic exhibitions have also been organised, on a compulsory basis, in certain schools.
Read alsoRussia: in schools, towards a return to “military preparation” courses