A Russian textbook presents the official version of “SVO”: the war against the West, not Ukraine

A school textbook is the most important and often the only book on the history of an ordinary person. That is why, in authoritarian countries – and modern Russia is moving rapidly in this direction – the government monopolises the content and sometimes even the form of history education at schools. A single textbook standard has already been introduced, and opportunistic manipulations of the past have been recorded. Starting this year, Russian schoolchildren will also study the official version of the “special military operation” (SVO) in Ukraine. Among these are “NATO's springboard for an attack on Russia”, “a pre-emptive strike”, “the absolute superiority of Russian weapons” and “victory will be ours!”. Government ideology is increasingly being introduced into the schoolchildren environment in order to increase their loyalty on the basis of “support the victory = support the government” and to gain an additional channel of access to their parents.