History as ideology: the portrayal of Stalinism and the Great Patriotic War in contemporary Russian high school textbooks

Abstract

Using data from fieldwork conducted in late 2009, this paper examines the Russian educational sphere and initiatives by the political elite to control and manipulate textbook content, testing objectives, and the structuring of curricula in order to maximize exposure to, and absorption of, its preferred narratives. Using a more detailed critical analysis of textbook content, I show that methods of discursive manipulation are used to highlight positive aspects of the Stalinist period – especially victory in World War II – while downplaying its political repression. This manipulation allows the state to both legitimize its version of Stalinist history and to perpetuate the underlying legitimizing function that version serves. In this way, the discourse implicitly justifies Putin's centralized state as the type of system that has historically produced great achievements for Russia. This article adds to the literature on the manipulation of educational content for political purposes generally, and in the case of Russia specifically.