Ideology and Civilizational Identity in Russia's State-Approved World-History Textbooks

Ideology and Civilizational Identity in Russia's State-Approved World-History Textbooks

This article examines how recent world history is interpreted in Russia's latest state-approved textbooks, particularly what kind of ideological and civilizational leanings the interpretations reflect. Discourse analysis reveals that the textbooks broadly accept the superiority of the capitalis...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Problems of post-communism 2023-07, Vol.70 (4), p.402-415
Main Author: Pan, Yanliang
Format: Article
Language:eng
Subjects:
Capitalism
Discourse analysis
Geopolitics
Modernization
Political elites
Political systems
Postcommunist societies
Textbooks
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:This article examines how recent world history is interpreted in Russia's latest state-approved textbooks, particularly what kind of ideological and civilizational leanings the interpretations reflect. Discourse analysis reveals that the textbooks broadly accept the superiority of the capitalist developmental model and liberal-democratic political system, all within a Western-centric, if not pro-Western, paradigm based on modernization theory; only in the context of recent geopolitical conflicts is the West portrayed in an adversarial light. These findings suggest that liberal and Western-centric thinking continues to influence sections of Russia's political and intellectual elites as well as the country's post-Soviet generation.
ISSN:1075-8216
1557-783X