Propaganda in the museum: how Russia affects the brains of young Crimeans in the "Tavrian Chersonese".

In the Hersonissos museum, the Russian administration conducts paid historical games for children, during which narratives of Russian propaganda and false versions of the history of ancient Russia and the Middle Ages are broadcast. Within the museum, a cultural and educational department and a department for the preparation and realization of spiritual and educational programs were formed for this purpose. How the former Ukrainian scientific institution became a refuge of propaganda - in the material of Krym.Realii.

Russian princes as propaganda tools

Many activities for children are announced on the website of the Russian administration of the Khersones Tavrijsky Museum.
So, for example, children aged seven to 16 are offered the historical quiz "Vladimir the Great" dedicated to the events of 988. The quiz is a kind of quest, a sort of hybrid of a search game in an environment with a quiz, an intellectual and fun game.
The ticket price for children is 350 rubles (about 165 hryvnias), the event is organized for groups of five or more participants.
As stated in the description, "the main goal is the spiritual and moral education of the growing generation through the study of the history of the homeland based on examples from the lives of ancestors, education in the spirit of patriotism, respect for the elderly in the historical context of the Orthodox cultural tradition and life ideals of the Russian people".
As the press service of the Russian administration "Khersones Tavrijski" notes, "at the cultural and educational event "Vladimir the Great", the prince's choice of religion, his baptism and why Russia's acceptance of Christianity became a turning point in the life of our country will be discussed."
At the same time, the press service indicates a higher ticket price - 450 rubles (210 hryvnias).
Another event is dedicated to Prince Volodymyr of Kiev - an excursion for adults and an interactive program for children "Legend of Korsun".
"During the class, visitors will learn about the prerequisites that brought Prince Volodymyr to the ancient Chersonese (Korsun), they will learn about the events of the siege of the city by the Russian army and the history of the baptism of Volodymyr Svyatoslavich and his wife in Chersonese," the description states.

The same instrument of Russian propaganda is a quiz about another prince - "Legend of Medieval Russia - Alexander Nevsky". This event is held regularly from February 1, 2023.
It is stated that the tasks "will help schoolchildren to learn about the childhood and youth of the prince, about his first military campaign and the battle on the Neva, about the internal and external policy of the young ruler. Young researchers will study the structure of Veliky Novgorod, see a map of Russia and neighboring countries, and travel to the Golden Horde."

In the spirit of the Russian version of the history of the Middle Ages

The latest Russian paradigm in recent years is the appropriation of the history of Ukraine and the so-called "spiritual remains".
For the first time, the new word "script" sounded for Russians on December 4, 2014, when Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a message to the Federal Assembly: "For Russia, Crimea, ancient Korsun, Chersonese, Sevastopol have a huge civilizational and sacred significance - just like the Temple Mount in Jerusalem for those who practice Islam and Judaism. That's how we will treat it from now on and forever."
I remembered the Russian president and Prince Volodymyr of Kiev, who was baptized in Chersonese, and then all of Russia. Bearing in mind, of course, that Russia is the successor of Kievan Rus.
For a Russian with little knowledge of history, such a forgery would be completely acceptable, but educated people laughed: for more than a hundred years it has been accepted in science that Volodymyr was baptized even before the expedition to Korsun. As for the lands of modern Russia, Christianity did not arrive there from Chersonesos, but from Kiev, and 140 years later pagan uprisings took place in Zalisa, which were suppressed by the people of Kiev with difficulty.
Today, on excursions to the Chersonese, Russian propagandists introduce the false Putin story into the minds of children.

The quiz about Alexander Nevsky is also far from real history, not to mention the fact that he had nothing to do with ancient Chersonesos.
Children are told about the "journeys of the prince to the Golden Horde", forgetting to mention that the Russian princes at that time were vassals of the Khan of the Horde, received a label for the kingdom from his hands and sent him tribute. Relying on the Novgorod nobility, Alexander forced the citizens to submit to the Tatar census and the need to pay the henna.
Thus, according to the modern historian O.M. Nesterenko, "the real Alexander was a comrade of the Tatars and did not defend himself against any threat from the West. He was a defender of the Russian land and an outstanding commander". This is stated in the book "Who Won the Ice Battle", published in 2006. In today's Putin's Russia, after 16 years, this book would most likely not even see the light of day.
The most famous historian of the 19th century, Sergej Solovyov, accused Alexander Nevsky of collaborating with the Tatars - that he sent a "Nevrujev invasion" to Russia in order to deprive his brother Andrija of the Grand Duke's throne. The same act, far not only from holiness, but also from humanity in general.
Modern historian Andrij Burovski in his book from 2010.
"Nightmare of Russian history. The terrible truth about Moscow" calls Alexander Nevsky "deprived of reason and education...", "the determined writer of all khans", who renounced his blood father Yaroslav and named his murderer, the Mongol khan, as his father.
By the way, the nickname Nevsky appears for the first time in a text entitled "A se knyazy russtii" from the beginning of the 15th century. And they started using it later - after the canonization of Alexander in 1547.

"By order of the party and the government"

Back in 2014, just a few months after the introduction of Russian troops into the Ukrainian Crimea, museum organizations received new "recommendations" for further work. Their basis was educational and propaganda work, scientific work was marked as non-priority, other activities depended on the first and main point - propaganda.
"In general, the museum staff reacted to these circulars in the usual way, like another letter about the visit of Leonid Kuchma or Viktor Yushchenko, that is, to prepare the texts of speeches in the Ukrainian language, to remove the cleaner with an inadequate dictionary, to create a thematic exhibition from the archives , clear the territory..." - Evelina Kravchenko, candidate of historical sciences, senior researcher of the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, expert on "Crimean Platform", writes in the text for "Voice of Crimea".
Kravchenko worked for a long time as the head of the Inkerman expedition of the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Sevastopol and was well aware of the situation in the Kherson Museum.
"Unfortunately, it turned out that their reality was the same as imagined by other Crimean museum workers who left the peninsula immediately after the occupation. Scientific departments were reduced, scientists were dismissed, scientific work did not receive funding. Contrary to promises, the museum and academic organizations of Moscow and St. Petersburg have concentrated all scientific work on themselves," she claims.
And, in accordance with the "instructions of the party and the government", the Crimean museums and Chersonesos among them joined the spread of Russian propaganda. This team was joined by the Russian Foundation for the Support of Humanities "My Story", whose management is closely connected with Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov), whom Russian media call the personal spiritual leader of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin. Recently, Shevkunov was appointed head of the Crimean Metropolis of the Russian Orthodox Church.
A stage and stands for 450 seats were set up on the territory of the settlement, and opera and ballet performances began. For example, the play "Griffon" was based on the play of the same name by the same Tikhon (Shevkunova), and the premiere in 2019 was attended by the President of the Russian Federation, Putin.

Earlier, in August 2017, during his visit to Sevastopol, Vladimir Putin proposed to create a "Russian Mecca" in the museum-reserve, since Chersonese, according to him, "became the basis of Russian statehood". From that moment on, business was boiling over in the surrounding areas.
The idea was so popular that in September the former "people's mayor" of Sevastopol, Oleksiy Chali, said that Sevastopol should become the Orthodox capital of Russia, and in November 2017, a member of the Federation Council, Sergei Chekov, announced that Sevastopol and Simferopol wanted to become centers of religious tourism and pilgrimages.
As a result, several facilities for these purposes have already been built on the ancient bark in Chersonese, and recently the museum workers were moved from Chersonese to a new building, and the buildings on the territory of the museum-reserve will now be occupied by an Orthodox monastery.

As stated on the website of the museum, in 2019 new departments appeared in its structure. In addition to the traditional and long-standing departments "Ancient History", "City and Necropolis", "History of Byzantium", "Khersone Choir", "Underwater Archeology", etc., two more atypical departments were created for museum activity.
The cultural and educational department of the museum-reserve "Khersones Tavrijski", which employs eight employees, consists of three sectors:
- sector of cultural and mass projects;
- sector of museum-educational work;
- exhibition sector.

The cultural and mass projects sector ensures the organization of festivals, concerts, plays, holidays, competitions, master classes and other events. The task of the museum-educational sector is the historical and cultural education of children and youth. The exhibition sector deals with the creation of temporary, mobile exhibitions, stands and virtual exhibitions.

The second new unit was the department for the preparation and implementation of spiritual-educational programs, which was transformed in June 2021 from the sector of the same name. As stated on the institution's website, "to date, the Khersones Tavri Museum-Reserve is the only cultural institution in Russia that has a similar division in its structure."
The tasks of the specialists of this department are the creation of thematic itineraries, tourist and excursion projects, educational programs, organization and holding of conferences on the history of Christianity in Chersonese and the Northern Black Sea region, as well as cooperation with tourist companies and educational institutions "on the realization of routes of spiritual and moral directions".
"The department for the preparation and implementation of spiritual and educational programs contributes to the popularization of Khersones Tavrijski not only as one of the most important historical and archaeological museums of Sevastopol and Crimea, but also as one of the most important spiritual centers of our homeland", the functions of the department are described on the website of Khersones Tavrijski.