Appeal to historical facts and events has always been an important factor of forming ideology, and, depending on circumstances, it is used as a justification for your position or for blaming your rival. Adults can orient themselves in the constantly-growing information space, while it is difficult for a child. Social scientists and psychologists have concluded that children should be supported in it not only by parents and teachers, but also by the mass media, while the state should follow the media’s work.
Recently Dmitry Medvedev stated that in textbooks for schools no discussion of obvious historic facts should take place, for example, the victory in the Second World War. After that, experts held a multi-media conference, entitled 'The role of Russia in world history: resistance to falsification of historic events'.
The chairman of the State Duma committee on culture, a member of the presidential commission on resistance to falsification of history, Vladimir Medinsky, who a day before met with school teachers and students of pedagogic universities in Kurgan, said that the main puzzle is why history textbooks are different in different schools. Teachers and students also asked Medinsky why the system of handing out textbooks in schools for a year and returning them to the school library was canceled. Medinsky explained that such a problem appeared due to the launch of new formats of textbooks almost every year. He thinks that the system formed in the 1990s is aimed at growth of government purchases and benefiting publishing houses. Medinsky noted that a common textbook is necessary. It should be approved by the Education Ministry and be handed from one low-income family to another through a school library. He also said that many historians confuse the mission of a researcher and the mission of a scientist, which leads to harmful consequences.
The deputy chairman of the Duma committee on social unities and religious organizations, a member of the presidential committee on resistance to falsification of history, Sergey Markov, said that there are several levels of history as a subject. The first level is presented by special historical science. According to Markov, in the sphere of historical science absolute freedom of any points of view should be provided.
The second level of history as a subject is the complex system of the worldview in society. This includes the teaching of history and state policy in the field of history, which is provided through the mass media. At the same time, Markov stated that, within the framework of the state policy, various conceptions of history should remain, i.e. national history, social history and so on, under the general concept of Russian history. Markov suggested developing a textbook that will present the general concept of Russian history and various alternatives of understanding historical events. Markov named three key models of the falsification of history: national, Western and the concept of the “glamourization” and “Hollywoodness” of history. The first two tendencies of falsification of history are centralized, while the third is spontaneous and based on business strategy, Markov said. He stated that any business based on falsification of history is a betrayal of the Motherland.
The deputy head of the General History Institute, Mikhail Lipkin, told about the archive revolution in the late 1990s, when many archive materials became available for historians on the Internet. Lipkin noted that the archive and information revolution led to reconsideration of many historical facts and the process of revision of history itself. At the same time, some archives of the Second World War are still secret, and contemporary historians have no full information for justification of this or that point of view on the developments of the second half of the XXth century. Lipkin agreed with Makarov that history as a subject has three major directions: scientific, social and popular. He said that pop-history is the main direction at the moment. He also worries about developing a common textbook. Lipkin called for the establishment of a group of scientists, who will not only test textbooks on factual correctness, but also on interesting way that the information is presented.
