Putin makes economics curriculum a loyalty test for young Russians

Officials have removed nearly 260 textbooks from the approved list for schools since 2014

In the coolly analytical world of economics, how do you quantify patriotic fervor? For the man who launched the careers of generations of young Russian economists, it’s become a theoretical question with harsh real-world consequences.

Igor Lipsits literally wrote the book on high school economics in Russia, selling about 1 million copies of his Ekonomika textbook that has helped shape the understanding of millions of teenagers in the past two decades. Now he’s been kicked off the syllabus in favor of books that more closely reflect President Vladimir Putin’s rosy economic outlook.

After its experts declared that passages in Ekonomika