From Guidelines to Medinsky’s Unified Textbook: How School History in Russia Was Overhauled in Four Years

Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the teaching of history in Russian schools has undergone a series of successive reforms that have affected curriculum content, instructional time, and grading systems. According to the publication "Novaya-Evropa," by November 2026, cumulative changes had turned the subject—which the state relies upon for propaganda—into one of the most demanding in the school schedule. In October 2026, a pilot history interview began: starting from the 2027–2028 academic year, ninth-graders who fail this exam will not be admitted to the OGE (Basic State Exam). Thus, history is emerging not only as a discipline but as a tool for selection.

Guidelines and Educational Standards: Including the War in the Curriculum

The first steps toward restructuring the history course were taken as early as March 2022. The Ministry of Education sent methodological recommendations to schools, requiring teachers to conduct lessons for high school students aimed at forming an "adequate position regarding the conduct of the special peacekeeping operation by the Armed Forces." Before the start of the 2022–2023 academic year, the topic of the war was enshrined in the educational standard: high school students were required to understand the causes and consequences of "the revival of the Russian Federation as a global power," "the reunification of Crimea with Russia," and "the special military operation in Ukraine." A separate mandatory learning outcome specifies a readiness to "repel falsifications of Russian history."

Medinsky’s Unified Textbook and the Revision of World History

In August 2023, a unified history textbook authored by former Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky was presented, which has since been gradually implemented in schools. The authors of the publication stated that one of the key tasks was the redistribution of emphasis in the world history course: the focus has shifted from European states to the countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The section on modern national history from the 1970s onwards, according to the compilers, has been "radically rewritten" and includes information about the "special operation in Ukraine." Thus, by 2026, this textbook is used as the primary one in most schools.

A 40% Increase in Hours: History Displaces Social Studies

The reform was not limited to replacing textbooks. Starting in September 2025, Russian schools began increasing the number of history lessons at the expense of social studies: first, this subject was removed from the sixth and seventh-grade schedules, and a year later, from the eighth as well. The freed-up hours were transferred to the history course. Before the changes, a total of 340 hours were allocated for history from the fifth to the ninth grade—two lessons per week. Now the program is designed for 476 hours, meaning the volume has increased by 40%. In the fifth grade, for example, two lessons of Ancient World history and one lesson of local history are provided per week.

“History of Our Region”: Regional Textbooks and Teacher Workload

For the "History of Our Region" course, separate textbooks are being issued in different regions, including guides on the history of Moscow, Donbas, and the so-called Novorossiya. Svetlana (name changed for safety reasons), a historian and tutor who spoke with "Novaya-Evropa," considers the idea of studying one’s home region important but sees no need to separate it into a distinct subject. According to her, with proper time distribution, local history could be integrated into a regular lesson or given as a creative homework assignment. The teacher believes a separate course requires specialized knowledge: a regular school history teacher may not be well-versed in regional issues, and it could be taught more effectively by a regional studies specialist or a cultural scientist. As a result, additional hours are often used inefficiently, and the program itself turns out to be insufficiently developed. Even before the course was introduced, Vsevolod Lukhovitsky, co-chairman of the "Teacher" trade union, warned that it would increase the burden on instructors: educators will have to master regional material, draw up lesson plans, and prepare programs. According to a RANEPA study, in 2025, the average history and social studies teacher in Russia works at 1.56 times the full-time rate.

Lack of Context: What Parents Say

Despite the increase in hours, children often lack historical context in other subjects, notes Anna, a mother of two schoolgirls from Moscow. According to her, when studying Pushkin in literature class, a conversation about the Decembrists begins, yet many students do not understand who they were or how they are connected to the writer and his era. This example illustrates a systemic problem: increasing hours for one subject does not compensate for the fragmented presentation of material as a whole. For parents and teachers, by their own assessment, the key question remains not the number of lessons held, but the extent to which children are able to link individual facts into a coherent picture—and whose country’s history they are actually studying.