MOSCOW -- When you visit a recently independent nation, ask what kind of elementary school textbooks their kids are reading. I must say the textbooks my kids use are horrific.
Technically, the Russian Federation is a new country, founded on the ruins of the former Soviet Union together with its peers like Ukraine or Belarus. You would expect that its schools would make an attempt to re-evaluate the past, particularly the past as dark and inglorious as that of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. You would be wrong.
My twins will be third-graders this fall, and it is already difficult to explain to them why the books they use are so obviously moronic -- especially when they carry the stamp of approval by the Ministry of Education.