Inside Putin's push to rewrite Russian history in favor of his war in Ukraine

Russian high school seniors will return to classrooms this week to find history rewritten in the image of President Vladimir Putin.

A new textbook — churned out in just four months and touted as the first state effort to unify teaching of the subject since the Soviet era — echoes Kremlin propaganda justifying the war in Ukraine, the latest stage of a drive to shape the worldview of a new generation.

The book will be used by history teachers across the country, including in Russian occupied Ukrainian territories, to teach students in their final year of high school about the period from 1945.

They will read that the Kremlin’s “special military operation” is unifying society against an “ultranationalist” neighbor and its Western backers, who are to blame for instigating the conflict. Russian soldiers are profiled as heroes, with no mention of civilian casualties or war crime accusations. And it’s all in line with the country’s past, which has some of its harshest chapters presented in a softer light.