Teaching History in Russia after the Collapse of the USSR.

Abstract

DRAMATIC CONFLICTS and ideological changes occurred in Russia during the past decade. They inevitably influenced Russian education, particularly history teaching. We can identify a number of problems that have arisen in history education, from the emergence of new ideological symbols to inequities between schools for the rich and schools for the poor. In this essay I would like to call readers' attention to two issues. The first concerns the popularity of history among Russian high school students. The second looks at the problem of national identity and how it has played out in history teaching.1 In Russia, students' attitudes towards history education tend to differ markedly from those of American and European youth. Writing about American schools, James W. Loewen observed, "High school students hate history. When they list their favorite subjects, history invariably comes in last."2 Even considering Loewen's tendency to strong opinions, we cannot overlook his point. Evidence of similar attitudes has been exposed in many countries of Western Europe. In the 1990s, the Koerber Institute in Germany carried out a large survey titled Youth and History: The Comparative European Project on Historical Consciousness among Teenagers. Sampling 35,000 students in twenty-seven countries of West-