St. Petersburg to Revise Lessons on Blockade Over Scandalous Manuals

On January 27, the St. Petersburg education committee announced a revision of methodological recommendations for school lessons dedicated to the Leningrad Blockade. The reason was a scandal that erupted online due to unfortunate formulations in the manual.

The day before, the head of the Safe Internet League, Yekaterina Mizulina, criticized the manuals sent to schools in her Telegram channel. She pointed out that they advise teachers to avoid the statement «all blockade survivors are heroes» and not to encourage children to identify themselves with the residents and defenders of Leningrad.

Mizulina called such recommendations a rehabilitation of Nazism and stated her intention to appeal to the Investigative Committee for an inspection.

In the PDF file of the manual, which became publicly available, there is a direct quote: «teachers must avoid emotional manipulations, not force children and teenagers to experience certain feelings, not make children identify themselves with the residents and defenders of besieged Leningrad, and avoid generalizations, for example, »all Germans are criminals,« »all blockade survivors are heroes.«»

The St. Petersburg education committee confirmed that teachers and the public reacted sharply to «extremely unfortunate formulations.» The manual was developed by the Academy of Postgraduate Education (APPO) several years ago, and now its management has been instructed to revise and edit all methodological materials.

Also, the department explained that the recommendations are based on the collection «How to Talk to Children About the Blockade and Defense of Leningrad,» published by the State Museum of the Defense and Blockade of Leningrad.