Reflection of public and scientific discussions of perestroika period in school textbooks of 1986–1990 on national history

Isabella S. Ogonovskaya
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Isabella S. Ogonovskaya: Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin

Russian Social and Humanitarian Studies, 2025, vol. 17, issue 1, 138-165

Abstract: Background. The problem of transformation of the content of school textbooks on national history is actualized as a result of public and scientific discussions about the Soviet period of national history that unfolded during the years of perestroika, as well as due to changes in the views, opinions and assessments of historians - authors of educational publications. Key topics of Soviet history, discussed in the public and professional environment and subjected to rethinking and reassessment, are highlighted. Purpose: to prove the relationship between the content of school textbooks on Russian history and the discussions that unfolded in the public and scientific environment during the perestroika period on the problems of Soviet society, for which purpose to highlight the main topics of discussion, to identify the factors that influenced the views of the authors of school textbooks on Russian history during the period of rethinking the fundamental dogmas of Soviet historical science, to highlight in the content of textbooks the topics that were most subject to revision, and the topics that were most taboo. Materials and methods. The source base of the research is school history textbooks published in the USSR in 1986-1990, memoirs, notes and interviews of historians Yu. I. Korablyov, Yu. S. Kukushkin, A. P. Nenarokov, materials of the periodical press (magazines Ogonyok, Voprosy istorii, Novaya i noveyshaya istoriya, Prepodavanie istoriya v shkole), speeches of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU M. S. Gorbachev, examined on the basis of historical-descriptive (as the main), analytical and historical-comparative methods of historical research. Results. The study of documents of the CPSU and the USSR Ministry of Education (1985-1988) / the USSR State Committee for Public Education (1988-1991), the identification of the subject of public and scientific discussions on the development of Soviet society, and the analysis of the content of school textbooks on Russian history made it possible to prove the conclusion about the relationship between the content of school textbooks and the discussions that unfolded in the country; to highlight the topics in the content of which the most significant adjustments were made; to determine the factors that influenced the views of the authors of school textbooks on Russian history in the context of perestroika.

Keywords: perestroika; public and scientific debates; historical education; politics of memory; USSR history textbooks; school; USSR State Committee for Public Education; authors of school history textbooks of the USSR (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cxm:russhs:17:1:2025:138-165

DOI: 10.12731/2077-1770-2025-17-1-502

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