Posted on 07/06/2007 7:08:14 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
A new manual for Russia's history teachers succinctly distills President Vladimir Putin's drive to rekindle patriotism, retelling events of the past six decades according to the Kremlin's preferred storyline: Russia is a great power that shouldn't be ashamed of its past.
Backed by support from the president himself, the book, which rails against U.S. hegemony, is raising fears among some historians that the Kremlin is -- quite literally -- trying to rewrite history in a way that risks breeding ultranationalism and whitewashing the darkest chapters of Russia's past. ...
The book, aimed at teachers of students who are in their final year of high school, reads like a hymn to the Putin era, echoing the president's own rhetoric. Far from offering contrasting interpretations, it toes the Kremlin line: Mr. Putin's statement that the demise of the U.S.S.R. was "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century" is stated as historical truth rather than opinion.
The book claims that the U.S. and Britain's obsession with fighting terrorism risks turning them into totalitarian states, and accuses Washington of trying to build "a global empire" under the guise of spreading democracy. ...
Another teachers' guide getting Kremlin support, meanwhile, recasts key elements of Soviet history. Dictator Josef Stalin is described as "the most successful Soviet leader ever," for building industry and leading the country to victory in World War II. The guide explains his purges and the system of camps for political prisoners as a function of his desire to make the Soviet Union strong.
Mr. Putin himself echoed that view at the meeting with teachers, saying Stalin's "Great Terror" of 1937 -- during which at least 700,000 people were executed -- wasn't as bad as atrocities other nations had perpetrated, such as the U.S. use of the atomic bomb.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Even the most jingoistic American history texts of the 1950s did not demonize Russia, but portrayed it as an unfortunate land under the sway of militant Communism.
This book attacks America and Americans as inherently evil and domineering.
I think Dick Durbin and Lew Rockwell might have been consultants.
An inconvenient truth, it is ISLAM that is again establishing its empire with all of the party faitful bowing to the capital city of Mecca 5 times a day. The Saudi government is funding the mosques around the world.
We (kufir) are told to leave muslims lands. I didn't know that land had religious/political requirements to conduct trade or live there. Even native peoples who convert away from Islam are unwelcome in "muslim lands".
And what is a muslim land? Lands originally conquored by the warlord known as Mohammed? Lands conquored by other muslims in the name of jihad? What of the people of other faiths (like Lebanese Christians) who previously inhabited those lands?
Stop me when I get out of identifying muslim lands: Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Israel, Turkey, Spain, France, England, Michigan?
The cold war ended in peace rather than unabashed victory. Wars like that, see WWII vs Korean war, may preserve the hatred needed to fuel the next war, see Versailles.
Wow, the modern Russian textbooks are no different than the Soviet era textbooks. Who would have thunk it with an ex-KGB boss at the helm?
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