Zhivago row in Russian schools

A row has broken out between the Russian government and a group of the country's top writers over removing literary classics about the repression of the Soviet era from the school syllabus.

Thirteen distinguished writers have sent an open letter to the Minister for Education protesting at plans for several seminal Russian works, including Boris Pasternak's classic Dr Zhivago, to be dropped from the essential reading lists for 12- to 18-year-olds.

The protesters allege that bureaucrats are trying to keep literature dealing with the purges of the Soviet era away from schoolchildren, presenting an anodyne version of the nation's former imperial glory. The books will instead become "recommended reading", taught at the teacher's discretion, on a new list due to come into effect in 2005.

The row goes right to the quick of Russia's struggle to come to terms with the brutalities of its past. While during the Yeltsin era the Kremlin kept the media brimmed with reminders of the horror and hard graft of life under Communism, the Putin administration's focus on nationalistic pride often results in a warm nostalgia for the glories of the Soviet era.

Fazil Iskander, one of the signatories to the letter, told the Guardian: "Of course they don't want to speak about it but they want to smooth over Soviet history so that its tragic pages do not impact on the souls of schoolchildren."

Mr Iskander said the most important books for study were Kon Armia by Isaak Babel and Doktor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. He added that two novels by Yuri Dombrovski - The Curator of Antiquities and The Faculty of Unnecessary Things - were among the greatest novels about the 1930s. He said the move to clear the list of such books was led by "pure bureaucrat psychology".

In a bitter rejoinder, the ministry countered the writers' letter with a press release accusing the 13 of "a series of essential inaccuracies". They say Dr Zhivago was never part of the essential reading list, but under the new plan would become recommended reading for literature specialists.