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What will the aftermath of President Vladimir Putin’s destructive war against Ukraine look like for Russia? Unfortunately, it appears that the war has only deepened Russia’s slide into dictatorship under Putin’s rule. Adding to this troubling situation, Putin is now rewriting high school history textbooks to manipulate the narrative and brainwash a new generation.
History textbooks have always been a battleground for different ideologies and historical interpretations. Putin, a former KGB officer who came to power in 2000, has repeatedly revised these textbooks to glorify Russia’s history and present his rule in a positive light. Now, he is overseeing a rewrite of the war in Ukraine to fit his agenda. The real question is whether these distorted narratives will be accepted by the public.
According to The Washington Post’s Mary Ilyushina, one of the new textbooks covers the period from 1945 to the present and is intended for 17-year-olds in the 11th grade, while another is a revised edition for 16-year-olds in the 10th grade and focuses on World War II. The 11th-grade book has undergone significant changes, especially in chapters covering Russian and Soviet history in recent decades. It now includes new material about the war in Ukraine, describing it as the “return of our historical lands.” The textbook continues to spread the lie that “Russia did not start any military actions but is trying to end them,” while blaming the United States for the war.
Not only does the revised 11th-grade book distort recent history, but it also criticizes Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms in the late 1980s and Boris Yeltsin’s push for market democracy in the 1990s, claiming that neither were successful. Instead, it portrays Putin’s rule as establishing a “vertical of power” and a “revival” of Russia’s standing in the world.
This manipulation of history is reminiscent of Soviet times when history was rewritten, distorted, and erased to fit the Communist Party’s agenda. Under Stalin’s rule, high school history textbooks closely mirrored his “Short Course” of 1938, which glorified the Communist Party while ignoring the rest of Soviet history. The Soviet Union tightly controlled the historical narrative, leaving no room for alternative viewpoints.
One glaring omission from Soviet-era textbooks was the secret protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, in which Stalin and Hitler agreed to divide Poland and the Baltic states. At the time, Soviet leaders vehemently denied the existence of this pact, even though the original document was kept hidden away.
During Gorbachev’s era of glasnost, or openness, in the late 1980s, more information about the dark side of Soviet totalitarianism came to light. New history textbooks were commissioned, but they struggled to keep up with the overwhelming revelations. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, historians in the 1990s wrote honest school textbooks, even including the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in some cases. This diversity of textbooks continued into the first decade of Putin’s rule.
However, Putin now seeks to reverse this trend and return to a single, unified history curriculum reminiscent of Soviet times. The recent revision of textbooks was rushed during the war in Ukraine and edited by Vladimir Medinsky, a nationalist conservative who shares Putin’s vision of reshaping Russian history. Medinsky has been a close ally of Putin since 2012.
In recent years, Kremlin propaganda seemed less effective as students had access to the internet and were exposed to Western influences. A 2011 report found that teenagers considered schools, teachers, and textbooks to be among the least important sources of historical information, with TV and movies taking precedence.
However, the war in Ukraine has changed this dynamic. Stricter laws now silence criticism of the military, while historical repositories like the group Memorial are being shut down. Independent media outlets are also facing closures. Under this oppressive environment, even the youngest Russian students are growing up in a controlled and xenophobic atmosphere. If Putin remains in power for years to come, so will this mentality.
That is why it is crucial to break through this controlled narrative and provide Russians with honest and unbiased news. News outlets like Meduza and TV Rain are doing this important work and deserve support. During the recent mutiny of mercenary boss Yevgeniy Prigozhin, Russian citizens turned to channels like Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Russian service and Current Time TV for independent information. These channels can serve as a vital counterweight to Putin’s distorted history lessons.
The opinions expressed by The Washington Post’s Editorial Board in this article reflect their views as an institution, separate from the newsroom. The board members include Opinion Editor David Shipley, Deputy Opinion Editor Karen Tumulty, Associate Opinion Editor Stephen Stromberg, Lee Hockstader, David E. Hoffman, James Hohmann, Charles Lane, Heather Long, Associate Editor Ruth Marcus, Mili Mitra, Keith B. Richburg, and Molly Roberts.
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