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A Russian author has launched a series of children's books aimed at increasing understanding between cultures and combating the rise in racist attacks in Russia, the Vedomosti daily said Tuesday.
The series entitled "Other, Others and about Others" overseen by prominent author Lyudmila Ulitskaya and published by the companies Rudomino and Eksmo, aims to counteract government policies that have sometimes inflamed tensions between communities, Ulitskaya told the newspaper.
"We consider it our task to get into children's heads some simple ideas: that different people have different cultural traditions that greatly differ from what we consider normal and right, and that it's necessary to know this in order to understand other people better," she said.
The first four books -- on clothing, cooking, families and ideas about science and mythology -- have already been published and another is being prepared on conflicts between different cultures, the newspaper said.
A wave of racially motivated attacks has occurred in recent years in Russia, some of them against minorities from the Caucasus and other parts of the former Soviet Union, others against foreigners studying and working in the country.
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AFPEntertainment-Russia-books-children-racism
AFP 151345 GMT 08 06
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