New topics on Russian history added to the final essay topic bank

New historical topics added to the essay topic bank

The bank of topics for the final essay in Russian has received new formulations dedicated to the history of Russia. Gazeta.Ru was told about this by Tatiana Koval, head of the Russian language department at the online school Shkolkovo. According to her, to complete the work it is enough to choose one of the proposed options and present one's own position, supported by literary examples.

How the bank is structured and what has changed

Topic sets are formed from a closed bank containing more than 2,000 formulations — both tasks from previous years and new topics that developers add every year. In the 2026–2027 academic year, the bank was expanded with historical topics: they relate to events, processes and figures of national history and were included mainly in the sections 'Family, Society, and the Fatherland in a Person's Life' and 'Nature and Culture in a Person's Life'. The new formulations were developed on the instructions of the Council on the Conduct of the Final Essay of the Russian Ministry of Education, while the assessment system for the essays remained unchanged.

What topics graduates may encounter

Among the new topics are questions about the lessons of national history, the significance of the cultural achievements of the 19th century, the reasons for the emergence of chronicles, and events that demonstrated the unity of society. Graduates may also be asked to reflect on the words of the historian Vasily Klyuchevsky: 'To be a consciously and conscientiously acting citizen, each of us must be at least a little bit of a historian.' The task may also include simpler formulations — about an outstanding historical figure, a work of art that preserves the memory of a heroic deed, or a historical event captured in culture.

Advice from the teacher

'A historical topic does not require retelling a textbook or a large number of dates — what matters is understanding exactly what the author of the formulation is asking. Each set will contain two topics from each section, and the student needs to choose only one of the six formulations: if the historical topics seem too difficult, there will be an opportunity not to choose them. It is more reliable to prepare in advance several universal works and episodes that the graduate genuinely knows how to use,' Koval noted. The teacher also advises using pre-prepared templates: formulate a thesis, support it with a suitable example from literature, and draw a conclusion. As an example of a thesis, she cited the reasoning that to love one's homeland means, in any life situation, to remain faithful to one's duty to one's native country and to defend its interests despite one's own fears.