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The ordinary fascism

Hitler on the site of the Ministry for education?

At a time when Russian human rights activists and members of the Public Chamber demand to legislate against books which propagate hostility and extremism, the educational portal Ministry for education and science of Tatarstan calls everyone’s attention to Hitler’s "Mein Kampf", the book that launched European Nazism.

One can easily find Hitler’s book in the online library of the Republican Ministry, as our curious readers did while they where searching for information.

Evening Kazan reporter has discovered some other equivocal books on this site, which are under suspicion of the Public Chamber. These are anti-Semitic "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", journalistic notes by Oleg Platonov (the discoverer of a Jewish-Masonic plot), and works by Mikhail Nazarov, Grigory Klimov and so on… As if the compilers of the on-line library of the Ministry for education and science of RT picked the books out of the black—list of the Public Chamber.

However, the State Duma has not decide yet, is it should forbid spreading extremist’s books and store them in special libraries only. For there are not only the human right activists, who speak about social danger of the literature of this kind, but also intellectuals, who insist that people in a democratic society are free to choose books to read: all texts should be open, for one can not understand the fascism phenomenon without reading "Mein Kampf".

The officials of the Tatar Ministry could also be adherents of democracy and freedom of speech and try to "provide free and quick access of wide groups of people to educational resources". Yet if it is true, why did not they enlist the works by Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin in the online library? They are not worse then a "usual fascist" Hitler after all. What if somebody would like to get acquainted to their works? Yet the compilers of the library were guided not only by love of freedom, but by the ideology too. It has already become clear that our ministry likes "special" ideas, first it makes pupils get familiar with a system of a healer Norbekov, then it buys books about "great magicians and prophets" instead of textbooks.

It has to be mentioned, that Russian publishers try not to get into touch with Adolf Hitler’s "Mein Kampf", though it is not forbidden officially and could bring profit, but it could also bring problems. For Hitler’s personality has a special significance in Russia. A small number of copies of "Mein Kampf" was printed once, and an old veteran brought an action against the publisher.

There is another problem. The Bavarian Ministry of Finance handles the copyright for the book since 1946. German state does not allow to reprint the book. So, Turkey, Poland, the Czech Republic, which published it in the last time, had problems with German state.

- Do you have "Mein Kampf" by Hitler? - I asked in a bookshop in one of the main streets of the city.

- What do you say, - the seller looked feared, - you won`t find this book in Kazan.

In another bookshop they also told me that "Mein Kampf" was never sold there.

The question is where could one read Hitler’s book? The answer is: in the online library of the Ministry for education and science only.

The staff of the informatics department of the Ministry is responsible only for technical part; the content of the site is administered by different departments and partners of the Ministry.

- The district invalids association from Chistopol-city called "Prometheus" put its online library at our disposal; we accepted this offer – Aisylu Shakirova, the chief specialist of the informatics department, told us. - We had nothing to choose of. It is a hard job to compile an online library, not many people can do it. "Prometheus" offered its library for a symbolic fee, from considerations of education. They wanted that children and young people have access to literature, so that they could read it at least in Internet.

It turned out that the library was filtered; some religious and esoteric books were deleted. Yet Hitler’s book was overlooked.

Getting to know that Hitler’s text is on their site the workers of the informatics department informed me that they removed the fascist book from the library. I entered the site again, yet Hitler is still there… Well, the technical feasibility seems to be limited.

Olga MACHNEVA.