Rosobrnadzor has denied the use of Alexievich’s texts in the Unified State Examination in the Russian language

The press service of Rosobrnadzor denied information that appeared in the media that the works of the Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich were used in the Unified State Examination in the Russian language of the early period. The department stated that Ms. Alexievich’s texts were found in private Internet resources for preparing for the Unified State Exam.

“FIPI (Federal Institute of Pedagogical Measurements.— “Kommersant”) carried out an analysis of the content of some popular Internet resources of this kind and actually found texts by S. Alexievich on them,” says the Rosobrnadzor message (quoted from “Interfax”). The department noted that on these resources, works that were not there were added to the real texts used in the Unified State Exam in Russian for the early period of 2024.

Rosobrnadzor said it views this as a deliberate provocation. The department emphasized that responsibility for the accuracy of information on private resources for preparing for the Unified State Exam rests entirely with their owners and moderators. The content of published materials is not agreed upon with Rosobrnadzor and FIPI, the statement says. The agency urged not to trust unverified information and to use only official sources.

On April 3, State Duma deputy Nina Ostanina said in her Telegram channel, that she sent a deputy request to the Minister of Education Sergei Kravtsov with a request to find out why a fragment of Ms. Alexievich’s work “Chernobyl Prayer” was added to the Unified State Examination. The book is dedicated to the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986. Mrs. Ostanina stated that the State Duma Committee on Family Affairs, which she heads, receives complaints from parents about this matter.

According to the deputy, Svetlana Alexievich’s works are distinguished by hatred of Russia and Russian culture, dislike of the Russia-Belarus Union State and outright Russophobia. She said that the writer went to Germany in 2020, where in 2021 she received the Order of Merit for the Federal Republic of Germany.

“What was the goal of these individuals, urging the younger generation to read the works of this author, who received orders and awards from NATO member states, during the period of the SVO, when the fathers and brothers of the children participating in the Unified State Exam, at the cost of their lives, ensure the security and sovereignty of our Great Motherland?” – says the deputy request.

75-year-old Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich is the winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature. Her most famous works are written in the genre of artistic and documentary prose. Among them are “War Doesn’t Have a Woman’s Face,” “Zinc Boys” and “Chernobyl Prayer.”

Erdni Kagaltynov