Russia removes references to Ukraine and Europe from school textbooks.

Russian students will be studying Belarus, North Korea, and China

Russian schoolchildren will no longer be taught about European countries and their cultural heritage. Instead, they are offered to study 'friendly' lands, such as Belarus, North Korea, and China, in more detail. The new textbook 'The Surrounding World. 3rd Grade' has removed all sections concerning European countries. This applies to the 2024 edition, which no longer contains chapters like 'In Northern Europe', 'What is Benelux', 'In Central Europe', 'Through France and Great Britain', and 'In Southern Europe'.

The new textbook only retains brief mentions of Finland and Norway, neighboring Russia to the northwest. However, other neighbors of Russia in Europe, such as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine, are no longer mentioned in the textbook.

The new edition focuses on 'friendly' countries and the East. Now students will learn more about the features of the capital of Belarus - Minsk, as well as the significant contribution of China and North Korea to the development of humanity. However, the section about neighboring the USA has been cut out.

Such changes in the curriculum can significantly influence the worldview of the younger generation and their perception of the modern world, so this step taken by Russian scholars and educators has caused outrage among the public and education specialists.