What do Russian history books for school have to say about their history?

I really don’t know, but it should talk about the Soviet Union, etc. No country’s history should be “glossed over”, no matter how controversial or hated.

.. I’d like to see the german textbooks.

What about America. Rarely do you see content on how the lives of Native Americans were maltreated. You don’t read about the Philippines war, the conquest in the Pacific, the Boxer war or the atrocities that Americans did during Vietnam.

Why is this question only directed towards Russia. Many countries have histories that they are trying to conceal.

I have always wondered the same thing (about all countries, not just Russia). American textbooks definitely have a pro-America slant, so I’d imagine other countries’ texts are quite different.

I don’t know about Russians but I did used to work with a Macedonian kid and some girls from Bulgaria and I learned that Macedonians schools teach a completely untrue history to their students sooooo… if it works for the why not Russia?

@madcapper

How can you be sure it is all untrue? What makes you think our history is all true? Remember, history is written by the winner.

I don’t know about in Russian schools, but I went to a Chicago Public School for nine years where we had to learn a language. So, I was in Russian. My parents chose it because I entered kindergarten in 1990, so right around the time of the break up of the Soviet Union. Our teacher was from Kiev, and while we mainly learned about the language, there was a bit of CCCP history. I remember hearing a lot about how people were very poor and the government wouldn’t do anything for them, never a glorification of the government. Like someone said above, educational systems tend not to glorify their shady pasts. Also, it helped that our teacher came from the country and had first hand experience with how the government did not work. Now, had we been in the CCCP learning this stuff, I’m sure we wouldn’t have heard about the poor and suffering. We would have been taught to love the government.

Um, what about American history books? They’re so incredibly Euro-centric, they’re at best biased, at worst, lies.

(While “Lies My Teacher Told Me” is poorly written, it does have some very interesting points.)

I’m not saying that all history isn’t skewed or that American history isn’t a farce either. I am sure many things didn’t happen the way they were told. Until the advent of the average person being able to be a historian e.g. camera, video cameras, cell phones, literacy for the masses. Before all these things common people didn’t partake in history and could never disprove what historians wrote…

I grew up in Russia, and the textbooks are quite accurate about the times. I remember a few that would glorify Russia and say it was the best in the world. But as I grew older, regulations went into effect and the real, solid history is taught. The real horrors of what went on do make it to the books, but in-depth information is not given.