This case study of the Russian Empire, based on the analysis of more than 100 primary sources in the form of textbooks on domestic history (uchebniki otechestvennoi istorii) and archival documentation, is intended to help understand the evolution of the formation of domestic history as a school subject as an integral part of the imperialist…

This article reconstructs the historical narrative of the Second World War in Russian middle school textbooks published after the year 2000. The author shows how textbook narratives are linked with official Russian politics of history, which aim to "manage" the memory of the war and contribute toward the standardization of Russian…

A special place belongs to the historical thought of the late 19th-early 20th centuries in the spiritual heritage of the Tatar people. In a short time, Tatar historians have achieved significant results in the reconstruction and study of the national past. Their successes were appreciated by Russian and European scholars and orientalists, and…

Is it structure or the selection of knowledge that makes writing historical narrative so difficult? Where does a conceptual focus on change, or causation, come in? James Ellis set out to explore the challenges his Year 9 pupils faced in writing historical narratives about change. Inspired by the work of Orlando Figes, he put together a scheme of…

"Globalisation and National Identity in History Textbooks: The Russian Federation," the 16th book in the 24-volume book series "Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research," discusses trends in dominant discourses of identity politics, and nation-building in school history textbooks in the Russian Federation (RF).…

A combination of state-sponsored distortions and the simplified answers required by standardized tests have re-imposed a deadening conformity on the study of history in Russian schools.

The extremely complex relationship between mental and spatial boundaries in Eastern Europe is visible in the matter of the border between Belarus and Poland, between Eastern and Western Europe, between the European Union and the Russian spheres of influence. Historically, Russia's imperial policy towards to North-Western Province (nowadays…

The politicizing of Russian history textbooks and the imperatives of the Russian history standards to promote patriotism and rejection of Western models of history education signal a new ideological transformation in history education in the RF. Ideology, in this case the 'national ideology' promoted by President Putin (2014), and his followers,…

This article examines the current debate on the politics of history education reforms and the new history textbooks for secondary schools in the Russian Federation. Recent reforms in history education, standards and prescribed history textbooks by the Ministry of Education and Science demonstrate a pronounced ideological shift in the national…

The public has always had a keen interest in textbooks on history. Despite all the differences among textbooks on national histories, most countries have a similar focus: the task of shaping the new generations' positive image of their own people in its long or short history, while not disregarding any sinister, dark, at times frightful pages of…

Using a mixed methodologies research method involving a survey and qualitative analysis, the article analyses a survey of Russian history secondary teachers on their perceptions of historical narratives in prescribed history textbooks. This recent survey of secondary history teachers represents one of the first international surveys of history…

This article examines the ideologically-articulated shifts, and the images of transformation, and nation-building process presented in the new generation of school history textbooks in Russia. The article analyses the new content of post-Soviet history textbooks used in Russian secondary schools that represent various transformations from…

This paper examines portrayals of Russia and the Russians in two generations of Ukrainian history textbooks. It observes that the textbooks are highly condemning of Ukraine's main ethnic other in the guise of foreign ruler: the tsarist authorities and the Soviet regime are always attributed dubious and malicious intentions even if there is…

An essay on an early counter spy provides historical views of Russia and source material. (JB)

The purpose of this essay is to identify and direct the reader to some of the new trends in interpreting the Russian Revolution. (Author/JR)