Russian Analytical Digest No 72

No. 72 9 February 2010 russian analytical digest www.res.ethz.ch www.laender-analysen.de HISTORY WRITING AND NATIONAL MYTH-MAKING IN RUSSIA ■ The Politics of the Past in Russia 2 By Alexey Miller, Moscow ■■OpiniOn Poll Russian Opinions on History Textbooks 5 ■ The Victory Myth and Russia’s Identity 6 By Ivo Mijnssen, Basel ■■OpiniOn Poll Russian Attitudes towards Stalin 10 Russians on the Disintegration of the USSR 15 ■ Overcoming the Totalitarian Past: Foreign Experience and Russian Problems 16 By Galina Mikhaleva, Moscow German Association for Research Centre for East Center for Security Institute of History DGO East European Studies European Studies, Bremen Studies, ETH Zurich University of Basel russian analytical russian analytical digest 72/10 digest The■politics■of■the■past■in■Russia* By Alexey Miller, Moscow Abstract Active political intervention in the politics of memory and the professional historian’s sphere began no later than in 2006 in Russia. Today all the basic elements of the politics of the past are present: attempts to in- culcate in school a single, centrally-defined, politicized history textbook; the creation of special, politically- committed structures, which combine the tasks of organizing historical research and controlling the activities of archives and publishers; attempts to legislatively regulate historical interpretations; and, as is typical in such cases, efforts to legitimize and ideologically justify all of these practices. The■Origin■of■History■politics■in■the■post- In a society claiming to be democratic, all these Communist■Space mechanisms evolve. In contrast to the previous In 2004 a group of Polish historians announced that Communist party-state system, the group or party Poland needed to develop and propagate its own politics which holds power at a given time is no longer the of the past or history politics. They did not hide the fact same as the state. The social sphere becomes pluralistic that they borrowed the term polityka historyczna from the and the authorities no longer seek to control it, partic- German Geschichtspolitik. Thus, the rapid political inter- ularly through repressive means. Schools become more vention into the politics of memory and domestic histor- pluralistic and history teachers, in keeping with educa- ical research in the post-Communist countries received tional standards, are free to choose their textbooks and a “name.” As typically occurs with new phenomena, it interpretations of the events and processes studied. The is not easy to grasp and concisely describe the politics of historian, in his professional activities, should benefit the past, particularly since its practitioners make a con- from independence and intellectual freedom. Access scious effort to hide its mechanisms and tasks. to the archives should be equal to all and regulated by The phenomenon of history politics is particular- law rather than administrative decisions. State financed ly powerful in the post-Communist societies, but the schools and research should not give the group or party prominence of this issue is only partly explained by in- currently in power the ability to dictate the contents of creased public interest in the history and “blank spots” instruction and research since the funds are not party left by the legacy of Communist censorship. The gist money, but the budget of the country, formed from the of the matter is that we are dealing with post-Com- taxes of citizens. The political group currently in pow- munist societies, that is societies freed from previously er cannot claim an ideological monopoly. tight forms of authoritarian ideological control. Strictly In these post-Communist conditions, where efforts speaking, one should only apply the concept of history to establish democratic practices are more or less suc- politics to democratic societies, or at least more or less cessful, well organized political groups seek to estab- pluralistic societies that recognize democratic values, lish a specific interpretation of historical events as the including freedom of speech. Only in these conditions dominant version. In other words, using the adminis- is there a form of politics that functions as a competi- trative and financial resources of the state, the politi- tion among various political actors, parties and points cal groups in power ideologically indoctrinate society of view. In the authoritarian regimes of the Soviet type, in the sphere of historical consciousness and collective the intervention of the authorities in the study of history memory. In particular, they focus on those historical and the politics of memory was based on the official pre- events and processes for which there is no consensus in sumption of an ideological monopoly, censorship, and society and which are a topic of discussion. administrative control over professional historiography. To understand the phenomenon of history politics, one must know more than simply what is to be propa- gated. More important is to understand how it is done * This is an abridged version of the article “Rossiya: vlast’ i isto- and what methods are used in this propaganda work. riya” by Alexey Miller. The article was originally published in Contemporary history politics cannot fully return to Pro et Contra (Vol. 13. 2009. No 3 4. May– August). © 2009, the previous, Soviet methods and impose a single cor- Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Reprinted with rect view, even if we supposed that in some cases there the kind permission of the Carnegie Moscow Center. 2 russian analytical russian analytical digest 72/10 digest were people who wanted to do this and were forced to ally by preparing a strong counter-argument: wherever invent new methods of interfering in history and the they say yes, we say no, and vice versa. As a result, the politics of memory, and also new strategies for legiti- space for dialogue in the country is destroyed since all mizing this intervention. are required to swear an oath to the official postulate. The same happens in relation to the external world: new■Mechanisms supporters of historical politics on both sides of the bor- What are these new methods? Institutionally, most im- der engage each other in skirmishes. Since neither side portant is the appearance of the Institutes of National seeks to convince or understand his opponent, such Memory in Poland and Ukraine and the founding of “discussions” can only generate conflict. similar organizations that have the same functions and Fourth, a further justification for history politics principles in many other countries. Another example of is the supposedly shameful low level of patriotism and the institutional dimension of the politics of the past history instruction in the schools. For this reason, they is the creation of museums under the direct patronage propose (temporarily) to sacrifice pluralism in textbooks of specific political groups. Typically, these institutions and concepts so that “children learn at least the most completely ignore the positions of political opponents. basic things.” Historical politics also appears at the legislative lev- In fact, social interests are only a cover and the true el, when parliaments adopt laws incorporating a specific goals of the politics of the past have a political and par- interpretation of historical events as the single true ver- tisan character. sion. Sometimes the drafts of these laws and even the eventual laws themselves set out criminal punishments How■it■Works■in■Russia for those who oppose such interpretations. This prac- In Russia, the active political intervention in history be- tice is characteristic not only for Eastern Europe, but gan several years ago, a little later than in many neigh- also for the West. boring countries and partially bore a reactive character. Apparently, the team which worked on the so-called Four■postulates Filippov textbook – in fact we are talking about a set The ideological justification for employing history pol- of textbooks and teaching aids for the history of the itics is based on four key postulates. First, history and 20th century – was gathered together and received its memory are presented, above all, as an arena for polit- orders in 2006. ical battle with foreign and domestic opponents. On The book produced by Filippov and his coauthors this basis, it is possible to argue that history is “too im- teaches patriotism as loyalty not to the state, but to the portant to leave to the historians.” This approach as- authorities. The sins of the latter are explained for the sumes that historians do not consider the principles of most part by the difficult international situation and the professional ethics obligatory and suggests that they, as need to mobilize. In essence, this discourse by today’s rank-and-file fighters on the ideological front, should be ruling elite is strikingly similar to the Soviet post-Stalin- placed under the oversight of more “sophisticated” and ist narrative without the Communist rhetoric. The last “patriotic” people. chapter of Filippov’s teaching aid is entitled “Sovereign Second, the practitioners of the politics of the past Democracy” (without quotation marks in the book). claim that “everyone does it,” thereby justifying in the This term is not defined as an ideological concept de- eyes of society an obvious violation of the principles of veloped by one of Russia’s political parties, as it is in re- social science used in democratic conditions. They im- ality. Rather, “sovereign democracy” is used as an ob- plement this effort by limiting historians’ freedom to jective description of the contemporary political regime speak out, pushing inconvenient views to the fringe of in Russia, which has overseen, as the material explains, the media, and changing the principles of financial sup- the successful development of the country during the port. For example, instead of distributing grants for re- last ten years. Danilov’s textbook does the same thing. search through a system controlled by the scientific com- However, the question of whether the version munity, they hand out money to projects carried out by of events in this textbook is convincing is not our direct political orders.

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