"United Russia" has banned the teaching of "The Bronze Horseman" and "Dead Souls" in schools - because they contain criticism of the authorities

In fact, this is a prank, but many schools believed it and agreed

Belarusian actionist and prankster Vladislav Bokhan sent out a fictitious order to schools in the Bryansk region and Stavropol region on behalf of United Russia to cancel the teaching of classical works of Russian literature. He called his next action “Newspeak”.

The mailing asked teachers to urgently convene a teaching council and vote for a temporary ban on teaching such works as Pushkin’s “The Bronze Horseman,” Gogol’s “Dead Souls” and “The Inspector General,” Lermontov’s “Hero of Our Time,” Saltykov-Shchedrin’s “History of a City,” Nekrasov’s “Who Lives Well in Rus',” Tolstoy’s “Hadji Murad” and satirical stories Chekhov's "Death of an Official", "Chameleon" and "Thick and Thin".

Bokhan’s order was justified by “ensuring the informational, spiritual and moral stability of students during the period of a special military operation.”

For example, the pranker gave the following reasons for banning the classics.

• “The Bronze Horseman” contains interpretations of the supreme power as soulless and indifferent to the fate of a person, which can form in students a negative perception of government reforms.
• “Dead Souls” presents the system of government and bureaucracy as corrupt and morally corrupt, which can create distrust in state institutions.
• “Who Lives Well in Rus'” contains motives of social discontent and criticism of various levels of government, capable of shaping protest interpretations of the social order.
• "A Hero of Our Time" includes controversial interpretations of the Caucasian War and the image of a Russian army officer, which can shape the critical perception of military service.
• “Hadji Murad” contains a description of military conflicts in the Caucasus with an emphasis on the cruelty of both sides, allowing for interpretations that contradict the objectives of patriotic education.
• “The Inspector General” satirically depicts the activities of government officials, which can create a distorted idea of ​​the public administration system.

The document noted that teachers themselves could supplement this list with other works from the school curriculum, which should also be banned.

“I decided to take censorship to the point of absurdity, and proposed to ban the names of those whom the thoughtless patriot bears as spears of the “Russian world”: Pushkin, Lermontov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov and others,” Bokhan explained the meaning of the action in his Telegram channel.

Most schools, he said, “begrudgingly or passionately” complied with the mandate. Teachers sent Bokhan minutes of teacher councils along with photo and video reports on the voting.

Two schools in the Stavropol region proposed expanding the list of prohibitions with “Kolyma Tales” by Shalamov, “The Gulag Archipelago” by Solzhenitsyn, “Doctor Zhivago” by Pasternak, “We” by Zamyatin and “The Master and Margarita” by Bulgakov.

“However, apparently, this time I managed to find the line - for the first time, there were those who refused,” Bokhan added.

A school in the village of Pervomaiskoye, Bryansk region, voted against the ban. Her teachers explained that the proposed works not only contained criticism of power, but also themes of love and friendship that schoolchildren should study.

The prank was soon revealed. The director of the school in the village of Serafimovsky, Stavropol Territory, Zoya Udovydchenko, called “the district” to report on the work done. There they told her that the newsletter was fake.

“It passed and passed. And thank God it’s over, next time we’ll be smarter, we’ll be attentive, we’ll call first rather than answer. When they send more than 50 of these emails a day, try to understand them in time, and you need to respond on time,” the school director said in an interview with the publication “Rise.”

She added that “disassembly has begun” at the school and things are heading towards the point that she will be fired. Bokhan’s share “was paid for by someone,” Udovydchenko believes.