A few days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Andriy Shestakov opened a set of files in the WhatsApp group chat for history teachers like himself.
Files viewed by Reuters contain dozens pages of documents and presentations, as well as links to videos. In fact, they are instructions on how to teach school-age children about the Russian-Ukrainian war. It is unclear who shared the files in the group chat, but many documents have the coat of arms of the Russian Ministry of Education.
The handbook contains lessons that state that Russian soldiers who fought in Ukraine were heroes, that Ukrainian rulers were allies of those who collaborated with the Nazis during World War II, that the West sought to spread discord in Russian society, and that the Russians must stick together.
Shestakov said that he was flipping through files during one of the lessons. The skinny 38-year-old says he worked as a police officer for 16 years before becoming a teacher in January. But lately, he has become increasingly skeptical about whether Russian rulers adhere to the values of democracy they pursue in public.
He decided not to teach the modules to his students at Gymnasium No. 2, where he worked in Neryungri, a coal-mining town in Eastern Siberia, about 6,700 km (4,160 miles) east of Moscow. p>
Read also: The occupiers are mobilizing children from the so-called “patriotic clubs” in the “L/DNR”, there are already dead – Denisov
Instead, Shestakov told his students about the content of the textbook and why it was historically inaccurate. For example, he explained that the materials claimed that Ukraine was an invention of Bolshevik Communist Russia, and that history textbooks described the history of Ukraine, which dates back centuries.
He went further. On March 1, he told students during a lesson that he did not advise them to serve in the Russian army, which opposes the war against Ukraine, and that Russian leaders were demonstrating elements of fascism, even saying they were fighting fascism in Ukraine.
In the following days, local police and the FSB summoned Shestakov for questioning, according to a statement signed on March 5 about his comments in class. He said he had not been charged in connection with the comments. The FSB and local police did not respond to requests for comment from Reuters.
Read also: The FSB planned to take Medvedchuk out of Ukraine – Bakanov
The court fined the teacher 35,000 rubles (about $ 420) March 18 for discrediting the Russian armed forces after he republished video interviews with Russian soldiers captured in Ukraine.
He said he left his job last month because he believed he would still be fired for publicly opposing the war. Local authorities and the Ministry of Education did not respond to requests to comment on Shestakov's story and textbook, the content of which became public thanks to the teacher. When Reuters tried to get a phone comment, a woman who called herself acting principal declined to comment on Shestakov's case and stopped talking.
Teachers across Russia have received the same or similar textbooks, according to two representatives. Teachers' unions, two other teachers and according to posts on social networks from two schools, which report that they taught modules of these manuals.
case of “extremism”. The Prosecutor General's Office has sent a statement to the court recognizing Meta Platforms Inc. extremist organization.
