A new textbook has been produced in Russia that distorts the history of the war against Ukraine and encourages students to join the army. The volume, explains the BBC in a long article, was designed for a new subject called 'Fundamentals of security and defense of the homeland', which will be compulsory for high school students aged 15 to 18 in Russia and the occupied territories of 'Ukraine. The new subject will be taught by former soldiers once a week from September, replacing a lesson known as 'Foundations for Safe Living'. Russians with a degree in pedagogy returning from the war have already been offered a qualification course to become teachers.
The first textbook for the new subject, entitled 'The Russian Army in Defense of the Fatherland', was produced by the Russian publishing house Enlightenment. Its authors include two personalities who work for the Ministry of Defense and the Kremlin newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta. Its 368 pages contain content describing the “heroic achievements of Russian soldiers” from the 13th century to the present day. The authors praise Joseph Stalin and celebrate Soviet victories in the Great Patriotic War, as Russians call World War II, and the army's role in conquering Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in 2014, which they call the “reunification of Crimea with Russia “.
In the book there is also a section “filled – according to the BBC – with distorted facts” to explain the large-scale invasion of Ukraine which is defined, according to the terms used by the Kremlin, as a “special military operation”. “When there was a coup in Kiev in 2014, the new government began a crackdown on everything Russian,” the authors say, claiming that “Russian books were burned, monuments destroyed, Russian songs and the Russian language itself were banned… cocktails of 'Russian blood' were served in restaurants,” while “cities in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, where dissent against such policies existed, were bombarded by Nazi bullets and rockets.”
In the volume it is therefore highlighted that “it was Ukraine and NATO who planned the start of the war“, curiously suggesting that “huge numbers of Ukrainian troops and armored vehicles were concentrated at the borders.” In reality, it was Russia that amassed more than 100,000 soldiers both along the border with Ukraine and in Belarus, apparently for joint military exercises , then launching the invasion on February 24, 2022.
“All disinformation and lies”, summarized the Ukrainian political analyst, Volodymyr Fesenko, commenting on the contents of the book, which goes on to indicate that the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, hammered for almost three months by Russian bombing, was destroyed during clashes with the “Nazis” and the “foreign mercenaries”.
Another section of the book begins with an in-depth overview of the structure of the Russian armed forces and invites adults to join the army. The required documents are listed and there are links to the application form as well as nearby addresses for enlistment. The benefits that soldiers have such as “free medical care and insurance, attractive salary and three meals a day” are also highlighted.
Young people from occupied Ukrainian territories, such as Crimea and Donbass, who have been subjected to aggressive propaganda for 10 years and have few opportunities to earn money, may be attracted by these economic bonuses, warned Olha Skrypnyk, head of a group for Crimean human rights. According to her, school books could help increase the number of those drafted into the army: “So these children go to war and die.”
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