Later, it turned out that the publishers had availed themselves of a fictional map, which was published on the website Deviant Art by Icelander Andri Jónsson under an alias, Kuusinen, and featured an alternate version of the Cold War in the 1960s. Remarkably, Otto Wilhelm Kuusinen was the leader of the Finnish revolution in 1918 and the subsequent, very short-lived Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic until his flight to the Soviet after the defeat of the Reds in the Finnish Civil War.
"Naturally, I was surprised and I also think it's very, very strange. I do not understand how this could happen. But first and foremost, I think it's funny," Jónsson told Norwegian broadcaster NRK.
"First I got the feeling that the publisher had not looked properly at the map, that it was a mistake that was made in haste. But then it turned out that the editor knew very little about history. It is strange that the editor of a textbook on history can ignore such things," Jónsson said. "I'm almost missing words, even in my native language, to describe the lack of professionalism that was displayed," he told the Danish newspaper Politiken.
According to Emkjær, the editor responsible for the historic error was looking for a map illustrating the division of Europe in two and happened to overlook the details. He also stressed the fact that the authors of the book had originally suggested another, historically accurate map.
Emkjær assured the Danish newspaper Politiken that no high school students have used the book, which was still being checked by teachers. The sales of the book were subsequently stopped, and the company promised to release a new version with the corrected information.