Ideology and Civilizational Identity in Russia’s State-Approved World-History Textbooks

Yanliang (Charlie) Pan ’22, recently published a research article in Problems of Post-Communism: “Ideology and Civilizational Identity in Russia’s State-Approved World-History Textbooks,” originally written for REES-500.

Abstract of Yanliang’s article:

This article examines how recent world history is interpreted in Russia’s latest state-approved textbooks, particularly what kind of ideological and civilizational leanings the interpretations reflect. Discourse analysis reveals that the textbooks broadly accept the superiority of the capitalist developmental model and liberal-democratic political system, all within a Western-centric, if not pro-Western, paradigm based on modernization theory; only in the context of recent geopolitical conflicts is the West portrayed in an adversarial light. These findings suggest that liberal and Western-centric thinking continues to influence sections of Russia’s political and intellectual elites as well as the country’s post-Soviet generation.

Full article can be accessed through Taylor & Francis Online.