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OUP makes textbook error

Oxford University Press (OUP) has come under fire from the Embassy of Ukraine for a phrase in one of its geography textbooks referring to Crimea as a “small Russian exclave”.

The textbook, geog.3, is intended for students aged 11 to 14 and meant to be used in UK geography classes.

Crimea was annexed by Russia from Ukraine on March 21st 2014, an act which was roundly condemned in the international community.

Igor Kyzym, Chargé d’Affaires of Ukraine to the United Kingdom, sent a letter to OUP, which the Embassy also published through its Twitter account on 13th October. The letter states, “Unlikely [sic] Kaliningrad, which is mentioned on the page 106 along with Crimea as the Russian exclave, Crimea is neither Russian nor the exclave.”

Continuing by discussing the referendum in which Crimean citizens allegedly overwhelmingly voted to become part of Russia, the letter said, “The UK government has condemned [this referendum] as illegal and repeatedly urged the Kremlin to stick to the international law and return Crimea to Ukraine.”

Kyzym concluded by asking OUP to immediately update the textbook so as not to bring itself “into disrepute.” Comments on the Embassy’s Twitter feed were similar, criticising the University of Oxford “of all places!”, as one user wrote, for its oversight in printing the textbook.

Oksana Kyzyma, Press Secretary of the Embassy of Ukraine to the UK, told Cherwell, “It came as a disappointment that the geography textbook geog.3 for teenage students misled them. Children will get inaccurate information from the textbooks. We don’t believe it was aimed as an anti-Ukrainian campaign, but definitely this grave mistake needs to be corrected.

“The Embassy welcomes the Oxford University Press pledge to update the section about Crimea in the 4th edition of the geography textbook geog.3. At today’s [Tuesday] meeting at the Embassy, OUP informed [us] that their team had been already working on updating the pages [and] the updated version of the geog.3 would appear in the coming weeks.

“We hope it will include information using the language engaging learners into understanding [sic] that actually, Crimea is a part of Ukraine’s territory, which is temporarily occupied, and Russia’s actions against the territorial integrity and sovereignty of neighbouring states is a subject for condemnation. According to OUP, the teachers’ guide to the series as well as the OUP site will be updated immediately to notify their customers, especially the schools, about the changes.”

The Russian Embassy in London told Cherwell, “The residents of the peninsula [made] a free choice in a referendum…The Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol are an inalienable part of the Russian Federation.”

In a statement, OUP said, “All of our atlases and geographical resources are developed through detailed research into the political, social, and economic situation at the time of publication. The exact information that is included on a topic in any particular publication takes account of the level of the students, the learning objective, and it uses language that will engage learners, In this instance we recognise that some of our customers feel we have not explained the complex situation in the Crimea sufficiently. As a result, we will be adding further detail into this section of the textbook, including the United Nations’ position on the matter. This will be effected immediately and before any further copies are sold.”

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