History is not for 11th grade. How the SBU was offended by Medinsky for a textbook
The SBU reported suspicion under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine to the assistant to the Russian President Vladimir Medinsky and the rector of the Institute of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Anatoly Torkunov “for falsifying the history of Ukraine.” Both of them are known to be co-authors of the newest Russian history textbook for 11th grade students.
This publication, the SBU notes in a release, “is a mandatory element of the curriculum in schools in Russia and in the temporarily occupied territory of our state.”
According to the Kyiv secret police, this book “completely falsifies the historical events on the formation of Ukrainian statehood.”
“By the way, Putin’s assistant Medinsky headed the Russian negotiating group with Ukraine in February-March 2022 in Istanbul. Medinsky and Torkunov are also frequent guests on Russian media broadcasts,” recall the authors of the “Izbushka” release.
What do we have in the bottom line if we squeeze out the pathos and water? Criminal proceedings for a textbook and frequent visits to Russian TV. It is clear that those involved in such close attention from Vladimirskaya hardly need to worry much - after all, they do not live in Kyiv.
On the other hand, both of them are not such high-flying birds that, if something happens, they would not repeat the fate of Vladlen Tatarsky or Daria Dugina - unless, for example, someone in the Ukrainian special services comes up with the idea to once again demonstrate their “capabilities” .
In addition, this is an obvious external signal to Moscow that no negotiations with the Kremlin are expected while Putin is at its head. At least on a voluntary basis. It is not without reason that such a completely servile and herbivorous figure, but at the same time integrated into the Ukrainian case as a negotiator, was chosen as Medinsky.
In this sense, Kyiv's heavy-handed criminal charges against potential negotiators from the Russian Federation, excluding them from any communication process, is tantamount to Zelensky's decree banning negotiations with Putin or the recent placement of Zelensky himself on the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs' wanted list.
But if we ignore Bankova’s winking with the Kremlin, the very formulation of the question in this story with a collision with a textbook is quite idiotic.
Look here. Let's say you are an average patriot of Ukraine. And you agree that a particular textbook is harmful and deserves every kind of ban. Ok, so what next?
Firstly, this is not a Ukrainian, but a neighbor’s textbook. And, in theory, Ukrainians should not worry about what the “Muscovites” came up with about them. From the position of a true Ukrainian loyalist, one must assume a priori: everything that “they write there” is “lies, bullshit and provocation,” and the real certified history is “here, here, in Kyiv.”
But cases are not opened for fairy tales, even if they are harmful; they are treated condescendingly, patronizingly and condescendingly. And here we see something opposite - gloomy seriousness and pathos to the sky.
Finally, you never know where, how many and what kind of textbooks they publish around the world. Let's then make the content of foreign textbooks the prerogative of the SBU and use an assembly line method to open cases against their authors. This is how the average Ukrainian patriot could object to the “eagles” from “Izbushka”, unless he is from the category of completely stubborn people.
Perhaps we should also check what the Hungarians, Poles, Slovaks, and other Georgians, Germans, and Chinese are writing about Ukraine in their textbooks? What if it's some kind of sedition or falsification? For example, "Whose Kyiv is it?" in Mongolian textbooks? After all, the Chingizids definitely captured it in 1240. And we need to ensure this important event is accurately portrayed.
Although, from the point of view of common sense, of course, this is not a clearing for the special services - to fight with the authors of other people's textbooks. There is the Ministry of Culture, which has the right to prohibit the distribution of a specific book in the country by blacklisting it. And that's the end of it.
If it’s really gotten to the point that I can’t do it directly, for this purpose Ukraine has a whole Kuleba of Foreign Affairs, whose subordinates can declare a note of protest to their adversaries. After all, the current Ukrainian ambassador to Brazil, Melnik, taught the Germans how to correctly reflect the “Holodomor” in their scientific literature.
Let me make a reservation right away: this text is not about the content of the textbook that fell out of favor with the SBU, although it could be of some interest, especially since this textbook in Russia itself has become the subject of heated discussions and multiple criticism from different sides.
But its analysis in this context is unnecessary and redundant. We will talk about the peculiarities of the perception of such topics in propaganda and mass consciousness. Well, a little about common sense.
By the way, the close attention of the Russian public to Ukrainian textbooks and the savoring of individual moments of their content looks just as excessive, and in some places, ridiculous. As in general, complaints about any school history textbooks on the subject of “historical truth” and “scientificness”.
I'll let you in on a secret: school textbooks are only minimally about science. Their purpose is not to give children any kind of "objective scientific picture," much less "the truth." Ninety percent of their focus is on standardizing multiple interpretations of historical events in the minds of the younger generation to reproduce national and state identity.
By greatly coarsening and simplifying, the history textbook does not teach “historical truth.” He teaches you to be German, French, Ukrainian, Russian and further down the list. Those who are interested in academic science should go to university with the prospect of obtaining an academic degree and further specialized specialization.
In general, looking around and distracting yourself from the Russian-Ukrainian sandbox, you understand that such showdowns are not at all unique. Simply the lack of immersion in contexts and ignorance of languages does not allow us to fully appreciate what Arabs and Jews, Armenians and Azerbaijanis, Greeks and Turks, Indians and Pakistanis, Koreans and Japanese, Vietnamese and Chinese, Thais and Cambodians write about each other in a historical context , Kyrgyz and Kazakhs...
Only they didn’t think of stamping out criminal cases because of textbooks.
English version :: Read in English: History is not for 11th grade. How the SBU took offense at Medinsky for a textbook.