Russia claims 'Just War' in new textbook... Ukraine includes 'Miracle of the Han River'

Completed Writing and Production in 5 Months
Distributed to 650,000 People on September 1
Meanwhile, Ukra Captures the 'Miracle of the Han River'

Russia has published a new history textbook that defends its invasion of Ukraine and criticizes the West.

Russia has published a new history textbook that defends the invasion of Ukraine and criticizes the West.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

On the 7th (local time), according to AFP and The Guardian, Sergey Kravtsov, Russia's Minister of Education, held a press conference in Moscow and announced a new history textbook for 10th graders (16 years old) and 11th graders (17 years old) in high school.

Minister Kravtsov said about the textbook revision, "It is intended to educate students about the goals of the special military operation (the Ukraine war)," adding, "After the special military operation in Ukraine ends and we achieve victory, we plan to further supplement the textbook."

The writing and production of the new textbook were completed in five months. It will be distributed to 650,000 11th-grade students across Russia on September 1, when the new school year begins. The price will also be 20% cheaper than the previous textbook, selling for 849 rubles (about 11,200 KRW).

The textbook has completely revamped history from the 1970s to the 2000s and includes a new chapter covering the period from Russia's 2014 annexation of the southern Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula to the ongoing Ukraine war.

Russian media RBC and Meduza reported that the new textbook heavily reflects President Putin's claims justifying the invasion of Ukraine. The textbook explains that the West, including the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), provoked Ukraine to oppose Russia in order to destabilize Russia.

Furthermore, regarding Western sanctions after the war, it describes them as unprecedented illegal actions and even portrays them as "more vicious" than Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812. It also claims that the Ukrainian military uses barbaric tactics by employing local civilians as "human shields" and asks students to write their opinions on this matter.

Ukraine Reflects the 'Miracle on the Han River' in Textbooks

Ukraine textbook featuring South Korea's 'Miracle on the Han River.'
[Photo by Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine]

Meanwhile, Ukraine's education authorities, whose economy was devastated by the Russian invasion, included the content of South Korea's "Miracle on the Han River" in their textbooks last year.

The South Korean Embassy in Ukraine announced on September 20 last year (local time) that "Ukraine's Ministry of Education and Science changed the textbook description guidelines to include content about South Korea's development in the 10th-grade world geography (equivalent to South Korea's 2nd year of high school) and 11th-grade world history curricula, and recently posted this on their website."

Previously, Ukrainian textbooks only contained content about Asian countries China, Japan, and India. However, according to the new guidelines, content related to South Korea was included in Ukrainian textbooks for the first time, treated with the same importance as the other three Asian countries.

Accordingly, the 10th-grade world geography textbook marks Seoul as a financial hub in Asia alongside Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Dubai, and Shanghai, and Busan as one of the largest ports in Asia on the map. The textbook also mentions South Korea's status, export-oriented economic model, the importance of digital technology, and its relationship with Ukraine.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.