"Do not clean this memory." The state takes history

On the eve of May 9, Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the basics of state policy in the field of historical education. Now it is a “activity regulated by the state”: there will be no more alternative interpretations of historical events anymore . Something similar has already happened on Victory Day, which the authorities completely monopolized, turning from a family holiday into "victory". It is impossible to stop this process, historians and teachers believe.

In the decree, which Vladimir Putin signed on May 8, on the second day after the inauguration for the fifth presidential term, Russia is called the "Great Country with a centuries-old history", literally-"state-civilization". Around international tension, historical memory is destroyed, and the collective West falsifies history and uses distorted facts in the information war, the authors of the document believe.

Therefore, the history in the country decided to take care seriously. Citizens must have access to "reliable and scientifically sound historical knowledge and objective information about the place and role of Russia in world history", the authors of the decree are sure.

A unified methodology for teaching history will be created in the country, a single line of school textbooks is created. An important role in historical education is also given to museums, theaters, cinema and the media. Books will be written, including children's.

The authorities intend to form Russians living abroad. True, how is not reported. It is also planned to expand contacts with scientists-historians of foreign states. From which states, it is also unclear.

Particular attention is paid to the training of teachers. Materials on the history of Russia, including foreign languages, will be posted on the Internet. Foreign educational platforms will be replaced by domestic analogues. A single digital platform will also be created for access to educational materials.

The authorities will also control the market of computer games - you never know, there will be products "creating a distorted idea of the events of domestic and world history, as well as the place and role of Russia in the world."

No academic freedom

The fact that the decree on historical education was signed immediately after the next inauguration of Putin, it is no coincidence, says the Russian-Israeli historian Konstantin Pakhalyuk. History is the basis of Russian geopolitics.

- The desire to take history under even greater state control we have been observing for a long time. The authorities are trying to introduce the idea that Russia has a thousand -year history, a special path, ”says Pakhalyuk. - In this rhetoric there is little new - before it seemed simply words that should not be paid attention to, and after February 24, 2022 it is no longer possible. Turning to history, the authorities seem to urge Russians: "We do not think about Ukraine - we think about the greatness of the moment, politics, history." It is not by chance that Putin will show archival documents, then he will give lectures for 40 minutes, then he will tell some jokes from table conversations with Western leaders. He likes this: he is in contact with the story and demonstrates to the public that he allegedly has access to "sacred" knowledge from archives or geopolitical background. He likes to feel like a great historical figure who moves history, changes it. And, unfortunately, he succeeds. He bent all of Russia, he plunged it into such a story that in the next 100 years it will not be possible to get rid of the consequences.

The first textbook, based on this state narrative, was written back in the 2000s. But then the matter did not go further, says the historian, co -chair of the International Association "Memorial" Irina Shcherbakova.

- It was an attempt to write the first textbook (author - Filippov A.V.), he was so half -hearted, torn, both ours and yours. But then this was not realized in life. And the teachers resisted. But the tendency, which is most important for humans - is a state, strong power - remained today. Now we see “patriotic education” in schools, and “conversations about the important”, and meetings with the so -called veterans of “Svo” (“Special Military Operation” Russian authorities call an aggressive war against Ukraine. - SR) . This is an example of how the narrative is created. And the signing of the Decree is a result, ”says Shcherbakova. - The state response - no, you can’t create tricks anymore. A line is lined up, there are already Medinsky textbooks, changes in the exam are made, where there are questions, why it began "his own". Three answer options - and all the absolute lie.

Putin’s decree itself is comic - this is as if Putin began to personally regulate the study of biology or quantum physics, says the head of the teacher of teachers Daniil Ken.

-True, historical or any other, cannot serve as ideological goals-to counteract the West or protect some "traditional values". Education, built on ideological installations, is more likely an indocial. Simply put, the deception, ”he remarks. —Inching history is impossible without acquaintance with various assessments and interpretations. The repressive device makes such statements dangerous - both for publicists and for schoolchildren. And accordingly, it limits the opportunity to get acquainted with different opinions. Therefore, even factual reliable information in history lessons becomes an eyeliner to the only correct conclusions from the point of view of the state. No academic freedom.

He considers Putin the decree, he considers the next act of political censorship.

- The truth is that it is beneficial to power, and what corresponds to the views of Putin himself. He is the author of many historical fakes and non -traditional concepts. And for school teachers, history is another signal that you need to be loyal and strictly follow the official line. There were other similar signals, for example, a reduction in the federal list of textbooks and the restriction of the right to use various copyright manuals. Now, school principals will be even more strictly responsible for the loyalty of teachers and control them, ”the expert notes.

In high school, the Russian history textbook, written by the former Minister of Culture, and now Putin’s assistant Vladimir Medinsky, is already used. For the teacher, even the recommendation to read something except the textbook carries risks.

- If the teacher has not lit up as a disloyal authority and is not under close attention, then you can still gently give understand what you think and how you treat one or another things. In the language of metaphors and winks. But such an important part of the lesson as a free discussion has become impossible, ”says Ken.

Konstantin Pakhalyuk sees in the new decree new opportunities for enriching persons close to power.

- Now, under the concept of "historical education", anything falls. And this indicates the appetites of the state-it wants to cut money somewhere on something. And puts the legal basis for this. Textbooks will be written, some world-class centers will open. The authorities want to control the content of historical materials (you can also make money on this). And the main coordinating role should be played by the Medinsky Commission under the President. In 2020, he was removed from the post of minister, appointing the assistant to the president without real powers. After some time, he knocked out a commission that does little. Now he has achieved the coordinating function of all the statelit in the field of history. But if you look at the presidential decree, then planning and financial support are not on the AP, but on the government, there are also control functions. It is not clear how Medinsky will coordinate the government.

According to Pakhalyuk, the document looks logical only if the chairman of the Medinsky commission also becomes a supervisory deputy prime minister.

"Silence and proud"

The fact that the decree on historical education was signed on the eve of May 9 is quite symbolic. The monopolization of the Victory Day by the state began back in the late 2000s. First, a St. George ribbon appeared - a symbol that was in no way connected with the real history of the Great Patriotic War. Then the large -scale parades of victory began, which propaganda sung. Victory Day itself has long been annexed by the Putin regime, experts say.

- Putin cynically uses May 9 to assert his monopoly on historical memory, love for Russia and its protection. For him, such decrees and rhetoric these days are the opportunity to score glasses in the eyes of society, ”says Daniil Ken.

“For many people, the memory of the war was family, many treated the war as the main historical event of our country,” Pakalyuk notes. - Then Stalin - not Stalin, threw corpses - did not throw, the Holocaust or the genocide of the Soviet people - quite ordinary public discussions. But gradually, the authorities began to pervert a lot: since we won, it means that “we” were right. And "we" are all the heirs of victory. But what are the heirs? If a person was born in the 1950s or 1980s, I did not see war in the eye. This is "our" victory in a very abstract sense. This is the victory more than our ancestors. But many believe, accept such an approach, reducing the reducing patriotism. Hence the notorious "we can repeat." The authorities deliberately turned the memory into bright agitation, promoted an unreflected understanding of history, when memory is about marches, parades and portraits, and not about understanding. I am not against the same "Immortal Regiment". But you can’t reduce everything only to pride.

In recent years, the holiday has turned into its opposite, says Shcherbakova.

- This did not happen right away: human attitude, family memory resisted this. Now there are no witnesses, there are no front -line soldiers, units have lived who do not decide anything. Memory turned into a simulacrum. Already this year, we saw in the parade in Putin’s speech that he came to the fore “his own” as a continuation of the fight against Nazism, ”the historian says.

According to her, the process of replacing memory with state propaganda began back in the 1970s, when the Brezhnev memory began to eat human memory.

- It was a constant planting of veteran memory, the inscriptions in institutions to "veterans without queue." Eternal lights in every city. Such an attempt to purchase veterans: on the one hand, the Soviet government will support you, on the other - be silent about black spots, about the crimes of war, which were enough. Silence and proud. And this caused a rejection in people. How many times have I witnessed how veterans came out of line, and women shouted to them: "And how did we work, and what happened to us?" There was nothing blessed about it. And in young people this caused ridicule, jokes, jokes. But the memory of the war - real, terrible, often with alcohol - was a reality. On the example of my father, I saw what a terrible trauma it was, from which the front -line soldiers could not get rid of their life. My father was a writer, and I remember how they talked with Vasil Bykov. Both recalled that, being somewhere in the field, in the forest, they involuntarily think: the Father-Peni-where to dig trenches, and the bull-player Bykov-where to install the gun.

Now the same process is happening when real memory is replaced by a lie, the historian believes. The Kremlin, and behind it is propaganda, are increasingly comparing the Great Patriotic War with the war in Ukraine.

“Comparisons of these wars work for everyone who wants to justify themselves or their passivity,” says Konstantin Pakhalyuk. - Today, the war in Ukraine has become part of the world of a huge number of people: these are those who have gone to the front, their relatives, friends. About a million people in the front area, probably, are inhabited by 5-6: friends, relatives, mistresses. And then it’s simple: if this is a war in which we are already smeared, then we must look liberators. If Putin sent a loved one to the war, then I do not want to hear that he is an accomplice in the crime. And they begin to look for excuses. From here they perceive the propaganda: "Not Ukraine, but a neo -Nazi state, not Ukrainians, but Bandera." Such a cynical thing. Many people do not want to recognize and somehow discuss the issue that we are responsible for this, that we are destroying another state.

- I will say this: this is a terrible reunion. And personally, I cannot listen to military songs now. For me, Victory Day is still after 2014, and now even more so is a very difficult day, ”says Irina Shcherbakova. -All this Z-Poesia, which eats this like ghouls. As if they are trying to find live blood in this memory, because they write about the dead. But this was the case since the war in Chechnya. When I watched reports and heard intonations in them - as if it was about battles in Stalingrad. It sounded scary. But there was publicity! But that was only the beginning. This will only lead to one thing: a real memory will be expelled, and you will need it, I don’t even know what efforts are when it will be cleansed again. Thanks to literature, some kind of artistic works. But while there is such a war against Ukraine, this memory cannot be cleaned.

We do not disclose the real name of the author of this publication due to the threat of criminal prosecution under the law on undesirable organizations in Russia.