A revanchist agenda, driven by the desire to rectify perceived historical wrongs, lies at the heart of Russia’s foreign policy and provides the rationale for its war in Ukraine.
But what Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to have forgotten is that rewriting history to serve the interests of those in power tends to invite dissent and often backfires.
Russia’s new history textbooks for tenth- and eleventh-graders are prime examples. Authored by the former minister of culture, Vladimir Medinsky, and Anatoly Torkunov, rector of the once-renowned Institute of International Relations, the textbooks reflect Russia’s “new approach” to history, emphasizing the need to reclaim the country’s lost “historical territories” and praising the “special military operation” in Ukraine.