"War on history": the real reason?

[John Dunn]

As far as I can see, there are three aspects to the so-called 'War on history':
1) A law passed recently which makes denial of the Soviet victory in World War II/The Great Patrotic War a criminal offence; this is clearly inspired by the laws against Holocaust denial that exist in some European countries.
2) The commission set up by the President with the aim of countering attempts at falsifying history.
3) Attempts to produce school text-books that present of Russian history from a particular point of view, i.e. one that encourages feelings of patriotism and a positive attitude towards the country and its history.

(1) clearly relates to World War II, and that, it seems, is the main concern of (2), though this body clearly has the potential to expand its sphere of interest.  The main targets seem to be those in the Baltic States and Ukraine who do not share the Soviet/Russian interpretation of the outcome of World War II, and, above all, people who celebrate the actions of those who fought against the Soviet armed forces.  They may also target those in the West who place Nazism and Stalinism on an equal footing (as the OSCE has just done). At present I don't see any other targets, though I suppose they can easily be found, if circumstances require. (3) is targeted at Russian schoolchildren, but also the 'liberal' text-books written in the 1990s.  

I'm not convinced that we know the precise motives for the temporary closure of the hrono.info site, but here we come up against another issue, namely the law on promoting extremism and the half-hearted and inconsistent attempts of the authorities to apply this law in relation to extreme right-wing propaganda.

The text of the Tishkov letter and a worrying article about (3) can be found at:
http://www.novayagazeta.ru/data/2009/071/00.html

I hope that helps.  Others may be able to expand on or improve this offering.

In the meantime, those whose flesh has not crept enough may wish to read the following, whch in some ways in equally worrying:

http://www.newsru.com/russia/14jul2009/inoprep.html

John Dunn.
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Prof Steven P Hill <s-hill4 at ILLINOIS.EDU>
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:22:26 -0500
Subject: [SEELANGS] "War on history": the real reason?

Dear colleagues:

Is there anyone out there who can cut through all the opaque 
"legalese" and explain to my poor ignorant self WHAT REALLY 
LIES BEHIND all these messages and all this legalese?

Is this much-cited "war on falsification of Russian history"  more
than merely anti-Hitler ("Mein Kampf")?  Possibly ... anti-Georgian?  
Anti-US?  Anti-Ukrainian?  Anti-Chechnya?  Pro-Putin?  Or ... ?

In ignorance,
Steven P Hill,
University of Illinois.
______________________________________________________________

John Dunn
Honorary Research Fellow, SMLC (Slavonic Studies)
University of Glasgow, Scotland

Address:
Via Carolina Coronedi Berti 6
40137 Bologna
Italy
Tel.: +39 051/1889 8661
e-mail: J.Dunn at slavonic.arts.gla.ac.uk
johnanthony.dunn at fastwebnet.it

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