Public history lessons, which today are being held online, showed not only the lack of professionalism and engagement of teachers, but also the state’s demand for historical manipulation and propaganda.
Thus, the “Mega” TV channel told its viewers that the Germans burned Ukrainian villages because they were provoked by partisans. And it turns out that these same Soviet partisans were engaged only in looting and hiding in the woods. “Of course, there isn’t a word about Guta Penyatskaya which was burned by the SS Galicia. It’s just disgusting,” wrote Dmitry Belov, a spectator. And further we go, the more there is.
Yury Vryashnik from Dnepropetrovsk published an excerpt from a history textbook where it is said that “preparing for war with Poland, Hitler tried to ignite the Ukrainian-Polish confrontation and to attract the sympathies of the inhabitants of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic to his side. On April 1st 1939 he declared: the soul aches when we see the suffering of the noble Ukrainian people… the time has come to create a unified Ukrainian state. And after the fall of Poland, the German government took a position of support and alliance in relation to Ukrainians (in particular, to OUN members)…”.
The author of the publication notes that this is taught to students in history lessons in grade 5. Many parents are outraged by such manipulations and claim that they will forbid their children to pick up such textbooks stuffed with lies and deliberately whitewashing fascists and fascism. “I see, Hitler was such a sentimental good man. Does anyone know if he wore an embroidered shirt under his tunic?” writes Elena Bogoslavtseva.
However, should we be surprised at these “pages of history”, if the Ministry of Education in Ukraine is headed by a Lvov official who recently held a competition in schools for the best drawing for the anniversary of the SS division “Galicia”?
Svetlana Manekina
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