Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky chaired the first meeting of the Interdepartmental Commission on History Education.
The participants noted that history education focuses on forming solid basic ideas about the country’s past among Russians, especially young people, and on counteracting systematic attempts to falsify Russian history, coming from abroad.
In this regard, the participants discussed teaching history at secondary and vocational schools and measures to popularise the history of science and technology in Russia. The participants mentioned the need to improve the teaching of regional history, to support Russian schools abroad and to introduce new formats for interaction between historians from Russia and neighbouring countries.
Ways to support history-related themes in culture, art and cinema were also discussed. In addition, the role of the Russia – My History project in popularising national history was highlighted. More than 20 multimedia history parks are involved in this project.
A number of decisions were made following the meeting. In particular, the Interdepartmental Commission will form a working group in each area of its activities and, acting on one of the presidential instructions, will join the activities aimed at a comprehensive overhaul of history teaching at general education institutions.
Regional government bodies were issued a recommendation to build on the positive experience of the Victory Roads: Destinations for Schoolchildren national programme as part of fulfilling the presidential instructions on supporting school educational tourism.
The Presidium of the Commission was formed during the first meeting to include Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service and Chairman of the Russian Historical Society Sergei Naryshkin, Minister of Education Sergei Kravtsov, Head of the Russia-My History project, Metropolitan of Pskov and Porkhov and Chairman of the Patriarchal Council for Culture Tikhon (Shevkunov), and MGIMO Rector and Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Anatoly Torkunov.
The Interdepartmental Commission for History Education was established by a presidential executive order of July 30, 2021.