History textbooks to promote the ‘correct’ version of Yukos case.

Prompted by the authorities, authors of school textbooks and teachers’ manuals have decided to include a “correct version” of the Yukos case. The book describes the destruction of the Yukos oil company and the imprisonment of its chairman, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, as an ‘unambiguous message’ to business – ‘obey the law, pay your taxes and don’t try to put yourself above the government’ – reports The Times (London). ‘They got the message’, add the authors of the manuals.

The Times quoted Pavel Danilin, the author of the chapter on Sovereign Democracy and a projects manager at the Effective Policy Foundation, as being rather blunt in his blog. In response to criticism from teachers that much of the book was simply Kremlin propaganda, he replied: ‘You will teach children in line with the books you are given and in the way Russia needs. Russian schools have to clear the filth and if it doesn’t work, then clear it by force’, he added.

British journalists point out that the manuals describe Joseph Stalin as ‘the most successful Soviet leader ever’.