Crimean Tatars raised a scandal over a history textbook
A scandal erupted in Crimea over the publication of a new textbook on the history of the peninsula, which is expected to be used in schools in the republic. State Duma deputy Ruslan Balbek, representing the Crimean Tatars, protested against the chapter of the new textbook devoted to collaboration among part of the population of the peninsula during the Great Patriotic War.
“In Crimea, due to the specific national composition of the population, the German command quickly took measures to win over the cooperation of the Crimean Tatars, some of whom greeted the invaders in some cities and villages with bouquets, treated them to fruits and wine, seeing them as liberators... The majority of the Tatar population was loyal to the Germans, and many actively helped,” says one of the sections dedicated to collaboration.
The textbook was written by a number of authors, the team was headed by the Vice-Rector for International Activities and Information Policy of the Crimean Federal University named after Vernadsky, Doctor of Sciences Sergei Yurchenko.
The contents of the textbook were considered outrageous by State Duma deputy Ruslan Balbek. He published a special statement calling for the book to be withdrawn from circulation and an investigation to be conducted.
“This situation needs to be investigated and, in my opinion, the reasons for its occurrence must be very seriously understood and conclusions drawn. No one in our country is allowed to neglect and despise Russian citizens of the Crimean Tatar nationality, like any other nationality. This chapter from the history textbook should be removed or rewritten, and its author simply must apologize,” wrote Balbec.
In his opinion, such lines in the Russian textbook play into the hands of the Mejlis extremists who fled to Ukraine.
“In fact, at the instigation of the authors of the textbook, a game was played in the interests of Ukraine, where now various outcasts of the Crimean Tatar people are squealing about the deliberate humiliation of the Crimean Tatars,” the deputy argues.
Balbek’s position was criticized by one of the authors of the textbook, Crimean political scientist, deputy head of the Public Chamber of the Republic Alexander Formanchuk. In a comment to PolitNavigator, he stated that Balbec “washed out the dirty laundry” without understanding the problem, and first he should have met with the team of authors.
“I am surprised by such an illiterate attitude of State Duma deputy Ruslan Balbek to this topic. To begin with, let him meet with the authors of the textbook and discuss this topic, because the authors of the textbook, when working with the section, proceeded from the same source base - historians work with sources. And the purity of the source base for the historian is of fundamental importance; it underlies the purity of historical truth. First, Ruslan Ismailovich should figure it out, and then come out with such blogs.
I consider it unacceptable for a State Duma deputy to make such statements without understanding the essence of the matter. And then, what does the word “investigate” mean? What time do we live in, and in what state? I'm putting a big question mark over the word "investigate."
Professor Yurchenko is a real scientist, a historian, he is a Doctor of Science, just in case! Professor Yurchenko led the team of authors of this textbook, and this team bears full responsibility for everything that is written there. We are not afraid of this responsibility,” Formanchuk said.
Another of the authors, Professor Alexander Herzen, said that the Ministry of Education of the republic had already scheduled a meeting where they would sort out the situation, and placed responsibility on the Prosveshcheniye publishing house, which was supposed to take care of editing the textbook.
“Tomorrow, in theory, there should be a meeting at the Ministry of Education, that’s how we, the authors, were guided. I'm one of the authors. Each author is responsible for his own section. We don’t have an editor; the editors were the responsibility of the Prosveshchenie publishing house in Moscow. Our project manager is Sergey Vasilievich Yurchenko. Each author is responsible only for what he wrote. Unfortunately, I don’t know what the essence of the complaint is - they downloaded some materials from the Internet to me, but overall the picture is still unclear to me. We will monitor what is unfolding there, and what specific data, materials, claims are needed, for which sections, what exactly the disagreement or indignation consists of,” Herzen noted.
PolitNavigator contacted Professor Yurchenko, who is listed as the main author of the textbook, but Sergei Vasilyevich was unable to promptly answer questions, citing being busy.
The textbook also had several reviewers, including the senator from Crimea, head of the Russian community of the peninsula, Sergei Tsekov. He admitted that it would be necessary to make changes to the textbook.
“I read it 15 days before its release, I had a lot of edits. Then I was surprised to learn that the book had been published, but not a single correction had been made by me. The first damn thing is lumpy. I am also not satisfied with its content. And for other sections, and for the part that Balbec is talking about, but I don’t think it’s right to withdraw this book, it needs to be corrected, a second edition needs to be worked on,” Tsekov told PolitNavigator.
“In general, history itself carries a very powerful ideological charge, but, unfortunately, we do not have a common point of view and idea. As for the collaboration of the Crimean Tatars during the Great Patriotic War, there was collaboration, but what, there wasn’t?” – the senator also noted.
Crimean Tatars raise scandal over history textbook