New High School History Textbook Cover in Russia Abandons Peace Dove for Space Docking Scene

Russia has eliminated the image of a peace dove from the cover of its official high school history textbook, as announced by Vladimir Medinsky, a senior advisor to President Vladimir Putin and one of the textbook’s co-authors, on Friday.

This alteration is the most recent in a series of changes aimed at bringing educational content more in line with the Kremlin’s perspective.

The previous dove image, reminiscent of a mural at the UN headquarters in Geneva, has been substituted with an illustration depicting the 1975 docking of the Soviet Soyuz and American Apollo spacecraft.

In a message posted on his Telegram channel, Medinsky stated that the new image is more “clear and straightforward” for students compared to the peace dove design, which he claimed was “widely unpopular” among those who contributed to the textbook’s creation.

The revised cover also features a backdrop from the historic U.S.S.R.-Canada hockey Supercup match, which he argued signifies Russia’s view that “conflict should occur solely in the arena of sports.”

Medinsky pointed out that the scene of the space docking is intentionally positioned above the Elbe River, where Soviet and American forces met in April 1945. He recounted that astronaut Alexei Leonov, who was the first human to walk in space, shared this story with him directly.

He wrapped up his comments with what he referred to as “the irony of history,” noting that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, co-authors of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, both passed away on July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after the declaration was signed.

“Thus, Clio, the [Greek] muse of history, marked their greatest achievement,” he wrote in his Telegram post coinciding with U.S. Independence Day.

The 11th-grade history textbook, commissioned by Putin, presents a narrative of contemporary Russian history that aligns with the Kremlin’s stance.

It depicts the 1990s as a period of turmoil and national degradation, characterizes the annexation of Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine as a “restoration of historical territories,” and incorporates Putin’s view that the collapse of the Soviet Union was “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century.”

One section, which originally defended the deportations of Chechens, Ingush, Crimean Tatars, and other ethnic groups during Stalin’s era as a response to alleged Nazi collaboration, faced strong pushback from Chechen officials.

In response to this backlash, the Education Ministry revised that section of the text.

Medinsky has also mentioned that the textbook now features “significantly fewer dates, figures, and statistics,” which he argues enhances its accessibility for students.