Ukrainian Education and Russian Literature: Curriculum Change in a Time of War

Abstract: Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, all literary works by Russian writers were removed from the Ukrainian school curriculum. This article provides context for these wartime changes by examining the history of literary education in Ukraine across six decades, before and after the fall of the Soviet Union. The article's focus is on delineating the balance between Ukrainian literature, Russian literature and 'foreign' literature in secondary schools, a balance that has been responsive to wider shifts in the relationship between Ukraine and the Soviet Union/Russia on the one hand, and between Ukraine and the EU/Europe on the other.