Ukraine removes Russian language and literature from school curriculum

Russian language courses have been removed from Ukraine’s school curriculum, along with works by Russian and Belarusian writers, the Ukrainian Education Ministry announced on Tuesday, August 16.

These changes were made “in response to challenges that have arisen in connection with the Russian Federation's full-scale armed aggression against Ukraine,” the ministry said in a statement.

According to the press release, Russian-language literary works have been replaced in the curriculum with books by a number of international authors. However, some foreign literature courses will retain books by authors “who wrote in Russian, but whose life and work were closely connected to Ukraine.” This includes writers such as Mykola Hohol (known in Russian as Nikolai Gogol), Volodymyr Korolenko, and Mikhail Bulgakov (specifically, his novella Heart of a Dog).

Ukraine’s Education Ministry has also revised history curricula to include the study of the Soviet Union as an “imperial-type state” and introduced a full educational unit on the Russian-Ukrainian war, starting from 2014. The concepts of the “Russian world” (Russky mir) and “ruscism” (Russian fascism) were also incorporated into school curriculum.

• In June, First Deputy Education Minister Andrii Vitrenko stated that any literary works that “praise” the Russian army would be removed from Ukraine’s school curriculum. As an example, he cited Leo Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace.