Information about Europe disappears from Russian school textbooks. China and North Korea occupy their place
In particular, in the 2024 edition, there are no chapters “in the north of Europe”, “What Benelux”, “In the center of Europe”, “In France and Great Britain” and “In the south of Europe”.
In the chapter “Countries adjacent to Russia”, only short references to Finland and Norway remained, with which Russia borders in the northwest. However, he does not mention other Russian neighbors in Europe: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as about Poland and Ukraine.
While in the 2021 edition, students were told about Helsinki's monuments, about the “city of museums” – Munich and about Paris, where the bridge “named after the Russian tsar” is located, now students can read the peculiarities of the capital of Belarus – Minsk. “The Belarusian nation maintains the memory of the Great Patriotic War, which is devoted to one of the greatest and most important museums – the Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War in Minsk,” we read in an updated edition.
The accents in the textbook were shifted towards “friendly” Russian countries. For example, it mentioned the “huge contribution of China in the development of all of humanity” and told about North Korea, with which Russia has a “shortest border”. At the same time, the fragment of the “amazing” neighborhood with the United States was removed.
The Pleszakowa textbook was developed in accordance with the requirements of the Russian educational standard. Earlier, from the new version of the textbook “World around us” for the fourth grade, several references about Kiev in parts regarding the history of Kiev Ruthenia were deleted. According to the Independent Mediazon portal from the Publisher's employees, the removal of “incorrect” mention of Ukraine and Kiev from all school textbooks was demanded.
