published in: Zadora, A. (2015). The Politics of History Textbooks in Belarus: Between Globalization and Authoritarian Confinement. In: Zajda, J. (eds) Nation-Building and History Education in a Global Culture. Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research, vol 13. Springer, Dordrecht, pp. 117-129.
This chapter analyzes the politics of history textbooks in a specific context: Belarus – a post-totalitarian and authoritarian state. School history teaching has always been a powerful instrument for national identity shaping, legitimizing political structures and the place of a nation in a globalized world. Political authorities tend to control the school textbook writing. The chapter will provide a chronological analysis of the evolution of the politics of history textbooks in Belarus. The first period covers the perestroika (restructuring), which marked the beginning of the Belarusian history writing. The first-generation school textbooks on Belarusian history were published, affirming an independent national Belarusian history, claiming the right for a new state to be considered as a part of world heritage, and searching for European roots in Belarusian history. However, from the mid-1990s, a return to a Soviet interpretation of Belarusian history occurred, and school history writing was subjected to a strict control by the state. Currently, the history textbook writing aims the legitimating of the links with Russia and a very special sociopolitical system, rather different from European democratic model. Politics of history textbooks in Belarus are constantly changing and balancing between openness to global tendencies, European heritage, democracy and isolation, identity tension, links with Russia, and totalitarian tendencies.
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