The Ukrainian Ministry of Education demanded to edit the school textbook on national history for Grade 10 and remove from it information about the cooperation of the commander of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) * Roman Shukhevych with the army of Nazi Germany during the Second World War. This is stated in the response to the deputy request of the representative of the All-Ukrainian Association "Freedom" (radical nationalist party, headed by Oleg Pyagnibok. - RT ) Oleg Osukhovsky to the Ministry of Education and Science and the Security Service of Ukraine, the press service of VO "Svoboda" informs.
This information in his blog in the "Live Journal" confirmed the director of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee Edward Dolinsky.
“The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine obliged the publishing house Genesis and the authors of a history textbook for Grade 10 to urgently remove the mention of the collaboration of the Hauptmann of the 201st battalion of Schutimanshaft Roman Shukhevych,” Dolinsky said.
This decision was made under pressure from activists who had previously sought support from the All-Ukrainian Union "Freedom". The authors of the initiative considered the textbook “ideological diversion” due to the fact that the activities of the Nachtigall, Roland divisions, the SS division Halychyna, and Roman Shukhevych himself were presented as a manifestation of collaborationism.
- Deputy of Parliament from VO "Svoboda" Oleg Osuhovsky
- © osuhovskyi
As reported on the website of the Svoboda party, the ministry responded to the request of people's deputy Oleg Osukhovsky, promising to “urgently” make changes to the textbook.
“Earlier, scientists and teachers addressed Oleg Osukhovsky with a letter expressing outrage at the section of the school textbook for the 10th grade of general secondary education“ History: Ukraine and the world (integrated course, standard level) ”approved by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine in 2018 M.Mudry and A.G. Arkushi ", - reported on the official website of the party.
According to the "scientists and educators", to which the deputy refers, the emergence of a textbook in which there is a section "National military units in the German army. Manifestations of collaborationism, "illustrated by a photograph of Roman Shukhevych," means supporting Russian propaganda. "
The authors of the appeal appeal to the works of such Ukrainian historians as Ivan Patilyak, Andrei Bolyanovsky and some others. These researchers, from their point of view, allegedly managed to prove that the activities of the Ukrainian formations subordinated to the German command were not a manifestation of collaborationism.
In the edited textbook, the paragraph devoted to this part of the history of Ukraine will be entitled as “National military units in the German army”.
"People are just afraid"
At the same time, the views of those historians to whom the authors of the petition are appealing can be called objective and balanced with great difficulty. Ivan Patrylak, a graduate of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (KNU), deserves special attention and specializes in the history of the Ukrainian “national liberation” movement. In 2014, he became the dean of the Faculty of History of the KNU.
Patryliak is known as an ardent defender of the OUN-UPA, as well as the SS unit "Galicia". In one of his interviews, he called the Nuremberg trial a “problem” - the historian disputes the recognition of the SS as a criminal organization.
“The Nuremberg trial is not the judgment of God. The process of winners over the vanquished cannot be fair, ”said Patryliak.
The dissenting opinion of this scientist is the relatively infamous Volyn Massacre, which he calls the “incident”.
“As for the Volyn incident. When the Algerian Arabs started the war of independence, they massively killed French white colonists. The same happened in other countries that fought a war of independence. In no case does this qualify as genocide against colonists, ”Patryliak said in an interview with the Federal News Agency.
- Nuremberg Tribunal
- AFP
- © DPA
It should be noted that the situation around the manual “Ukraine and the World” is far from the first case of claims by VO “Freedom” to “wrong” school textbooks. Even before Euromaidan, in January 2013, the movement called for parents, students and teachers to boycott a history textbook for Grade 5, in which there was no chapter on the “national liberation” struggle of Ukrainians, a portrait of Shukhevych, as well as other system-forming myths for Ukrainian nationalism, like a legend about the deliberate “organization” of the Holodomor in Ukraine in Ukraine.
The scandal surrounding a textbook written by historians Marian the Wise and Elena Arkusha broke out in the fall, when teachers and students received its electronic version. The authors of the textbook work at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, and in October a whole campaign was unleashed against them. Thus, unknown persons pasted in the university leaflets, “stigmatizing” historians, and Lviv mass media devoted a whole series of publications to the “non-patriotic” textbook.
In late October, the son of Roman Shukhevych, Yuri, declared his readiness to sue the authors of the textbook and promised to file a complaint with the Ministry of Education.
“They impose on us and drive into the head that we are collaborators, that we are Hitler's accomplices ... But all this is not true ... A child in the 10th grade cannot be served -“ collaborators ”,“ collaborationism ”and a portrait of Shukhevych. This is being driven into a child for life, like the 25th frame ..., ”said a descendant of the UPA leader.
True, many colleagues were not afraid to intercede for Wise and Arkusha and wrote an open letter in which they expressed their outrage at the “biased public campaign” launched against them. According to the signatories of the appeal, during the discussion of the textbook, unacceptable methods are allowed, such as “distortion of facts” and “frank insinuations”.
"Marjan the Wise and Elena Arkusha were frankly harassed for ideologically" wrong "position, but in fact for trying to have a balanced, scientific and critical approach to teaching difficult pages of the history of the twentieth century," the letter says, signed by about 300 representatives of professional historical community, mainly from Lviv and Kiev.
A similar statement was made by a group of students of the Faculty of History of the LNU named after Ivan Franko on their Facebook page.
Political analyst Anna Aryamova, in an interview with RT, drew attention to the fact that historians who supported the authors of the textbook called only to stop the harassment, but did not demand to abandon attempts to edit it.
“People are simply afraid to come up with sound ideas in order not to become the target of attacks by nationalist structures that the state does not even control,” explained Aryamova.
In turn, the RT source in the Self-Help party believes that the persecution of the authors of the textbook will stop, but the practice of rewriting textbooks in Ukraine will continue.
“The position of the Ukrainian authorities has long coincided with the initiatives of the nationalists. Therefore, I am not surprised that the Ministry of Education could have been led by Freedom. And this is not surprising. There are a lot of problems in the education system: school graduates do not know the Ukrainian language, the history of their own country, and the Ministry of Education at this time thinks about Shukhevych, ”the source said.
A similar opinion is shared by the RT source in the Batkivshchyna party. According to him, education in Ukraine "has long become a propaganda."
"Ukraine is waiting for a split"
The glorification of such historical figures as Roman Shukhevych and Stepan Bandera began in Ukraine before the “Euromaidan”, and after the coup in 2014 they received the official status of “national heroes”.
At the beginning of last year, the government of Ukraine launched an initiative to rebuild the remains of Ukrainian “heroes” who were in the OUN and UPA.
“They have to go back home. Doroshenko, Holovaty, Oles, Bandera, Shukhevych, Konovalets, Skoropadsky, Petlyura, Vinnichenko ..., ”Vladimir Omelyan wrote on his Facebook page on the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine.
In December of this year, Petro Poroshenko signed a law giving the former militants of the OUN and UPA the status of veterans. In official documents they are called fighters "for the independence of Ukraine."
In addition, the Verkhovna Rada decided to celebrate at the state level such dates as the birthday of Stepan Bandera, as well as the anniversary of the founding of the OUN and its UPA combat wing.
According to historians, OUN-UPA militants killed at one time about a million people, including 200 thousand killed during the Volyn massacre. At the same time, the radicals are trying to sidestep the question of cooperation with Hitler Germany.
Nationalists are trying to present the activities of the OUN-UPA as "the struggle for freedom." However, this version is not confirmed by historical facts - the Hitlerite command considered the Ukrainian nationalist formations solely as a tool to achieve their goals. Talking about the independence of such organizations as the SS division "Galicia", as well as about the independence of the occupied Ukraine, is also not necessary. In 1941, the German leadership formed the "Reichskommisariat Ukraine" - the administrative unit of the Third Reich.
The reasons why Ukrainian nationalists are trying to hide the unsightly facts from the past of their “heroes” are very simple, said Rostislav Ischenko, president of the Center for System Analysis and Forecasting. Declaring a commitment to the teachings of fascism means opposing oneself to the entire international community, the expert argues.
“The current Ukrainian regime is trying its best to explain that their SS units were“ slightly different ”than the Germans. But in Nuremberg such a division was not made, belonging to any parts of the SS was considered a crime, ”Ischenko explained in an interview with RT.
According to him, with such initiatives, the Ukrainian Nazis once again prove their inferiority. Hitler was not ashamed of his ideology, he defended it, reminds the expert. And modern Ukrainian Nazis are “embarrassed by their Nazism,” and with such a sense of their own inferiority and cognitive dissonance, they will not stay in power for a long time, the expert says.
Attempts by modern Kyiv authorities to rewrite history are likely to affect Ukrainian society, Ischenko said. However, such changes will not be irreversible, says the expert.
“Of course, what the Ukrainian authorities are doing now will be a tragedy for a whole generation of Ukrainian society. But the uselessness of the modern project of Ukraine will lead to the fact that people will change their views on him and the story he has written, ”the expert is sure.
Anna Aryamova holds a similar point of view. According to her, the Ukrainian authorities will continue to support such initiatives of the radicals.
“Cultivating these myths only humiliates the Ukrainian nation, despite the fact that Ukraine cannot even preserve the statehood that was presented to it. Most likely, a new split awaits the country while maintaining the current situation, ”summed up Aryamova.
* “Ukrainian Insurgent Army” (UPA) is a Ukrainian organization recognized as extremist and banned in Russia (decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated 11/17/2014).