I'm Linda Holmes. This is NPR's Book of the Day. Public debates about what should be taught about history are everywhere. They're unfolding right now in plenty of U.S. states and cities, but they happen, of course, around the world. Journalist Mikhail Zegar's new book, War and Punishment, tries to debunk what he considers the biggest myths that Russians are taught

about Russia. Those myths have added significance now because Zegar says they've been used

to build support for the invasion of Ukraine. Zegar talked to NPR's Lelah Fadl about why

myths have the grip on people that they do and whether he thinks any punishment will come

for the people he argues have used those myths to wage war.

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

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I started with seven most important historical myths.

Wooden is always using, for example,

that Russians and Ukrainians are the same people,

or the most ridiculous myth he continues repeating that.

There was no Ukraine before Lenin,

and Lenin invented Ukraine.

And I proved that it's just propaganda.

And unfortunately, most Russian historians used to work for those in power,

and they were in fact propagandists.

And I felt that it was really important for me to write this book just to show that we need to start from the scratch.

We need to destroy imperialist historical narrative and to start the new one.

These myths that you describe, how are they instilled in the collective Russian psyche?

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