"War on history": the real reason?

[Alina Israeli]

One could hardly improve John Dunn's explanation. I would like to add  
that lately Russians have been rattled by the resolution by The  
Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (ОБСЕ, in  
Russian) to equate Hitlerism and Stalinism: http://www.inosmi.ru/ 
translation/250553.html, especially considering latest Stalin's  
popularity in the country and people' obsessions with winning WWII  
(ever since loosing the cold war).

On the last point, the article on difficulty for foreign instructors,  
Russia being Russia, everyone will be implicated and it is probably  
meant against the Western imperialists with their humanists ideas.  
However, Yulia Latynina more than once mentioned Iran's influence in  
the education: Мы тут пока рассказываем о западном влиянии, из какого- 
нибудь Астраханского Пединститута присылают в иранское же посольство  
российское людей, которые прекрасно говорят на фарси – там их обучили  
хорошему фарси в Астраханском Пединституте – и вполне проникнутых  
идеями мировой исламской революции. (http://republic.com.ua/ 
opinion.php?id_show=11844)

Alina


On Jul 15, 2009, at 5:32 AM, John Dunn wrote:

> 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.
>
>

Alina Israeli
Associate Professor of Russian
LFS, American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave.
Washington DC 20016
(202) 885-2387 	fax (202) 885-1076
aisrael at american.edu





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