Russians rewrite history textbooks, removing mentions of Ukraine and Kyiv - Russian media

ALENA MAZURENKO — SATURDAY, 23 APRIL 2022, 23:12

Employees of Prosveshchieniye [Enlightenment], one of the oldest Russian publishers of educational literature, are being forced to remove all mentions of Ukraine and Kyiv from textbooks.

Source: Employees of the publishers, talking to Mediazona

Details: According to two employees of Prosveshcheniye, speaking on condition of anonymity, they are being forced to rewrite history textbooks for Russian schoolchildren or lose their jobs.

It is noted that the policy of "purging" Ukraine and Kyiv from Russian textbooks was set as early as 2014 - since then, authors and editors have had to mention Ukraine as rarely as possible and in the most neutral tone.

On the first day of the war [in 2022], Prosveshcheniye’s employees received verbal instructions to remove mentions of Ukraine wherever possible. This is particularly challenging for those in charge of history textbooks.

Quote: "We have a task - to make it seem as if Ukraine simply does not exist. It is much worse when there is nothing about a particular country in the textbook. People grow up without a knowledge base about a country, and then it is much easier to believe what they are told on TV."

The publishers used to check each textbook for relevance every five years, but since 2014, checks have become far more frequent.