In September 2024, a photo of an advertisement was distributed on Telegram channels, the authors of which allegedly offered to give automatic credit to students of one of the Ukrainian universities who submitted a book by Pushkin or another Russian writer for revision. We have verified the accuracy of such posts.

A photograph of an advertisement allegedly posted at a Ukrainian university inviting students to participate in the “de-Pushkinization” program began circulating online on September 25. “Bring a book by Pushkin or any other Russian author to the waste paper office and receive a test in Ukrainian literature automatically,” the authors of the advertisement address to students studying literature. The Telegram channels that distributed the photo add: “Now it’s enough to hate Russia to get a bachelor’s degree in philology.” Some posts specify that the photo was taken in Lviv.

On Telegram, such channels as “The world of Mikhail Onufrienko" (229,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) "Culturally"(98,000), "Bullet" (93,000), "Z-News | Army 🅉 18+"(86,000), "Kot Kostyan - official channel"(79,000), Fox News Russia (53,000) and "Russians on Telegram"(42,000). A note on this topic was also published on the newspaper’s website “Arguments and facts"

The announcement states that the promotion applies to fourth-year students of the bachelor’s program “Philology (Ukrainian language and literature / literary creativity).” In Lviv there is a program with the same name There is only at Lviv National University (LNU) named after Ivan Franko. Although the press service of this educational institution is active on social networks, there is no news about the proposed action in the official accounts of LNU in Instagram, Facebook And Telegram. This announcement is not on the official website of the university, and authoritative Ukrainian media did not write about it.

All bloggers who spread information about “de-Pushkinization” at Lviv University use the same photo. The sheet is placed on a cork board, and there are no distinctive features in the photo that would allow one to determine the location of the shooting. At the top of the announcement is the date of the promotion - September 31, 2024. But there are 30 days in September, which means that such a date simply does not exist.

The ad design is reminiscent of what the LNU press service usually uses on social networks: design in blue and yellow colors with decorative elements in the form of a traditional ornament. The LNU Press Center also adds the educational institution’s logo to each photo that it publishes on its resources.

According to order Rector of LNU, classes for undergraduate students in the first semester of the 2024/2025 academic year are held from September 2 to November 30. Only after this the educational institution accepts tests. Accordingly, scheduling the action for the non-existent September 31, two months before the session, is at least strange.

In a comment to fact checkers from the StopFake project, the press service of LNU reported, that such actions were not carried out within the university: “No such initiatives are being implemented at the Ivan Franko Lviv National University. I will add that students of Lviv University receive any types of semester assessment based on academic performance, and not because of participation in dubious initiatives,” explained Head of the press center Oleg Vivcharyk.

The earliest publication about the ad that was discovered by Verified was appeared in the pro-Kremlin Telegram channel Nina Vatt (37,000 views) on September 25 at 13:44 Moscow time. This channel repeatedly mentioned in the analysis of “Verified” as a distributor of misinformation.

Although the photo of the announcement at LNU was falsified, campaigns involving the collection of books in Russian for waste paper actually took place in Ukraine after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion. For example, the Kyiv municipal bookstore “Shine of Books” in September 2022 collected almost 25 tons. In January 2024, a similar promotion carried out and Vivat publishing house. As a rule, the authors of such initiatives raise funds for the needs of the army - for example, Vivat promised spend the money raised from recycling waste paper to buy a pickup truck for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Thus, LNU did not offer students an automatic credit in Ukrainian literature if they handed in a book by a Russian writer for waste paper. Reports about this action are not confirmed by any authoritative sources. The only evidence is an advertisement photographed in an unknown location, which was first published by a pro-Kremlin Telegram channel and which contains errors.

Cover photo: social networks