This article examines the current debate on the politics of history education reforms and the new history textbooks for secondary schools in the Russian Federation. Recent reforms in history education, standards and prescribed history textbooks by the Ministry of Education and Science demonstrate a pronounced ideological shift in the national history curriculum, which is characterised by a renewed emphasis on patriotism, nationalism and nation-building. The article analyses the politics Russian textbooks and the re-rewriting history process, the 'falsification' of Russian history debate, Putin's role in the re-writing process of school history textbooks, and the media debate on the single history textbook.