Russia’s new history textbooks teach Putin’s alternate reality

The brand new manuscript — aimed toward graduating 17-year-olds and protecting the time-period from 1945 till now — blames the USA for the continuing battle in Ukraine and features a quote from President Vladimir Putin by which he falsely asserts that: “Russia didn’t begin any navy actions however is attempting to finish them.”

It consists of telling sections starting from “confrontation with the West” to “Ukraine is a neo-Nazi state” to “Russia is a rustic of heroes,” in line with scans of the brand new guide posted by Russian state media.

The guide, together with an version for 16-year-old college students in tenth grade that covers World Warfare II, was formally launched on Monday by training minister Sergei Kravtsov and will probably be provided to colleges by Sept. 1. Books for different grades will probably be revised for the 2024-25 college 12 months, Kravtsov stated.

Historical past classes in all places are not often spared from nationwide ideology, and different international locations are sometimes considered by means of the prism of the nation printing the books. However the drastic transformation of Russia’s portrayal of Ukraine and the remainder of the world illustrates Putin’s fierce dedication to comb apart the darkish pages of Russia’s previous and, fairly actually, write himself into historical past as a victorious conqueror.

Additionally it is a part of a unprecedented gaslighting marketing campaign by which Putin has tried to persuade his personal individuals — and the world — that Russia is a sufferer reasonably than the aggressor in Ukraine, and that the West is at fault for a battle that Putin selected to unleash and has already killed tens of hundreds.

“Right here historical past is as soon as once more utilized by the authorities to push a sure agenda, to resolve sure political issues,” a college historical past trainer advised The Washington Submit, talking on the situation of anonymity as a result of critics of the Russian authorities usually face retribution. “We’ve got to grasp that that is wider than colleges — universities will probably be subsequent, so screws will tighten in historic training, and its degradation received’t carry something good.”

“Historical past is a part of society’s humanistic improvement and it may be utilized in alternative ways,” the trainer added. “Think about you have got a hammer — you should use it to drive nails, or you should use it to smash somebody’s head, the identical with historical past.”

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A chapter devoted to the battle in Ukraine, which the Kremlin and the brand new guide euphemistically name the “particular navy operation,” reads like a propaganda briefing, closely interlaced with direct quotes from many revisionist speeches Putin has given over the previous two years — fervently anti-Western and laden with conspiracy theories.

On this chapter, the authors search to justify the battle, by quoting Putin as saying that Russia has by no means began a navy battle. The guide defines Russia’s battle goals because the “safety of Donbas area and preventive provision of Russian safety.”

The chapter blames the USA for the battle by repeating one other standard Kremlin speaking level: America “is decided to battle this battle till the final Ukrainian” by offering navy help.

“Like People say: Nothing private,” the guide concludes. “It’s simply enterprise.”

The chapter goes on to reward the battle as a glue that “united Russian society,” and performs on the trauma stemming from tens of millions of Soviet deaths throughout World Warfare II, which Putin additionally has capitalized on to justify his ruthless home insurance policies.

“Like their grandfathers, they’re combating for goodness and fact shoulder to shoulder,” the guide says of Russian troopers in Ukraine. “Blowing themselves up with the enemy, dragging wounded comrades from below hearth, combating in burning tanks, commanding their items till the final breath,” the guide states. “Braveness and bravado to surrender your life for the Motherland is one thing inherent to a Russian, Soviet soldier.”

In a bit titled “Falsification of historical past,” the guide says that the USA and the European Union “went above and past to ‘restart our brains’ by writing historical past textbooks that have been meant to steer Russians of their nation’s “everlasting aggressiveness and colonial nature.”

The textual content additionally urges youngsters to mistrust unbiased journalists and “Western social networks and media” — in an obvious effort to undermine allegations of battle crimes dedicated by Russian troops in Ukraine.

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“While you study any details about Ukraine on-line, bear in mind: the worldwide trade of manufacturing staged clips and pretend photographs works nonstop,” the guide states. “Be vigilant and assume why some ‘opposition activists,’ ‘bloggers’ and ‘opinion leaders’ are working off some information? In whose pursuits is that this performed? Suppose — and also you received’t fall sufferer of low cost manipulations.”

The guide additionally covers ongoing occasions — to the dismay of unbiased historians who say it’s not possible to objectively describe very current occasions resembling international companies pulling out of Russia in response to the invasion, which the authors paint as a window of alternative for Russian companies that college students should seize.

“This isn’t historical past, political science offers with issues like that,” the historical past trainer stated. “Historical past is helpful to grasp the origins of what’s taking place now however it doesn’t describe the now and there may be undoubtedly no readability about how any of this can finish, therefore it has little or no to do with historical past.”

After every chapter, the scholars are requested main questions: Why did absolutely the majority of Russian residents help the particular operation? Why was Russia pressured to begin the operation?

Chapters protecting the Seventies by means of the 2010s have been additionally fully rewritten, with the brand new model souring on former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, who died last year, and his rapprochement with the West.

The books have been edited by Vladimir Medinsky, an ultraconservative nationalist who served as tradition minister and as a negotiator in short-lived talks with Ukraine throughout the early days of Russia’s invasion.

Historians have criticized Medinsky’s work, however he discovered a receptive viewers in Putin, who has taken an avid curiosity in historic revisionism and appointed Medinsky to move a fee on historical past training.

Russian officers have praised the brand new textbook, calling it a instrument to guard Russian traditions.

“Our understanding of our personal historical past ought to give us the best to interpret our personal historical past ourselves, with none prompting from exterior,” Vladislav Kononov, a historian and presidential administration official answerable for coverage points on historical past and humanities, stated when describing the guide at a discussion board this 12 months, native media reported.

The brand new texts, as soon as accomplished, will probably be a crowning achievement for Russian bureaucrats working to handle Putin’s criticism of older textbooks first voiced a decade in the past.

In 2013, Putin griped that textbooks have been riddled with “inside contradictions and ambiguous interpretations” and recommended creating one authorized textual content, akin to the Soviet curriculum, and eliminating the educational pluralism that emerged within the Nineteen Nineties.

“It’s crucial to indicate, utilizing concrete examples, how the destiny of Russia was created by the unity of various peoples, traditions and cultures,” Putin stated then, including that textbooks ought to be based mostly “on respect for all pages of our previous.”

The subsequent 12 months, after the unlawful annexation of Crimea, Russian historical past books — particularly chapters on Ukraine — obtained a primary massive ideological replace. The method sped up after the 2022 invasion.

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The Washington Submit reviewed Russian historical past textbooks from the previous decade to hint how the portrayal of Ukraine and its relationship with Russia has modified.

Over time, sections about Ukraine’s personal historical past have been diminished, together with references to widespread roots and Kievan Rus, a Slavic state within the Center Ages that included elements of contemporary Ukraine and Russia. That time period has largely disappeared and been changed by phrases like “Outdated Russian state” or “feudal Rus.”

In contrast, Malorossiya, or “Little Russia,” an previous time period used to explain modern-day territories of Ukraine and that’s now thought-about disparaging by many Ukrainians, has gained prominence. In earlier texts, Ukraine “reunited” with Russia, now it’s described as turning into “part of” Russia.

“Most definitely, the development will proceed and much more propagandistic model of historical past will probably be written and revealed,” the trainer stated. “And wild issues will persist in it, however after all loads will rely upon how every little thing that’s taking place now will conclude.”