Updated Ukraine history program for high school students takes effect

On July 17, 2016, Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Liliia Hrynevych signed an order approving the curriculum for higher classes of secondary school, including an updated Ukrainian history program.

Censor.NET reports referring to the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance.

"Last year, the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance initiated changes to the school program on the history of Ukraine. The Ministry of Education and Science set up a working group to improve and optimize the program. It was composed of representatives of governmental, scientific and research and academic institutions, in particular the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance which had a draft program on the history of Ukraine for higher classes. After a lengthy discussion and numerous improvements introduced by group's experts, the draft program was approved at a meeting of the board of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and enacted by the relevant order of the minister," the statement notes.

"The Ukrainian revolution of 1917-1921 now comes as a separate topic. The period of mass repression and the Great Terror in Ukraine has been fairly dubbed as 'The establishment and enactment of the Soviet totalitarian regime (1921-1939).' Additionally, students will study a number of historical figures and personalities who contributed to the development of Ukraine," the institute stressed.

According to the program, the following events, concepts, facts and terms have been highlighted and refined:

battle of Kruty;

stages of labor and political emigration;

wars between Soviet Russia and the Ukrainian People's Republic;

Soviet occupation of Ukraine;

administrative and territorial changes of the Ukrainian lands throughout the 20th century;

declaration of Ukrainian State Act;

contribution of the Ukrainian people in the victory over Nazism in World War II;

Ukrainians in the UN military units;

deportation of the Crimean Tatars and other peoples from Crimea;

deportation of ethnic Ukrainians from Poland during 1944-1946;

Ukrainian Helsinki Group and more.