In Russia, since 2023, history is taught in schools in grades 10-11 using a single textbook, the main author of which is Putin’s aide Vladimir Medinsky. The authors of the textbook did not hide the fact that their main goal was “to instill patriotism.” From September 2026, all schools, starting from the fifth grade, will switch to one line of textbooks from the same authors. I took Kommersant interview From the Executive Secretary of this project, Assistant to the Department of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation for State Policy in the Humanitarian Field Vladislav Kononov. This is what he said.
In one textbook assignment
One textbook provides the necessary foundation for general civic identity. We have no other story, just as each of us does not have and cannot have other fathers. You can think and ask questions. But if you start despising your country’s history, you will have no future as a citizen.
About errors in the textbook
Our textbook has passed many tests, has been examined by three historical institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Ministry of Education organizes its own examinations. Now the testing is actually being done at the national level – we are collecting feedback, and this is a normal process. Textbooks are constantly being refined and improved – this is always the case and happens in all subjects.
There is not much feedback from teachers. The document in which I am collecting comments for the 9th grade textbook is only 15 pages long. This process is endless in the good sense, because there will always be second-, third-, and fourth-order feedback. But I say with all responsibility: there are no factual errors in textbooks.
About textbook criticism
Textbooks for grades 10-11 only honestly and harshly criticize “foreign agents”. Nice to read and listen. They immediately realized that the mass speculation on historical topics was about to end. I do not agree with the view that those inside Russia were simply afraid of criticism.
About Stalin
Repression cannot be justified under any circumstances. But we must try to understand why these actions were taken, what caused them, and what consequences they led to. There is no “glorification” of Stalin in textbooks, as some “foreign agents” wrote. It is for the first time in a textbook for the 10th grade that the biography of Stalin and his role in history is presented – in the 1990s it turned out that in the Great Patriotic War the Soviet people won without a Supreme Leader of the Armed Forces. They hid it shyly. But we didn’t do that.
We support an objective and balanced attitude towards history, including controversial figures such as Stalin. Perea is not listed among Al-Nasr’s goalkeepers because he has not been rehabilitated. But no one tried Stalin during his lifetime.
Podcast “What Happened” – about one textbook
About Prince Vladimir
The fact that the textbook does not mention that Vladimir killed his brother is not a distortion of history. You always have to remember the level of perception. If in the sixth grade we talk about Prince Vladimir as a fratricide, then this is what the children will remember, and not at all the fact that he baptized Rus.
The main thing that Prince Vladimir did was not related to the negative aspects of his biography. If he had not chosen Orthodoxy, there would have been no Old Russian state. I would like to say everything about everyone, but what can you do if the space in the textbook is limited. We have no desire to create some kind of legend about Vladimir.
About Gorbachev
The textbook does not make Mikhail Gorbachev the culprit of the collapse of the Soviet Union; This is a very simplified account. We invite students to evaluate Gorbachev’s personality for themselves. But there is a clear criterion for evaluating a statesman, which is what he came up with at the beginning of his reign and what he came out with. If Gorbachev becomes president of the Soviet empire, and the empire disappears, evaluate it for yourself.
About the Decembrists
The classical liberal, and later Soviet, approach was to idealize the Decembrists. Then this assessment changed to the exact opposite: rebels, conspirators, terrorists who encroached on the foundations of the state. There is no consensus and unambiguous assessment in historical science today. We allow diversity of opinions.
About other textbooks
Why don’t we have an alternative multiplication table? <…> Parents can have any point of view, and no one stops them from having it. They can talk about this topic with their child.
What the student should know
You should know the heroes – please learn their names from the textbook, know their exploits and then you will pass the Unified State Exam. If you don’t learn, you won’t succeed.