Make Russia Medieval Again! How Putin is seeking to remold society, with a little help from Ivan the Terrible

Ivan the Terrible: Putin’s Template for Making Russia Medieval Again

Republished with permission from The Conversation, by Dina Khapaeva, Georgia Institute of Technology Beginning in September 2025, Russian middle and high school students will be handed a new textbook titled “My Family.” Published in March 2025, the textbook’s co-author Nina Ostanina, chair of the State Duma Committee for the Protection of the Family, claims that it will teach students “traditional moral values” that will improve “the demographic…

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Make Russia Medieval Again! How Putin is seeking to remold society, with a little help from Ivan the Terrible

Russian President Vladimir Putin has draped himself in old-fashioned, medieval conceptions of Russian history to add symbolic weight to his authoritarian government. AP Photo/Alexander ZemlianichenkoBeginning in September 2025, Russian middle and high school students will be handed a new textbook titled “My Family.” Published in March 2025, the textbook’s co-author Nina Ostanina, chair of the State Duma Committee for the Protection of the Family…

On February 4, the opening day of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, Putin met with the Chinese president to announce a new Sino-Russian partnership. “The friendship between the two states has no limits,” it said.