#Official Commentary of Miroslav Rudenko on absurd initiatives of Ukrainian Ministry of Education
Today, Ukraine is experiencing the forcible introduction of a very peculiar version of the national identity that is based on the cultural specificity of western Ukraine (primarily Galicia), the Uniate refraction, which is unusual for the majority of the population, the western Christian discourse and the desperate Russophobia.
Of course, such attempts of ‘nation building’ split the society more and more. Many people in the country are dissatisfied with a new order, pseudo cultural standards and a rapidly falling level of living. This is confirmed by permanent rallies and protests.
The most recent elaboration of the Ukrainian Ministry of Education concerning the introduction of changes to school course in world literature for pupils in grades 5-9 did not stick out of coherent stream of absurd initiatives. The novels and stories of great Russian classics were removed from the school course, causing a lot of controversy among philologists and parents. Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Leo Tolstoy, whose works are put in jeopardy by the Ukrainian ‘reformers’, are no doubt the greatest writers, who contributed to the richness of world literature. Their works are studied all over the world and novels are cinematized in Italy, Poland, Germany, France. The serial film, which is an English version of “War and Peace’s” screen adaptation, drew attention of millions of British viewers.
Why is it necessary to remove the world’s classics from the educational system in Ukraine? The answer, unfortunately, is quite obvious – russophobia, hatred of everything Russian related. The current Ukrainian ideology seeks to make the people of the former South Rus forget the sense of belonging to the Russian cultural and historical process, to its continuity and the interconnection of many generations of our ancestors.
I do not deny that the school curriculum can be adjusted and new authors can be introduced in it, but that it is wrong to exclude or reduce the study of system-forming literary writings.
Russian literature is a world-class literature that teaches to think, to sympathize with neighbor and struggle against injustice. And it is much more convenient for the present Ukraine that people just accept everything and do not ask uncomfortable questions. The state, whose leadership decided to ‘fight’ with Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, is doomed because the powers that be consciously bar its citizens from the gold reserve of world literature. This is doubly ludicrous because the Russian culture is native to the absolute majority of the population for even modern Ukraine.
It is bad enough children and grandchildren are bequeathing exorbitant government debts and they also take the right to be educated. It is genocide of its own people, is not it?
Miroslav Rudenko, the DPR People’s Council deputy
The official website of the DPR People’s Council