Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

While Russian modern history is told as a triumph of the past, the Ukrainian story is staged as a horror movie where the main hero is a victim.

“What is history: facts, real things or opinions of demanding politicians?” asked Karina Korostelina, a reputable Ukrainian researcher and author of a number of books. She opened up about the national identity of “victimhood” created by modern Ukrainian history textbooks and compared it to the Russian identity of “glorification” promoted by Kremlin-supported historians.

The lecture “Defining National Identities: The Role of History Education in Russia and Ukraine” was presented recently by Korostelina at Washington, D.C.’s Kennan Institute. Korostelina, author of such books “Social Identity and Conflict,” “Identity, Morality, and Threat: Studies in Violent Conflict,” also gave an overview of the trend of creating common history textbooks in the European countries, which had conflicts in the past.

Instead of creating its own independent national identity, Ukrainian historians focus on other countries, searching for proof and facts of Ukraine being victimized and weakened by neighbors, which, as a result, does not promote the image of a state which has enough strength to build its own future. The presenter explained how the main trends of describing history have changed in Russia and Ukraine since 1991.

“Ukraine is described as a victim of all its neighbors: Russia, Austria, Germany and others. All neighbors have supposedly harmed Ukraine. We have been all the time victims of all states around, not only Russia. This is a red line which goes through the whole material of school textbooks,” Korostelina said.

The speaker compared the history textbooks recommended by the ministries of education and science in Russia and Ukraine since 1989. While Russian modern history textbooks are focused how great Russians have been throughout their existence, Ukrainians mostly complain about being victims not only of Russia, but also of other neighboring countries, including Austria, Poland, Germany and others.

The basic values created in both countries are: in Russia - “positive self-assessment;” in Ukraine - “negative assessment of Russia.”

We are getting used to the situation when each generation of politicians rewrites history. The bottom line of Korostelina’s research is that “the past of both countries [Russia and Ukraine] remains unpredictable.”

Both Russian and Ukrainian presidents seem to be seriously concerned by teaching history at schools. On Jan. 27, President Dmitry Medvedev charged the education minister with supervising history textbooks. Last year, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin arrived at a teachers’ conference and actively endorsed the textbook “History of Russia 1945-2008” by Aleksander Philipov, who justifies Stalin’s actions and gives relatively positive justifications for Stalinism. In this book, most of those sentenced to Stalin’s camps were poor workers, irresponsible employees, etc. The textbook describes Stalin as “efficient.”

Similar attempts by politicians to influence history happen in Ukraine. President Victor Yushchenko recommended to professors which topics and methods to emphasize in teaching history. For example, on September 15, 2008, Yushchenko had a meeting with Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Ivan Vakarchuk to discuss teaching history at schools and “objectivity of interpretation of certain historical facts in the textbooks.”

In Ukraine, the subject of scientific nationalism appeared in 2003, according to Korostelina. In style, the title sounds similar to scientific communism taught to our parents when they were young.

History textbooks and research are considered of top importance for the Russian leadership. As for research, active archaeological research is being done in Novgorod, Russia, in order to prove that Novgorod is more ancient than Kyiv and that non-Russian Slavic ethnic groups joined Russia later.

While Russian professors teach about Novgorod, the Ukrainian curriculum says that Russians and Belarusians were included later into the earlier Ukrainian statehood.


Common history textbooks

In international education, there are successful examples of so-called “common history textbooks.” These are textbooks written by the authors from countries which had conflicts in the past with each other. The wording is officially approved by experts from both countries and published in two languages.

The first successful example of such attempts to create common textbooks is a work done by French and German historians. Young generations may underestimate the huge symbolic importance of French and German cooperation. It is a great achievement because both France and Germany left the past behind and are improving present and building future.

The first transnational history textbook actually being used in French and German classrooms was published in 2006. In 2008 it was published in Korea amid attempts of South Korean scholars to introduce a similar Asian history textbook. Japan’s conflicts with the both Koreas, China and other Asian countries are still the source of tension in the region and this example of introducing common history textbooks is a certain step towards reconciliation.

Another attempt of a similar approach was started in Hungary and Slovakia a few years ago. About 10 percent of the Slovakia’s populations are the people who identify themselves as Hungarians. Russia and Ukraine are not planning any serious cooperation in the field of common history textbooks at this moment, according to Korostelina.

For every grade, there are 3-4 history textbooks approved by the ministry in Ukraine and 5-6 in Russia. However, the variety of textbooks does not mean the variety of ideology.

The presenter highlighted that, in 1989-1993, there was a call and tendency in Russia for removal of ideology of textbooks. However, from the year 1993 all the way through 2006, the task of forming the Russian national identity was created and the textbooks published during that period started to demonstrate a very positive assessment of Russian history (for example, good czars who made the country strong). Fundamental historical knowledge was valued more than critical thinking in these textbooks.

Nowadays, in Russia, “a third generation of textbooks has appeared,” according to the presenter. The leader of this direction is Leonid Polyakov, whose main ideas include “optimistic history of victory and glory.” Even those events, which were full of tragedy, are now described with the most neutral words. “The execution of the czar’s family was replaced by ‘shooting.’ he importance of a powerful state, which cares about everybody and explains what to do, prevails,” Korostelina said.

As for Ukrainian textbooks on history, they have also been changed a few times for the last 20 years. For the textbooks published from 1991 to 1995, it was typical to avoid many discussions about the Great Patriotic War and controversial points of the war. For the textbooks published from 1995 to 2008, Vladimir Lenin has been described as a paid German agent, Bolsheviks as foreigners, Russia as an oppressive state and Ukraine as a victim.

The most recent history textbooks in Ukraine show more information about UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) than they used to show. They also have stories about ethnic minorities who live in Ukraine and who give an idea about pop culture that is relatively new for history textbooks. They tell about the first refrigerators and when mini-skirts became fashionable.

In addition, the most recent Ukrainian textbooks show Ukrainian history in a more simplified form. The authors decreased the number of covered events and facts. The speaker stated that “the new Ukrainian curriculum cuts 200 historical events out of 400.” As far as this new change was announced a short time ago, “it is still difficult to figure out which exactly facts have been deleted from the curriculum.”

History has always been the most ideologically-based subject because it supports the legitimacy of regimes and power of ruling parties. However, it was easier to influence young minds by history textbooks when we had Iron Curtain and only two TV channels instead of the Internet. Now, in the global world, there is such a clutter of information that history textbooks cannot have the same influence as they used to have.

While the future is predictable in many respects, the past is still a mystery in Ukraine, especially since new elections are coming up soon.