The new Russian history textbooks for 10th and 11th graders end apotheosized like this: "Knowing history allows you not only to assess past events, but also to predict the future”.
The same indigo-implemented model of the Ministry of Truth in the novel 1984 by George Orwell. In the novel's totalitarian universe, the Ministry of Truth was charged with the task of constantly altering the past to justify present-day politics in the manner advocated by Big Brother: "He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past".
Rewriting the past in line with current politics has always been a feature of dictatorships. Or, from the communist period to the present, state history (Soviet or Russian) has never been concerned with the objective evaluation of the past or with preparing students to understand global processes through the prism of history taught in school. On the contrary, official history has been used by the Russian authorities as an important tool in the (re)construction and (re)consolidation of national identity. This is how the Russian political and ideological elites have tried to shape the expectations of the younger generation towards the promised "bright future".
For all the furore generated around these textbooks, its content is not unusual when viewed in the context of the Kremlin's continuing obsession with relying on a reimagined history to assert its political legitimacy in the present. And all this is happening in a context where Russian elites still share the widely accepted view that, in a context of geopolitical instability and in the increasingly strident light of the national claims of peoples who have separated from the former unitary empire, it is crucial that the state makes every effort to strengthen its national identity.
The textbooks portray Russia's post-war history as that of an intrinsically great and special power, "betrayed" by those it helped - Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics - and constantly under assault by the West and its collaborators from within (the so-called "Fifth Column" or "foreign agents").
This quasi-ideology of identity consolidated in the Russian Federation by Vladimir Putin since 2001 can be summarized on the basis of this succession of theses:
"Russia is a special country, inhabited by patriotic citizens and built on the sacrifices of World War II heroes, a nation engaged in constant struggle with other states considered enemies, with an obvious mission to defend the Orthodox religion and traditional values".
Vladimir Medinsky himself, former Minister of Culture and now Putin's advisor, participated in the writing of these textbooks, along with other Russian professors, despite having no background in history. A graduate of the State Institute for International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MGIMO), Medinsky had only managed to obtain his doctorate in 2011 with his paper "Problems of objectivity in the account of Russian history in the second half of the 15th-17th centuries" - the subject of public controversy as it was very similar to previously published work, making many to accuse him of plagiarism.
Vladimir Medinski, former public relations specialist for infamous Ponzi scheme MMM coordinated by Sergei Mavrodi, was in charge of supervising and editing significant portions of the textbooks. He is currently serving as presidential adviser on memory and history, and it is widely rumoured that would have written Putin's famous 2021 essay about the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians.
Incidentally, Medinsky had been appointed a few days after Russia's military invasion of Ukraine as chief negotiator in talks with the Ukrainian side, and was also known as a notorious member of the "Commission to combat attempts to falsify history to the detriment of Russian interests" created in 2009 with the aim of debunking "Russophobic myths" and interpreting historical facts from a Russian great power perspective, presenting exclusively statist views. During its three years of work, the commission has taken a contested position on the "myth" of the Holodomor, the tragic event of genocide committed by the Soviet Union in Ukraine between 1932 and 1933, trying to find supportive arguments for Stalin's policies both before and after the end of World War II.
In line with the Kremlin's official propaganda line, the textbooks could not omit the subject of Ukraine. The first page of the 10th grade textbook refers to the term 'Banderovtsy', used by Russian propagandists to describe supporters of nationalist leader Stepan Bandera in post-war Ukraine. However, since 2014, Russian propaganda has expanded the scope of this term to label almost anyone who supports Ukraine's independence as a nation. In one sub-chapter, Ukrainian nationalism is blamed for the high crime rates of the late 1940s. Another short excerpt from the textbook, referring to the deportation of entire nations to Siberia and Central Asia during the war, mentions only the Crimean Tatars. The handbook explains that despite their collaboration with the Nazis, the Soviet authorities would have made every effort to ensure the most humane 'resettlement' for them.
Several sub-chapters and excerpts from the textbooks blame Ukrainian nationalism for various negative events and facts. Both textbooks rely on omissions and distortions in historical arguments. For example, Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign (or "Doctors' Plot") is presented in a way that is strikingly similar to the current alleged vilification of Putin by "foreign agents".
This handbook has undergone a significant revision of the chapters relating to the 2014-2023 events. As expected, particular attention has been paid to the military invasion against Ukraine (euphemistically referred to as a "Special Military Operation"). In the chapter on the war in Ukraine, there are 17 paragraphs reiterating many of the claims made by official Russian propaganda about the military invasion. These paragraphs are also relevant from the perspective that they represent the main points ("fan themes") of the anti-Ukrainian propaganda launched by the Kremlin in the context of the war through various channels (Telegram Z-channels, TV talk shows, Russian vloggers, etc.).
RBK journalists have published the contents of this chapter, which describes contemporary Ukraine as an ultranationalist state and shows the majority Russian support for the invasion. Moreover, the textbook provides details about the context of the conflict in Ukraine and the military objectives of military aggression.
The purpose of Putin's invasion is defined in the manual as "preventive security" for Russia. The chapter on military operations in the neighbouring state begins with a quote from Russian President Vladimir Putin from his speech on 9 February 2023, aimed at the aeronautical industry. In the quote, Putin states that Russia has not initiated hostilities, but rather aims to stop them.
The conflict begins with the protests on the Maidan, described as the starting point of the "conflict", and labelled "an illegal coup organised by nationalists", according to Putin himself.
Here are some relevant quotes from the new Russian history textbook for high school students:
- "The United States has been the main beneficiary of the Ukrainian conflict. They have succeeded in imposing high prices on Europe for their gas and other resources. The US is determined to fight "to the last Ukrainian".”
- "It is important to understand that all so-called sanctions - are indeed illegal. They violate all standards of international law... The West has seized all Russian assets in their banks, totalling over $300 billion.”
- "Pay attention. Think: why, for what and for what purpose the "news" of "opponents", "opinion leaders", "influential bloggers" or the like... And so, you will avoid falling prey to cheap manipulation..”
The textbook portrays contemporary Ukraine as an "ultra-nationalist state" where any form of opposition is severely persecuted. In the history textbook, Ukraine is decried as "an ultranationalist state", where "any form of dissent is harshly punished, opposition is banned, and any element of the common culture and history of brotherly peoples is labelled hostile and destroyed”.
The 11th grade textbook also mentions that during the "Special Military Operation" Russia faced opposition from the entire NATO organization. "Our army was confronted with an army trained to NATO standards, equipped with NATO equipment and made up of Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers, mercenaries and foreign instructors", explain the authors of the manual.
While Moscow is held up as an example of diplomacy for allegedly taking friendly steps towards the West, including cooperating in establishing relations between Russian and American intelligence services, expressing condolences to the United States following terrorist acts and building pipelines to transport gas to the West. However, the handbook notes that the United States has allegedly hindered the development of Europe's energy independence from Russia and blocked Russian gas exports abroad.
The history textbook goes on to suggest that the West has supported the Ukrainian regime financially and militarily, while Russia has been subjected to unprecedented sanctions.
The textbook's authors also discuss alleged campaigns by Western countries to rewrite history, which would have led to the demolition of monuments to Soviet soldiers and officers who liberated Europe from Nazism. There is also alleged persecution of Russian speakers in the former Soviet republics.
The cynicism of the Russian authors takes on grotesque overtones in describing how the Ukrainian army would set up their fighting positions in residential areas, not allowing residents to leave them. Encouraging students to draw their own conclusions about these alleged Ukrainian army tactics.
In parallel, the post-war occupation of Eastern Europe by the Soviet Union is presented as a defence of "people's democracies" against American imperialism. The era of stagnation during the Brezhnev era is reinterpreted as a 'welfare revolution'. Glasnost was not a concession to popular demands for freedom of expression, nor was it the result of the failure of Soviet propaganda to confront the everyday reality of 'Soviet man'. Instead, it was a movement considered reckless, which opened the door for Western ideological indoctrination of the Soviet people and ultimately led to the disintegration of the USSR.
After reading the textbook text in its entirety, we can come to the conclusion that there were no dissidents within the Soviet Union, only Western agents, dubious individuals from the West and potential Ukrainian or sometimes even Baltic cryptofascists.
The texts carry all the propaganda themes launched by Medinsky through his books and on the show "Myths about Russia", which insists that enduring stereotypes of Russians as "heavy drinkers" or "supporters of bloody authoritarian leaders" are the result of centuries-old Western disinformation campaigns aimed at humiliating the Russian people.
It is clear that Medinsky sees the new textbooks as an important weapon of defense against the Western assault on Russian identity and historical memory. It therefore becomes quite ironic that the Russian people - often confused with the Soviet people in many Russian texts - are blamed for the few Soviet "excesses" presented in the textbooks. It seems that the deportations of nations deemed 'collaborators' were carried out at the behest of public opinion. Also, many Soviet citizens who had the misfortune to have lived in Nazi-occupied territories, or were labelled 'kulaks', had been sent to the Gulag for forced labour because Soviet society at the time dictated it.
So while the patriotic message of the textbooks might, initially, arouse a sense of inspiration - you are the descendants of a truly heroic and generous nation - it essentially hides a much more ominous argument:
"You cannot distance yourself from the crimes of the state. These are also your crimes, which unite us now as they have united us in the past”.
The reader is constantly integrated into the Pantheon of the triumphs of the Soviet people and the injustices they have endured, through the personalized content of each manual and frequent references to current realities. Descriptions of the erection of Red Army monuments in the postwar period dwell on their dismantling today by Poles, Ukrainians and others. The student is given the responsibility of defending the memory of Soviet deeds, and the textbook concludes with an appeal to the reader to do just that - for their own sake, but also for Russia's future.
The latter is a clear departure from earlier history textbooks, which took a more tempered approach. This is because national politics in the USSR was determined mainly by Soviet federalism.
In addition, entire fragments relating to the period from the 1970s to the present have been revised to align with the new nationalist-patriotic perspective on the collapse of the Soviet Union as part of an ongoing Western plot and conflict against the "historical essence" of the Russian nation.
According to the Russian Minister of Education, a textbook of this kind is needed above all "to counteract the disunity of nations and the spread of mistrust between people". Minister Kravtsov stressed that one of the main advantages of the new textbook is its affordable price. The cost of the handbook is 849 Russian roubles (approx. 8.36 euros), which is 20% cheaper than the previous version. It is also understandable why the Kremlin subsidises official propaganda.
Also hilarious is the pro-Kremlin propaganda's interpretation of the economic situation created in the context of sanctions imposed as a lottery for young people:"Such unique moments don't happen very often in history. With the departure of foreign companies, many markets are open to you. Fantastic opportunities open up for business careers and start-ups. Don't miss this chance. Russia today is truly a land of opportunity.”
The textbooks also bear the dubious title of the first "universal textbook" since 1991. As a rule, Russian teachers had to choose between several books written according to cultural and historical standards. The person responsible for setting these standards is Sergei Naryshkin, head of the Russian Historical Society and the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service.
Despite these changes, both textbooks are far from representing a revolution in Russian historiography. Many of the basic statements align with already established and prevailing views in Russian society, the media and popular culture. This should come as no surprise, given the aggressive way in which the Kremlin has propagated its politics of memory and persecuted those who have dared to express dissent over the past two decades.
The arguments presented in the manuals are based on the results of the work 2009 Presidential Commission on Combating the Falsification of History, criminal convictions against Russian citizens who told the truth about Soviet atrocities and, more importantly, degrading the sacred memory of the "Great Patriotic War" (as the Russians call World War II) into a propaganda tool designed to fuel hatred against Ukrainians and other nations.
Since Russia's military invasion of Ukraine, the instrumentalisation of social memory through the propaganda grid has only increased. Russian schools have introduced new courses to promote traditional and patriotic Russian values as defined in the Kremlin. In the past year, were organized more than 1.5 million military-patriotic events, double the previous year. At university level, the state has called for the restructuring of history courses in line with its political priorities and has introduced a national course entitled "Fundamentals of Russian Statehood" with an emphasis on the exceptionalism of the Russian nation.
The process of establishing dictatorship over the past will continue, and the two levels involved - the political grouping responsible for the ideology and the military-legal grouping involved in implementing the ideology - will continue to impose the so-called "truth" on history even at the cost of gross falsification and mystification. A new 'universal' history textbook is already in the works for 5th and 6th grades. Its main purpose will be to differentiate "beneficial" Russian imperialism from the "harmful" imperialism of the British, Americans and other European nations.
The Kremlin's current campaigns for patriotic memory will have a lasting impact on collective and cultural representations of the past. But more importantly, they will shape how future generations of Russians will understand their country's war against Ukraine, Russia's conflict with the West and the persecution of dissidents. The Russian political elite defines this as "patriotic education" - a concept common in the public education systems of former Soviet states. Often this patriotic education also promotes attachment to those in political power, and the education of attachment to the country is done by deliberately distorting the past.
Russia's rewriting of the past aims to refine perceptions of the present, to integrate and subordinate the needs of the Russian people to those of the state, and to provide pre-explanations for the challenges Russian society will face and the war crimes Russia will commit.
The textbook is not just a history book, but a narrative of apology for the crimes of Russia and the Soviet Union, and an exhortation to young readers to accept these crimes - past and present - as part of their identity.
Dr. Nicolae Tibrigan, expert coordinator Digital Forensic Team
EN 
RO