Russia has unveiled new history textbooks designed to promote state narratives on their invasion of Ukraine to high school students.
The newly introduced textbooks include sections on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and intended for the 11th grade;17-year-olds.
Presenting the new book at a press conference in Moscow, Education Minister, Sergei Kravtsov announced that the textbook was aimed at “conveying the aims [of the Ukraine offensive] to schoolchildren.”
“The tasks of demilitarisation and denazification, so that schoolchildren are convinced that this is really the case,” Kravtsov said, echoing Putin’s stated aims when he sent troops to Ukraine last February.
The book covers a period from 1945 to the 21st century and the Education Minister affirmed that it will be “in all schools on September 1.”
Kravtsov said that the book was written in “just under five months.” He added, “After the end of the special military operation [in Ukraine], after our victory, we will further supplement this book.”
Also, Presidential Aide, Vladimir Medinsky, praised the book’s speedy production.
Medinsky is known for his conservative view of history and has been criticised by some historians.
“No textbook has ever been created in our country in such a short time,” Medinsky said, adding that “The authors wrote it practically with their own hand.”
Moreover, he emphasized that the textbook presents “the state’s point of view.”
The book features sections on Russian soldiers “saving peace” in 2014 when Moscow annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine. It also denounces western sanctions, describing them as worse than Napoleon, who marched on Russia in 1812.
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 conflict has increasingly been presented to young Russians as part of Moscow’s historical mission.
Russia has unleashed an unprecedented crackdown on dissent during its Ukraine offensive, which has extended into schools.
At the beginning of the war, President Putin also introduced a new subject into Russian schools.
Called “Talks on what is important,” it was meant to instil patriotism in Russia’s children, something critics claim was a poorly disguised effort to indoctrinate the next generation into the Kremlin’s worldview.
Russian Strike On Pokrovsk Leaves At least 7 Dead
In other developments, a regional Governor disclosed that two Russian missile strikes on the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, including on a residential building, killed at least eight people and wounded many more.
Pokrovsk lies 70 kilometres (43 miles) north-west of the city of Donetsk, held by Russia, and 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the frontline.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Moscow had struck an “ordinary residential building”, publishing footage of a typical Soviet-era five-storey building that had its top floor destroyed. He stated that rescue operations were ongoing.
The second missile hit the city 40 minutes after the first, the Governor said, killing the first responders.
The head of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, revealed that the strikes damaged two “private sector residential buildings, a hotel, catering establishments, shops and administrative buildings.”
Prominent journalists noted that the hotel and pizzeria damaged in the strike were known to be popular among correspondents covering the war.
“Five people died,” Igor Klymenko, Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs, noted on Telegram.
The second attack killed a high-ranking emergency official of the Donetsk region, Klymenko added. He later said that the number of wounded was 31.
“Among them are 19 police officers, five rescuers and one child,” he said.
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