Russian Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov attends a press conference to present a new schoolbook for high school students on general world history and Russian history, mentioning the the country’s ongoing military action in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea in 2014, in Moscow on August 7, 2023.
YURI KADOBNOV/AFP via Getty Images
The Kremlin unveiled a new textbook that glorifies Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
The textbook is aimed at 17-year-old students and will be taught in the upcoming school year.
The book labels the Crimean peninsula as a “Nazi state,” according to multiple reports.
The Russian government on Monday revealed a new high school history textbook that largely praises Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, according to multiple reports.
The book, aimed at 17-year-old students, was written and rushed out in only five months, Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov said at the Monday presser, The Independent reported.
It will become a staple of the upcoming school year’s curriculum, including a period of history from 1945 to the 21st century, The Guardian reported, and will be “in all schools on September 1,” Kravtsov said.
Kravtsov said the material will “convey the aims [of the Ukraine offensive] to schoolchildren,” according to the Independent, which he baselessly said were “demilitarization and denazification so that schoolchildren are convinced that this is really the case.”
“After the end of the special military operation [in Ukraine], after our victory, we will further supplement this book,” Kravtsov said, according to The Guardian.
According to The Guardian, the textbook cites Putin when it describes how the war in Ukraine started, who has repeatedly and baselessly claimed he marched on the neighboring country because of pressure from the West.
The textbook adds that Ukraine is an “artificial state,” The Guardian reported, and that the “main goal” of the West is to “destabilize the situation inside Russia,” adding that Moscow often has to fight for its existence, painting the city as a victim of western aggression.
Additionally, the textbook includes a section on Russian soldiers “saving peace” during the 2014 annexation of Crimea by the Kremlin, which is labeled as a “Nazi state,” throughout the book, The Guardian reported.
According to The Guardian, the Kremlin and Putin have further tightened control over the historical narrative being taught in schools, especially since the invasion of Ukraine, which has been presented to school kids as a part of Moscow’s historical mission.