Interpreting the Dark Side of Soviet History of World War II in Russian Textbooks during the Yeltsin and Putin Eras

소련 해체 이후 첫 10년간 러시아 역사가들은 소비에트 역사에 대해 부정적 평가를 내리는 경우가 많았지만, 옐친 정부는 역사교과서 집필 과정에 직접 간여하지 않았다. 옐친 정부는 소비에트 잔재 청산을 주요 목표로 삼았고, 시장자본주의 이행기의 혼란 속에서 교과서 문제까지 신경 쓸 여유가 없었다. 그러나 사회통합과 실추된 국가 위상 회복을 최우선의 과제로 설정한 푸틴 정부는 역사교과서 집필에 직접 개입하기 시작해서 소련 역사에 대해 지나치게 비판적 해석을 견지한 교과서의 검인정을 취소하였고 역사교과서 집필 가이드라인까지 제시했다. 이러한 정부 지침 아래 집필된 교과서는 제2차 세계대전 시기 스탈린 정부의 탈이데올로기적이며 비윤리적인 정책 집행에 대해 당시로써는 국가이익 수호를 위해서는 다른 대안이 없었다는 논리를 견지하고 있다. 비록 푸틴 정부는 역사교과서 국정화 정책을 시행하지는 않았지만, 오늘 날까지 지속해서 역사교과서 집필에 직간접적 압력을 행사해옴으로써 러시아역사 기술에 대한 간접 검열을 통한 공식 사관 정립에 힘쓰고 있다.

During the first decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian historians often reviewed the Soviet history with critical tones. The Yeltsin administration, however, did not intervene directly in writing history textbook. This was because, on the one hand, the Yeltsin government strived to remove Soviet legacy in Russian society, including education and academia while, on the other hand, it was unable to afford to pay enough attention to the textbook issue due to the perplexing situations during the transitional period to free-market capitalism. In contrast, the Putin administration, striving both to achieve social unity and to restore the dignity of the state in Russian society, has begun to directly intervene in history-textbook writing. Providing guidelines for writing the textbook, the government cancelled the authorization for a textbook, written by Igor Dolutskii, describing the Stalin regime’s policies during World War II with overly critical tones. In contrast, emphasizing that there were no other alternatives for the wartime Soviet government in order to protect national interests, Aleksandr Danilov and Aleksander Filippov, authors of textbook that was drafted under the guidance of the Putin government, frequently justify Stalin’s wartime decisions that had de-ideologized, immoral, and unethical nature. Although the Putin administration has not introduced the system of government-authorized textbook yet, it has continued to work on the establishment of official narratives, prioritizing patriotism, heroism, unity, and national interests over liberalism, individualism, and democracy, in interpreting historical meanings of wartime historical events such as the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact of 1939, the Katyn massacre, forceful migration of ethnic minorities in the western borderlands of USSR, and wartime attitudes of Soviet citizens in Russian history textbook by persuading and pressing historians and teachers.