#20 - JRL 7300
The Sunday Times (UK)
August 24, 2003
Putin the Great invades Russian history books
Mark Franchetti, Moscow
HIS portrait has been woven into carpets, a pop song has been written extolling his manliness and he has been depicted as the hero of an action novel who kills Chechen rebels with his teeth. Now the achievements of Vladimir Putin are to be taught in schools.
In a further sign of the personality cult being constructed around the Russian president, teenagers will be required to study Putin's reforms for state history exams.
New textbooks -- approved by the education ministry -- show the Kremlin leader in a flattering and often sycophantic light. One praises Putin for cracking down on the country's independent media and bringing it back under the control of the government. His foreign policy is described as "more flexible, open and dynamic" and he is lauded for his determination to fight international terrorism even before September 11.
Another book makes flattering comparisons with Boris Yeltsin, his predecessor. "The new presidential candidate was always among the people," it says of his successful election campaign in 2000. "Coming after Yeltsin, who was rarely seen and could hardly move, Putin made a positive impression: young, self-disciplined and driven by tireless energy."
Pupils are asked to consider his achievements: "Explain the mass support for Putin's policies" reads one. "List new evidence of Russia's rebirth" says another.
Another book praises Putin's decision to bring back the communist Soviet-era anthem, which Yeltsin banned, as an example of his drive to unify the country. The two wars in the breakaway republic of Chechnya, which have killed an estimated 100,000 people, scarcely get a mention. Allegations of human rights abuses and war crimes are ignored.
For critics it has an alarming echo of the past. "The pages on Putin are just one piece of praise after another," said Sergei Kovalyov, a prominent former dissident who served
10 years in a Siberian labour camp. "The tone is like that of Soviet-era Communist party songs."
History has always been a highly sensitive subject in a country where national heroes have been turned into villains overnight. During Stalin's purges, historical figures fell from grace so fast that publishers of textbooks could not keep up; children were told instead to paste blank paper over those who were out of favour.
The new history books -- like other examples of what critics call Putin-mania -- appear to be more the result of overzealous state officials than of the president, who has criticised the practice.
Undaunted, young Putin enthusiasts have formed Moving Together, a group reminiscent of the Soviet Union's Young Pioneers. Last year members paraded on Red Square in T-shirts bearing Putin's portrait.
In an early sign that Putin- mania may be starting to fade, however, sales of carpets woven with the president's portrait were down last week for the first time in three years. But Stalin and Lenin paraphernalia is still in fashion.
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