PUTIN THE SPIN ON HISTORY
Dariya Orlova
Kyiv Post
Oct 1, 2008
Ukraine
Nation
Russian history now glosses over persecution and hails Soviet-era
triumphs
While most consider Josef Stalin as one of the most prolific mass
murderers in all of history, Russian schoolchildren may be taught
that he was "an efficient manager
The foreign ministries of Russia and Ukraine are not the only soldiers
in the ongoing war of words over the countries’ shared Soviet history.
The battle over the past is also being waged in the classrooms of
both countries. The stakes are high, as the victor may be able to
win over the hearts and minds of future generations.
The Stalin-ordered Great Famine of 1932-1933, which claimed millions
of lives, is a stark example of the conflicting historical views.
A current Russian version: "It should be stressed that there was no
organized famine in the U.S.S.R.’s countryside. It was not instigated
by authorities against one or another people or social group."
A current Ukrainian view of the same event: "The Holodomor of 1932-33
was for Ukrainians what the Holocaust was for Jews and the slaughter
of 1915 for Armenians."
The statement exposes the increasingly widening gap between the two
nations’ understanding of history.
Since 2003, Ukraine has sought international recognition of
the Holodomor (death by hunger) as an act of genocide against
Ukrainians since 2003. President Victor Yushchenko has pursued the
goal vigorously, drawing the ire of Stalin’s apologists at home and
in Russia.
The Russian version of the same tragedy is not an obsolete bit of
Communist propaganda. It is what Russian education officials are
recommending for their country’s school curriculum. It comes from
the Russian Ministry of Education and Science’s "Concept paper on
Russian history from 1900-1945."
Ukraine blames the Communist regime and Stalin specifically for
the famine of 1932-33, while Russia seems to justify – or at least
minimize – Stalin’s policies. According to the proposed Russian
teacher’s manual, starvation was caused by poor weather conditions
and problems with collectivization.
The Russian manual now under consideration also explains away the
Great Terror and mass repressions of the 1930s.
This is the Russian description of Stalin, one of the great mass
murderers in world history: "It is important to show that Stalin acted
as a very efficient manager in a specific historical situation, as
a protector of the system, as an unwavering backer of the country’s
transformation into an industrial society managed from a single
center, as a leader of a country which faced the threat of imminent
large-scale war."
The rationalization of mass repressions in Russia’s school curriculum
was presented to teachers just before the beginning of the current
school year, sparking debate in Russia.
Last year’s textbook "History of Russia, 1945-2007" evoked criticism
for its extremely loyalist coverage of the Soviet period and
characteristic of Stalin as an "efficient manager." Yet the textbook
was published and distributed in schools.
The shift in official interpretation of history is related to Russian
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s view of the Soviet past. In 2005,
Putin famously called the Soviet empire’s disintegration the "greatest
geopolitical catastrophe" of the 20th century.
Putin held several major meetings with the country’s teachers where
he emphasized the need to produce decent history textbooks – or those
that teach history in the cheerleading manner that the former KGB
agent evidently prefers.
"We need to remove all the layered husk and foam. Textbooks must
include historical facts, they must nurture pride in the country and
its history among young people," Putin said back in 2003.
With its resurgent oil wealth, cost appears to be no objection to
nurturing pride in Russia – which means overlooking some of its
darkest chapters.
"As to some problematic pages in our history – yes, we’ve had them. But
what state hasn’t? And we’ve had fewer of such pages than some other
[states]," Putin told teachers last year. "All sorts of things happen
in the history of every state. And we cannot allow ourselves to be
saddled with guilt."
Given the Kremlin’s attention to historical issues, the contents of
textbooks have turned into a political matter in Russia, observers
noted.
"In the 1990s, there was a relative diversity in the interpretations
of Russian history in the textbooks while the mainstream ‘history
of state and statehood’ was quite critical in its estimation of the
Soviet period," said Georgiy Kasianov, a Ukrainian historian. "In
the 2000s, we see a tendency to glorify empire and its greatness and,
thus, the apologetic estimation of the Soviet period, justifying the
extremes of Stalinism by a renewed version of raison d’etat."
Another Ukrainian historian, Stanislav Kulchytsky, said that Russian
history textbooks provide a "light" version of Soviet history.
"Yes, they speak about repressions, but they try somehow to explain
them…All in all, there is kind of a mixture of everything that is
in line with the modern state-building process in Russia. They use the
Red Army, the White Guard, and the Tsarist Army [to glorify Russia],"
Kulchytsky said.
It remains to be seen if reinterpreted history wins over Russians
minds. If the television project "Name of Russia" — Russia’s
equivalent of the BBC’s 100 Greatest Britons – is any indication,
Stalin’s apologists are making progress: the dictator was ranked
second behind 13th century Russian leader Aleksandr Nevsky.
Meanwhile, the situation with teaching history in Ukraine leaves a
lot to be desired.
On the one hand, top Ukrainian officials are pursuing an approach
similar to Putin’s in establishing a "correct" version of history. On
the other hand, the poor quality of Ukrainian textbooks is to blame.
Kasianov said the major problem with Ukraine’s textbooks is
institutional.
"The system for evaluating textbooks in Ukraine is non-transparent,
muddled by conflicts of interest and ineffective. The main problem is
that the primary consumers – parents, teachers and students – have no
influence on quality and are forced to use what the state imposes upon
them. It’s not an issue of influencing the contents of textbooks. It’s
a question of the right to choose among several textbooks on a given
subject that are different in terms of quality," Kasianov said.
"In contrast to Russia, these issues are actively discussed by
professional historians and the public in Ukraine, but so far with
little results."
Officials have become more involved in humanitarian disciplines,
Kasianov said, citing Yushchenko’s campaign to have Holodomor
recognized as genocide against the Ukrainian people. The president’s
administration has also signalled to the Institute of National Memory
that it should prepare a "correct" textbook on Ukraine’s history.
"But the permanent political mess is drawing Ukrainian officials’
attention away from more active interference," Kasianov said.