A history textbook in the war for the future

It was far from the first, though this time very spreading, justifying the key thesis of Russian propaganda about the "Adin people". Vladimir Putin voiced another appeal to such a vision of the past in a speech on February 21 - three days before the start of a full -scale invasion. Video of the day why in the speeches and articles of the head of the Russian Federation so many history? Not only to call for the past to justify your aggression.

Putin is sure that a properly rewritten story is an important tool for winning Ukraine. It is able to reform the Ukrainians in the right way. He is guided by the aphorism, which is attributed to Bismarck: "The war is not won by generals, but by school teachers and parish priests. " Therefore, the enemy is the same in Ukraine the priests of the Russian Orthodox Church and teachers with the right textbooks of history.

Books in which Stalin has been described as an effective manager has been spreading in Russia for twenty years. They helped to form the current Russian society that supports Putin as Stalin's policy. This society is ready to close their eyes to the crimes of power against their own and foreign citizens. The Russians fill the sense of greatness from the fact that the world is afraid of their state.

On these textbooks, generations of those who killed in Irpen and Bucha were raised in Kherson and Mariupol. Replacing history textbooks in the Russian -occupied territories of Ukraine is one of the first steps of the new government. It was in Crimea. And in the so -called DNR and LNR immediately began the development of courses "History of the Fatherland".

And in 2021, the hundred thousand circulation was issued "History of Donbass: from ancientness to consolidation" and 9 thousand "History of Great Fatigue War. Part 1. And even in the territory, where the Russians only kept the occupation (Chernihiv, Sumy, Kherson regions) and have not yet prepared their own books, they began to withdraw from libraries and destroy Ukrainian historical literature.

For this purpose, Russian units of "military police" were involved, which, in addition to repressive functions, perform ideological. Replacing history textbooks in the Russian -occupied territories of Ukraine - one of the first steps of the new government, the Russians are in a hurry, because they understand that they have been late with the historical education of Ukrainians, which has taken place almost without their participation for the last thirty years.

The study of the true history of Ukraine was impossible in the Soviet times. I was among those Ukrainian students who, in addition to the History of the USSR ", studied the History of the USSR. Both textbooks, of course, were about the decisive role of the Russian people. In the second main focus was the desire of Ukrainians to reunite with the Russians. With the proclamation of independence, all these textbooks were morally outdated and needed immediate replacement.

Teachers began to use the books of Predict's authors - Lototsky, Arcas, Hrushevsky, Krypiakevich in the lessons. The role of the new textbook was best suited to the book "Ukraine. History ”of the Canadian scientist Orest Subtelny, who came out in 1988 in Toronto. The Ukrainian translation of the book appeared in three years.

The author mentioned that he had already begun to prepare a Ukrainian publication in Kiev, when a PSC of the State Committee for Communist Party of Ukraine occurred in the USSR. Publishers advised Subtelny to flee with their book back to Canada. But he decided to stay. And three days later, the publishers returned with the proposal to publish the book.

A few years after independence, historians and educators in Ukraine, together with the Ministry of Education, managed to create a complete set of textbooks on the history of Ukraine from ancient times to the present day, from 5th to 11th grade. Our state became the first among the post -Soviet republics to provide the educational institutions with their own history textbooks. In this way, Ukraine began to assert its independence in history, its right to its own view of the past.

After all, most people do not read historical works, memoirs, or, moreover, collections of documents. Their ideas about the past are formed in the school years, when you want, you do not want, you have to study history as a separate compulsory subject. Therefore, in any society, the main tool for forming ideas about the past is a school textbook of history. No wonder it is sometimes referred to as attributes of statehood near the hymn, flag, and coat of arms.

The leadership of Russia, recovering after the collapse of the USSR, sought to restore the influence on Ukrainians about the past. To bring us control today. This was done through cinema, literature, pop culture. And Russia was actively promoting the idea of ​​a common textbook of history, which allegedly had to contribute to better understanding of peoples. The Russians have a common look, of course, meant Russian.

It was difficult to impose on Ukrainians, because the difference in the understanding of the past was only deepening. It was especially difficult to talk about it after the Orange Revolution, which accelerated the formation of national identity in Ukraine. We began to open the KGB secret archives earlier, spread the truth about the crimes of the Communists and the heroic struggle of the liberation movement participants.

It was obviously impossible to combine this story with the Russian Narrati Narrat. In 2009, the school program in Ukraine has undergone more changes-the holiday for the Russians disappeared the topic, the "Great Patriotic War" was replaced with "World War II". But the Kremlin was able to political ways-because of the victory of his candidate Viktor Yanukovych in the 2010 presidential elections-to establish himself in the Ukrainian authorities.

And immediately staged by the newly elected President, Minister of Education Dmitry Tabachnyk undertook the rewriting of Ukrainian textbooks. According to his personal instruction, Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, Battle of Kruty, Great Terror and Repression of the 1930s, Liberation Movement and UPA, Dissidents, National Democratic Movement in Ukraine in the late 1980s-early 1990 were -years and the Orange Revolution of 2004.

The Minister of Education of Ukraine also stated that it "booms from the textbooks of Bradatyatin about the Holodomor. " The "clearing" of Ukrainian history was not carried out to ensure that Ukrainian students receive textbooks with pure pages. The void had to fill the new content required by Yanukovych's "strategic ally". Therefore, with the assistance of Tabachnyk, the Russian-Ukrainian Commission of Historians for the preparation of a common textbook resumed work.

The commission did not have time to work out something essential or even more so. Ukrainians rebelled against Yanukovych's pro -Russian policy and forced him to escape from the country. Putin lost political instruments of influence, so he took up the military. But despite the tremendous numerical and technical advantage, he cannot win the war with Ukraine. Because wars are won not by generals but by history teachers.