Thread by @Gyruum

Today we will look at some Italian schoolbooks that leave a bitter aftertaste of russian propaganda. Geography with a spin, History rewritten, and Ukraine again struggling under the weight of disinformation even in some of the most widely used school textbooks. 1/15 🧵

Let's start wih Namaskar 2 by Alberto Fré, DeA, 2019.

Here, not only is Ukraine part of a zone called the Russian Region, but the illegally occupied Crimea also appears among the russian territories and population. Keep these numbers in mind, cause they will crop up again. 2/15

In a paragraph about Ukraine, the word Russia dominates and Kyiv is described as the
birthplace of its aggressor state at least three times. 3/15

This book whipped up a storm in March 2022, exposed by @TetyBez the story ran in various newspapers and caught the attention of the Ukrainian Embassy, which wrote a letter about it. Five months later, a new textbook was published:
same publisher, same author, same errors? 4/15

Now! 2, Alberto Fré, Sept 2022
Now the region is called North East, which is better, but you can immediately see something is not right. The surface area of Russia is too large and of course, includes Ukraine and Crimea. And now it has 85 federal subjects, Crimea included. 5/15

The Crimean peninsula is missing from Ukraine's surface area and we read that it belonged to Ukraine from 1954 to 2014, but no longer does. Donetsk becomes the capital of a republic and we learn that a civil war is taking place between Ukrainian regions. Shall we continue? 6/15

Let's look at my brother's current geography book, Katmandu 2, Gabriella Porino, Lattes, 2017
Here, the shadow of the Russian Region returns, taking everything, even Riga and Kyiv. We also learn that Ukrainian governments from 1991 to the present day have all been corrupt. 7/15

Here, we discover that there are Rus-Ukrainians who have always wanted to be part of Russia, and they are the ones who voted in the Crimea referendum. Obviously, this hurt the economy, but not because of the occupation, oh no. It was because of the low price of Russian gas. 8/15

Let's give them another chance, let's flick through the updated version: Aral 2, G. Porino, Lattes, 2022
Here again, the Russian Region has disappeared, but not entirely. And what do all the states of the renamed Eastern Europe have in common? They're all Russian-speaking. 9/15

Once again we've got corrupt governments, and Rus-Ukrainians who want to be part of Russia, but this new book adds the NATO expansion theory.
To finish an exercise takes us on a journey through Russia, more precisely to "Lvov", "Kharkov" and Riga. 10/15

Let's move to my favorite: La via della Seta, Cristiano Giorda, Loescher, 2020
We immediately find ourselves in the Russian Region. What's more, this book tells us what the states all have in common: you guessed right, it's Russian culture, of which Ukraine is a minority. 11/15

While Irina explains how Russia integrates all cultures and the book tells us that Ukrainian women come to Italy to become cleaning ladies and carers, we are shocked to see that here too, Ukraine is missing illegally occupied Crimea. But this book doesn't stop here. 12/15

In the e-book, we find texts about the war. Civil war, referendum, dividing Ukraine as a solution. An elegy to people's right to autodetermination, with Crimea as a prime example. It concludes with an interactive map on the official website, where Crimea is Russia. 13/15

Last book. Atlante Geografico di base, Libreria Geografica, 2022
Again we've got civil war, referendum, but also Kyiv which becomes the first capital of the russian territory. Then comes the pearl of wisdom. It was communism that kept the peace between peoples. 14/15

I think about all the kids who are studying these textbooks, the ones out there in the world with incomplete or incorrect information, and I can only hope that one day disinformation and Russian propaganda will no longer be part of the Italian school curriculum. 15/15

Thanks to @TetyBez and Iryna for the photos of the first and last books respectively. And thanks also to @Ander_Bruckes and all my friends for their help and
support in creating this thread over the past few weeks. A big hug and thanks to @QuellaLi72 for the translation! 💙

Please take a look at what they are teaching in Italian schools about Ukraine:
@StarskyUA @RickTheUkranian @GavrilDucu @IrcoboMartial @CanadianKobzar 🇺🇦

Russian Colonialism in Italian schoolbooks, please take a look: @maksymeristavi 🇺🇦