Nearly three-quarters of Russian citizens, or 71 percent, support the idea of imposing a common history textbook for schools throughout Russia, Levada Center reported Thursday.
Overall, 10 percent of respondents were against, and the rest — 19 percent — could not decide, Interfax reported, citing a survey conducted at the end of May in 130 cities throughout 45 regions.
The idea of creating a common history textbook in Russia got support from President Vladimir Putin on March 29, 2013 at the first conference of the All-Russia People's Front in Rostov-on-Don.
"I completely agree that there should be some sort of canonical version of our history. If we study one history in the East, and another in the Urals it will destroy the unified humanitarian space of our multi-ethnic nation," Putin said at that time, Interfax reported.
In late April, Putin gave the Cabinet seven months to develop the concept of a single nation-wide school history textbook.
In May, the mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, also supported the initiative, news sources said.
"Today, 108 textbooks are approved by the Education Ministry with no single methodological concept. In my opinion, there is a need for one single textbook," Sobyanin said in comments on Polit.ru.
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