NewsPronto

 
The Times


.

USA Conversation

The Conversation USA

The Conversation USA

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

  • Written by Dina Khapaeva, Professor of Cultural Studies, Georgia Institute of Technology
imageRussian 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 Zemlianichenko

Beginning in September 2025, Russian middle and high school students will be handed a new textbook titled “My Family.”

Published in March...

Read more: Make Russia Medieval Again! How Putin is seeking to remold society, with a little help from Ivan...

More Articles ...

  1. Francis, a pope of many firsts: 5 essential reads
  2. Lawful permanent residents like Mahmoud Khalil have a right to freedom of speech – but does that protect them from deportation?
  3. Federal laws don’t ban rollbacks of environmental protection, but they don’t make it easy
  4. Why don’t humans have hair all over their bodies? A biologist explains our lack of fur
  5. Endowments aren’t blank checks – but universities can rely on them more heavily in turbulent times
  6. Exposure to perceptible temperature rise increases concern about climate change, higher education adds to understanding
  7. What will happen at the funeral of Pope Francis
  8. How the next pope will be elected – what goes on at the conclave
  9. Scientists found a potential sign of life on a distant planet – an astronomer explains why many are still skeptical
  10. ‘I never issued a criminal contempt citation in 19 ½ years on the bench’ – a former federal judge looks at the ‘relentless bad behavior’ of the Trump administration in court
  11. As views on spanking shift worldwide, most US adults support it, and 19 states allow physical punishment in schools
  12. Crime is nonpartisan and the blame game on crime in cities is wrong – on both sides
  13. With federal funding in question, artists can navigate a perilous future by looking to the past
  14. Lawsuits seeking to address climate change have promise but face uncertain future
  15. All models are wrong − a computational modeling expert explains how engineers make them useful
  16. Trump’s attacks on central bank threaten its independence − and that isn’t good news for sound economic stewardship (or battling inflation)
  17. Claims of ‘anti-Christian bias’ sound to some voters like a message about race, not just religion
  18. How does your brain create new memories? Neuroscientists discover ‘rules’ for how neurons encode new information
  19. Patriots’ Day: How far-right groups hijack history and patriotic symbols to advance their cause, according to an expert on extremism
  20. International students infuse tens of millions of dollars into local economies across the US. What happens if they stay home?
  21. Popular AIs head-to-head: OpenAI beats DeepSeek on sentence-level reasoning
  22. Why people with autism struggle to get hired − and how businesses can help by changing how they look at job interviews
  23. Appliance efficiency standards save consumers billions, reduce pollution and fight climate change
  24. Why deregulating online platforms is actually bad for free speech
  25. Ethical leadership can boost well-being and performance in remote work environments
  26. Is a ‘friend-apist’ what we really want from therapy?
  27. Federal judge finds ‘probable cause’ to hold Trump administration in contempt – a legal scholar explains what this means
  28. How single-stream recycling works − your choices can make it better
  29. The sudden dismissal of public records staff at health agencies threatens government accountability
  30. Wide variety of old-growth ecosystems across the US makes their conservation a complex challenge
  31. Railways were essential to carrying out the Holocaust – decades later, corporate reckoning continues
  32. 200 years ago, France extorted Haiti in one of history’s greatest heists – and Haitians want reparations
  33. Cory Booker’s long speech offers a strategy for Trump opponents in a fragmented media landscape
  34. Miami researchers are testing a textured seawall designed to hold back water and create a home for marine organisms
  35. Dark energy may have once been ‘springier’ than it is today − DESI cosmologists explain what their collaboration’s new measurement says about the universe’s history
  36. Giving cash to families in poor, rural communities can help bring down child marriage rates – new research
  37. Des Moines food pantries face spiking demand as the Iowa region’s SNAP enrollment declines
  38. Beggar thy neighbor, harm thyself: Tariffs like Trump’s come with pitfalls, history shows
  39. 25 years of Everglades restoration has improved drinking water for millions in Florida, but a new risk is rising
  40. A need for chaos powers some Americans’ support for Elon Musk taking a chainsaw to the US government
  41. Preventive care may no longer be free in 2026 because of HIV stigma − unless the Trump administration successfully defends the ACA
  42. How bird flu differs from seasonal flu − an infectious disease researcher explains
  43. Educators find creative work-arounds to new laws that restrict what they can teach
  44. Volcanic ash is a silent killer, more so than lava: What Alaska needs to know with Mount Spurr likely to erupt
  45. The Thucydides Trap: Vital lessons from ancient Greece for China and the US … or a load of old claptrap?
  46. On stage but out of the spotlight − the quiet struggle of being an opening act
  47. Why the meteorites that hit Earth have less water than the asteroid bits brought back by space probes – a planetary scientist explains new research
  48. Cambodia’s haunted present: 50 years after Khmer Rouge’s rise, murderous legacy looms large
  49. Social Security’s trust fund could run out of money sooner than expected due to changes in taxes and benefits
  50. 401(k) plans and stock market volatility: What you need to know