Almost 40% of Ukrainians want Russian literature removed from the school syllabus

38% of Ukrainians believe that Russian authors should be removed from the school syllabus. This is according to a nationwide survey conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation.

According to the survey, the opinion of removing Russian literature is “most widespread in the West of the country, and the least supporters of a complete rejection of Russian “content” in Russian school syllabus are in the South. Only about 7% of citizens still support the continuation of studying the works of Russian authors. The rest are in favor of reducing the number of Russians in textbooks, but still the option of keeping studying the works that are considered “world classics” remains relatively popular (about 28%).”

The younger the respondents, the less they want to see Russians in the school education programmes. Among the youngest age group, 46% support excluding Russian authors, while the “Russophobia” of the oldest generation is somewhat lower — about 33%.

The survey involved 2018 respondents aged 18 and older. The theoretical sampling error does not exceed 2.3%. However, additional systematic sample deviations may be caused by the consequences of Russian aggression, in particular, the forced evacuation of millions of citizens.

According to a poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, 52% of Ukrainians believe that Russian should not be taught in Ukrainian schools at all.

In 2022, it was planned to remove works by Russian and Soviet authors from the school’s foreign literature curriculum, and to move Gogol to Ukrainian literature. Subsequently, the Ministry of Education and Science decided to keep the works of some Russian writers.