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This case study of the Russian Empire, based on the analysis of more than 100 primary sources in the form of textbooks on domestic history (uchebniki otechestvennoi istorii) and archival documentation, is intended to help understand the evolution of the formation of domestic history as a school subject as an integral part of the imperialist state's historical policy. The essence of the work was an attempt to periodise the development of the educational narrative as one of the components influencing the mentality of the Russian population – or rather, certain segments of it – and the extent of this phenomenon from the point of view of postcolonial studies. Special attention was also paid in the text to considerations based on discourse analysis of how the history of rulers-tsars gradually became the history of the people-Russians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an examination of the history to the state of Bohai, located in the contemporary Russian Maritime Region, which existed from the late 7th and early 10th centuries. The article explores Bohai's relationship with the Chinese Tang Dynasty and Japan and examines what became of the Bohai people after the 10th century. It discusses the study of Bohai in Russia and traces the history of the field to the Russian missionary sinologist Nikita Iakovlevich Birchurin in 1851. It examines the study of Bohai in Russia, China and Korea during the 20th century as well as the lack of study dedicated to Bohai in the West.

Sociological surveys reveal limited historical knowledge among citizens of Russia, both of their own family or regional history and of national or world history. The article calls on the historical profession, the mass media, and even the literary community to improve the public's familiarity with the past, an essential component of patriotism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conflicting opinions in Russia on how to view Russian history in general, and the role of Stalin in particular, raise the issue of how to treat painful subjects in school textbooks. As a key goal of education is to inspire students, it is understandable that Russian textbook authors, like those in other countries, may prefer to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attempts in Russia to create a nationalistic version of the country's history, in particular the history of Russia's relationship with Europe during the past few centuries, need to be critiqued. Russian history needs to be protected from nationalistic reinterpretations that distort people's views of Russia and its place in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses how changes in Russian nationality policy after the 1830-31 Uprising in Poland and Lithuania led to the initiative of an historical project that sought to prove the Russian nature of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It focuses on the tender organized by the Ministry of Education in the 1830s for the publication of a history textbook, which was to form the canon of Russian interpretations of the history of the Grand Duchy. The most important creator of this narrative was Nikolai Ustrialov. According to Ustrialov, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was just as much a Russian state as the Grand Duchy of Moscow, with the sole caveat that the tiny Lithuanian nation had played a part in creating it. Territorial rivalry between these two states was a mere 'family quarrel' over which dynasty would prevail. The supremacy of the Lithuanian dynasty did not mean the victory of an alien power since the Lithuanian princes were closely related to Russian princes and moreover, a considerable number of them belonged to the Eastern (Orthodox) Church. Russians could regard therefore them as their own. The last part of this article is devoted to the changes in nationality policy after the 1863-64 Uprising and the requirement for a new interpretation of the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociological surveys reveal limited historical knowledge among citizens of Russia, both of their own family or regional history and of national or world history. The article calls on the historical profession, the mass media, and even the literary community to improve the public's familiarity with the past, an essential component of patriotism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the new textbooks and educational standards on the history of Russia. It notes that conflicting opinions on how to view the country's history in general and the role of Joseph Stalin has raised the issue on how to treat painful subjects in school's history textbooks. It mentions that due to the key goal of education, which is to inspire students, Russian textbook authors prefer to emphasize the positive and eliminate the negative part of the country's history. It states that the new conception on the country's educational standards for history must include the idea that the main purpose of history education is to form patriots and citizens of their country, whose position will determine Russia's present and future.

The article reviews the historiography in Russia on Russian conservatism, identifying major trends as well as areas for future research. Scholarship conducted in the Soviet Union on conservatism in imperial Russia is reviewed, as is the increasing popularity of conservatism as a topic of study as well as political discourse in the post-Soviet era. Some noteworthy scholars and their works are mentioned, as are trends in the republication of works by prerevolutionary Russian conservatives. Centers for the study of conservatism launched at Russian universities are also discussed.

This article considers the external factors influencing Russian historical scholarship after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The following identity crisis created a “social demand” for history. But, paradoxically, this great interest (toska po istorii) proved harmful to the history profession as a whole. The crisis in Russian historical scholarship is illustrated by the depressing working conditions at the history institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences and, especially, at the Institute of Slavic Studies. The crisis in the discipline was eventually brought to an end in 2001 when President Putin decided to assign professional historians a key role in his long-term nation-building project. Additionally, the main trends in post-Soviet historical research are discussed. It is doubtful whether a change of paradigm has taken place. Many Russian historians have replaced the Marxist formational theory (formacionnyj podchod) by a civilisational approach (civilizacionnyj podchod) and, accordingly, they have prioritised political and cultural history at the expense of socio-economic history. But other historians - perhaps the majority - are still adherents of a “flexible” variant of the formational theory. To-day, there is no longer - as in the 1990s - a conflict between the two camps. A consensus seems to have arisen on a “multifaceted” approach (mnogofaktornyj podchod) to the driving forces of history. This means that, for example, it is legitimate to ascribe greater importance to geographical, ethnic, religious and foreign policy factors than was customary in Soviet history writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzes the events and developments that conspired in the last decade in Russian history. Rise of Boris Yeltsin to the presidency, as the first democratic head of state of the country; State of the Russian economy; Impact of the dissolution of the Soviet Union; Contention of the author that a textbook should not limit itself to the dry portrayal of top-down history; Highlights of the events happening for the last decade.

Discusses the role of state power in the historical development of Soviet historiography in Russia. Contention of the author that dilettantism is the defining quality of Soviet scholarship under the regime of Joseph Stalin; Characteristics of Soviet historiography under Stalin; Significance of historical scholarship as dangerous and useful at the same time.

Discusses the modernization of the twentieth-century national history textbook for elementary and secondary schools in Russia. Application in elementary and secondary schools of knowledge acquired through historical research; Criticism attracted by the text books used in teaching history; Discussion by scientists, scholars and instructors and by society as a whole on the problems affecting the teaching of Russian history in schools in Russia.

Since the middle of the 1980s, a search for identity has been one of the main cogs driving the mechanisms of memory in Russia Federation. Over several years, this process has completely transformed the views of the past that existed first in Soviet Union and later in Russia. Three main periods can be distinguished. The first--1986-90 was marked by a painful reintegration of the tragic history of the Josef Stalin period into public memory. The second from 1990 to the mid-1990's was characterized by the ouster of Stalinism from memory and by a reinterpretation of October revolution and its idealization of pre revolutionary Russia and the third period from the mid-1990's to the end of the Russian President Boris Yeltsin era in 2000, was a time when something like a new official history emerged, perfecting the myth of tsarist Russia. By analyzing each period, this article explores how the memory of Stalinism has influenced Russian citizens' views of their past during so complex and contradictory a period as the last fifteen years. The author argues that the refusal to acknowledge that great trauma of twentieth-century Russian history is one of the main sources of the memory disorder that Russia is currently experiencing in trying to understand its own past.

Examines the historical consciousness of college students in Russia. Historical education; Literary fiction; Works of art.

Focuses on the efforts to implement a single approach in the educational system in higher educational institutions in Russia. Issues on the creation of a dual-track system, involving five years of study for a specialist diploma and six for a master's degree, in the training of history teachers; Value of computerized teaching and institutional Web sites; Emphasis on the need in reforming the higher education system to close the gap between classical and teachers' universities.

Discusses the problems of history education in Russia. Necessity to approach educational reform while taking into due consideration the native traditions and values, the specific historical situation, and the past; Importance of the content of historical education; Assertion of the author that the content of historical education should remain in step with public self-awareness.