In “Conversations about Important Things” they found corrupted genes and Napoleon’s miracle

“The facts must be presented correctly”

For the second year now, schools have been holding “Conversations about Important Things” – a mandatory class hour on Mondays. It would seem that everyone has gotten used to it and the severity of the discussions around the ROV has subsided. But suddenly such excerpts from materials for “Conversations…” began to circulate on the Internet, which cannot be called anything other than curious.

For example, “psychoviruses” that awaken in the subconscious, and chromosomes that “shrink and bend” when people swear or hear obscene language, caused amazement.

This quote is taken from a paper prepared for “Conversations about Important Things” by a teacher from Chuvashia who teaches Russian language and literature, history, MHC (World Artistic Culture) and ORKSE (Fundamentals of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics). Well, at least not biology…

More quotes from her work: “DNA begins to develop unnatural programs” (due to swearing), and “a program of self-destruction is passed on to the offspring.” And it turns out that “heavy foul-mouthed people live much shorter lives”; they “quickly experience age-related changes and develop various diseases.”

On the resource of original methodological recommendations for ROV, this is not the only work on the topic of the harm of swearing. Other teachers claim that girls develop male pattern hair because of foul language. And it turns out that “more than 80% of newborns in Russia are sick,” girls have chronic diseases and mortality is rising: verbal promiscuity plays an important role in all this.”

Similar pedagogical fervor coupled with a lack of general knowledge gave rise to the “Christmas miracle” of the end of the war with Napoleon – another “invention” for the ROV. They say that the war ended on January 7, which means it was God’s providence.

“In fact, Napoleon fled Russia on November 23 (December 5), says historian Ilya Malinovsky. – And on November 28 (December 10), our army liberated Vilna, and the campaign was essentially over. In any case, by the twentieth of December the last French formations under the command of Ney and Murat were defeated, and all hostilities were over. But Alexander I, overwhelmed by religious enthusiasm, decided to time the manifesto on the end of the war to December 25 (January 7). This date was celebrated until 1917. As you can see, there is no talk of any Christmas “miracle” here.

But not through teacher zeal alone… Materials from the official website of the ROV are sometimes surprising.

In the scripts and additional materials posted on the site, you can find strange information. In the topic about nuclear energy, the history of nuclear icebreakers (prepared with the participation of a specialized state corporation) is for some reason supplemented with the story “Endless energy without harm to nature!” They say that a perpetual reactor powered by nuclear waste has been invented. Nuclear scientists were surprised: it is not eternal – the fuel for such an engine must be processed somewhere, which is also expensive and dangerous. And “the whole world has already tried this technology and got burned by it.”

“Unfortunately, in the materials on the website (ROV) I found a lot of sloppy wording,” says historian Malinovsky. — And insufficient facts that distort the historical meaning of the event. For example, the authors write about the first written set of laws of Yaroslav the Wise, which was called “Russian Truth”. Everything is true, but further: its “basic principles are justice, mercy and care for people.” For mercy, 11th century, boundary law. Property, livestock or land are valued above human life…. It is clear that the topic of the “Conversation” is the modern Constitution, but such parallels cannot be made.

Or, for grades 8-9, the theme is “National Unity Day”. “Later, the Zemsky Sobor elected 16-year-old Mikhail Romanov, the son of Patriarch Filaret, as tsar. The election of the tsar meant the revival of the country, the protection of its sovereignty and identity”… It is not clear to me what these abbreviations are. In fact, Mikhail had a mother, nun Martha, who actually ruled the country with the support of her relatives until 1619. And then Filaret, who returned from captivity, took the reins. A hastily concluded peace forced Russia out of the Baltic, we lost Smolensk for a long time – what kind of revival? Yes, we did not lose statehood, but the country was very weakened. Why such pulling by the ears? Historical facts must be presented correctly, or not told at all.