Since the invasion was launched, mentioning Ukraine and its capital kyiv is now “inappropriate”, reports independent media outlet Mediazona.
A subtle but intense pressure would be exerted since the beginning of the war on the employees of the Russian publishing house Prosveshchenie. According to the independent Russian media Mediazona, blocked by the Kremlin, a meeting was organized by the managers of this publishing house, which publishes school textbooks in particular, to ensure that, in these books, mentions of Ukraine, described as “inappropriate», be withdrawn.
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This new rule leads, according to employees anonymously interviewed by Mediazona, a significant phenomenon of self-censorship. From the start of the war, they were told to keep references to Ukraine to a minimum, something authors and publishers had already begun to do after the first invasion of Ukraine in 2014. It was thus recommended to remove the Ukrainian flag from the passages of school textbooks supposed to evoke the heraldry (study of coats of arms) of national flags.
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Russia’s largest textbook publisher
This erasure of Ukraine, and mentions of its capital kyiv, in history textbooks is not easy to achieve. Thus, while some editors try to find formulas to designate Ukraine without explicitly naming it when it is at the heart of a historical phenomenon, certain passages are simply deleted by their superiors. “It is particularly problematic to publish a textbook which simply does not provide any information on a country“, deplores an employee of the publishing house. “A child can grow up knowing nothing about this country, and will be much more likely to believe what the TV says“.
Prosveshchenie is under so much pressure because it is Russia’s largest textbook publisher. The publishing house receives 80% of Russian state funds dedicated to the purchase of textbooks. And the forced redaction of works is not limited to Ukraine: since Russia banned for “extremism» on its territory certain social networks of American origin (Facebook, Instagram), the publishers must ensure that they are not mentioned in the works, as well as the word Meta (now name of the parent company of Facebook) .
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Employees were also asked to delete mentions of their accounts on the social networks in question in their e-mail signature. They were also told that any online anti-war stance could be grounds for dismissal.