Moscow authorities have unveiled a new textbook that seeks to justify war against Ukraine and accuses the West of trying to destroy Russia.
According to excerpts from the book published by the Russian media, from now on students will be taught that human civilization could have come to an end if Vladimir Putin had not launched his “special military operation” against Ukraine.
The textbook, titled “History of Russia, 1945 to the beginning of the 21st century,” is co-authored by presidential adviser Vladimir Medinsky, a former Russian culture minister.
It is the first history book officially approved for use in Russian schools to mention events as recent as the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022.
Starting in September, this book will be studied in the last year of secondary schools in Russia, attended by students between the ages of 17 and 18.
The textbook states that “the West is obsessed with destabilizing the situation inside Russia” and, to achieve this goal, the Western powers spread “blatant Russophobia”.
In addition, the book says that the West began to “drag” Russia into various conflicts with the ultimate goal of destroying the country and seizing its mineral wealth.
The book repeats several commonplaces of Kremlin propaganda and presents Ukraine as an aggressive state run by nationalist extremists and manipulated by the West, which allegedly uses the country as a “battering ram” against Russia.
According to the book, Ukraine is little more than a Western invention created to spite Russia. Even the blue and yellow flag of Ukraine was supposedly invented by Austrians eager to convince Ukrainians that they are different from Russians.
the russian narrative
The textbook is also riddled with distortions and manipulations.
For example, he describes Russia’s initial attack on Ukraine in 2014 as a popular uprising by residents of eastern Donbas who “wanted to remain Russian” and were joined by “volunteers” from Russia.
It does not mention the military materiel and personnel that Russia sent to Donbas at that time or in the eight years that followed.
The book argues that a key reason for the full-scale invasion in 2022 was the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO.
If Ukraine had joined the alliance and then “provoked a conflict in Crimea or Donbas,” the textbook says, Russia would have been forced to wage war against the entire NATO alliance.
“This would have possibly been the end of civilization. This cannot be allowed to happen,” the textbook says.
However, Ukraine’s NATO membership was then, and remains now, a long shot.
The textbook also falsely claims that prior to Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, Ukraine had plans to turn Sevastopol – the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet – into a NATO base and that Kiev later said who wanted to acquire nuclear weapons.
lies about the tongue
Another false textbook claim is that, until 2014, 80% of the population of Ukraine considered Russian their native language.
According to a survey published by the renowned Razumkov Center in 2006, only 30% of Ukrainian residents mentioned Russian as their mother tongue, while 52% stated that Ukrainian was their mother tongue.
In an apparent reference to the vast amount of digital material implicating Russian forces in atrocities in Ukraine, the textbook warns students to be aware of “a global industry that manufactures staged clips and fake photos and videos.” .
“Western social media and media too enthusiastically spread false information,” the textbook says in a chapter on the “special military operation.”
Russian authorities have detained several activists who accused Russian troops of attacking civilians in Ukraine.
For example, Ilya Yashin, a critic of the Kremlin, has been sentenced to eight and a half years in prison after speaking live on the Internet about alleged Russian war crimes in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.
The textbook criticizes the Western sanctions imposed on Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, presenting them as an attempt to “destroy the Russian economy.”
It also wrongly argues that these sanctions “violate every norm of international law that the West is so fond of citing.”
At the same time, the exodus of Western companies from Russia after the full-scale invasion is being presented as a “fantastic opportunity” for Russian entrepreneurs.
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BBC-NEWS-SRC: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/articles/c515vyp0pq5o, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-08-09 20:20:10
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