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« 2025. # 2 (182)

The Ethnology Notebooks. 2025. № 2 (182), 397—409

UDK [327.2.015.5:37]((470+571):477)

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/

THE SCHOOL COURSE OF RUSSIAN HISTORY IN THE CONTEXT OF RUSSKIY MIR (THE RUSSIAN WORLD) IDEOLOGY IN MODERN RUSSIA

BARAN  Zoya

  • ORCID ID: https:// orcid.org/0000-0001-9685-3953
  • Candidate of History, Associate Professor,
  • Ivan Franko National University of Lviv,
  • Department of World Modern History,
  • Universytetska str. 1, 79000, Lviv, Ukraine,
  • Contacts: е-mail: zoja_baran@ukr.net

POLESHCHUK Tamara

  • ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8802-0633
  • Candidate of History, Associate Professor,
  • Ivan Franko National University of Lviv,
  • Department of Central and Eastern Europe History,
  • Universytetska str. 1, 79000, Lviv, Ukraine,
  • Contacts: е-mail:tpol@ukr.net

SIROMSKYI Ruslan

  • ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6744-6379 
  • Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor,
  • Ivan Franko National University of Lviv,
  • Department of World Modern History,
  • Universytetska str. 1, 79000, Lviv, Ukraine,
  • Contacts: e-mail: sir.ruslan@yahoo.com

Abstract. The concept of Russkiy mir has no definitive interpretation: the most common view is that it is a special civilisation whose fundamental principles are based on the Russian language and culture, Orthodoxy, common history and historical memory. Russkiy mir has become the ideological basis of an authoritarian political regime and an important factor in Putin’s geopolitics. History and historical memory has become one of the most powerful tools for establishing Russkiy mir. The purpose of the research is to outline the impact of Russkiy mir ideology on the content of the historical narrative and the school course of history in modern Russia. The methodological basis of the article is the principles of historicism, determinism and systematicity, which, when applied to historical and typological and comparative historical methods, allow us to analyse the content of Russkiy mir ideology and its impact on the content of history textbooks for schools in modern Russia.

Results. The year 2013 should be considered as a turning point in terms of accelerating the ideological unification of history teaching in Russian schools. The basic constructs of Russkiy mir have been implemented in Russian curriculum and history textbooks during the full-scale war against Ukraine. The Russian historical narrative presents Ukraine as an «artificially created pseudo-state», a «temporarily detached part of Russian territory», whose people are part of the Russian people, dreaming of reunification, suffering under the rule of «Nazis and Banderites». Conclusion. The Russian historical narrative contributes to the formation of a distorted image of Ukraine and Ukrainians among students; it justifies Russia’s territorial claims to the state of Ukraine. During the full-scale war, Russia’s centuries-old imperial expansionism and the true nature of its attitude towards Ukraine in the optics of Russkiy mir became apparent: Ukrainophobia, ethnocide, abuse and contempt for Ukrainians.

Keywords: Russkiy mir, state ideology, geopolitics, the Russian-Ukrainian war, historical memory, history teaching in schools.

Received 24.03.2025

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