On March 24, 2025, Alexey Avdonin, an analyst with the Belarusian Institute of Strategic Research, appeared on “Budni,” a program broadcast on Alfa Radio and SB TV, to talk about how Belarus is pushing back against efforts to distort the history of the Khatyn tragedy.
"Let’s remember how Khatyn was portrayed in those history textbooks printed in Canada and the U.S. — the ones that showed up here with white-red-white flags, printed on toilet paper. And what idea were they pushing? That Belarusians misbehaved — so the Germans had a reason to punish them. You see what I’m saying? And what kind of “facts” did they bring in? That, supposedly, Khatyn happened why? Because, as the story goes, partisans attacked the good, decent Germans just six kilometers away from Khatyn — and so, of course, the Nazis had to respond. What do you call that? That’s a clear distortion of history," Avdonin said.
He was most likely referring to a series of textbooks published in the early 1990s. Specifically, the 9th-grade history textbook covering the period from 1917 to 1992. It was written by Belarusian State University professors Vladimir Sidortsov and Vitaly Fomin.
It wasn’t printed in Canada or the U.S. — it was printed in Minsk. At least according to the publishing details: the book came out under Narodnaya Asveta and was printed at the Yakub Kolas print house on 23 Krasnaya Street in the Belarusian capital.
The WTF team took a look at what the textbook actually says about Khatyn:
“During the occupation, under the pretext of fighting partisans, the Nazis carried out more than 140 punitive operations in Belarus, turning entire regions into ‘desert zones.’ On March 22, 1943, under their command, police forces burned alive all the residents of the village of Khatyn, near Logoysk.” A total of 149 people died in the fire, including 76 children."
One of the co-authors of the current Belarusian history textbook used in schools in 2025 is the same professor — Vitaly Fomin. In Chapter 13 of the new edition, the account of Khatyn is nearly identical to the version printed in 1993. The only notable change: the number of children killed in the fire was adjusted by one.
"During the occupation, under the pretext of fighting partisans, the occupiers carried out more than 140 punitive operations across Belarus. Entire regions were left as “desert zones.” On March 22, 1943, all the residents of the village of Khatyn, near Logoysk, were burned alive. A total of 149 people died in the fire, including 75 children — the youngest just seven weeks old."
The only significant change the WTF team found in the current version of the textbook was the removal of any mention of collaborators taking part in the massacre of Khatyn’s residents.
The modern history textbook still teaches students about the Nazi “Ost” plan, which called for the forced resettlement of most of Belarus’s population, as well as about 260 death camps and the Jewish ghettos. One detail was updated: the reported number of camps and ghettos has gone up compared to earlier editions.
