History and Memory

I found this short article in the Economist to be quite fascinating. It is on one of those topics that I have randomly pondered about a bit: how does history get taught in schools in post-communist countries? I've always thought it would be difficult to teach the history honestly and openly, given that the collapse of communism is so recent.

Evidently this is the case, and as a result youngsters are getting confusing messages:

The ignorance is unevenly spread. Young western Germans know more of East Germany’s history. In Bavaria just 39% of schoolchildren had “little or very little” knowledge; in Brandenburg 72% were ill-informed. A third of eastern German students thought that Konrad Adenauer and Willy Brandt, two western giants, actually governed the east. The same proportion judge West Germany’s political system to have been the better; two-thirds of westerners do. Such differences persist even among children of western and eastern parents who attend the same Berlin schools.

Given that one-third of west German students think that the East Germany political system was superior, it is perhaps not surprising that two-thirds of east German students have the same thought. But nonetheless, I find this to be somewhat shocking.

But perhaps I am being too harsh. Perhaps many of these students have families for whom the East German system worked. Perhaps many of them had parents or teachers who did not understand the inefficient or unsustainable nature of the East German system. After all, I would guess that this information was not common knowledge. The context is also critical: this is Germany, and I can't really see much potential harm as these misconceptions are worked out over time. Indeed, I have some faith that this will be worked out as there is a public space where it can be worked out, through peaceful debate and discussion.

This is not the case though in other post-Communist countries such as Russia where such debates are not encouraged. Russia is a fascinating case when thinking about history and memory, and its effects on politics. How do Russians think about the Communist times? How does it get taught in schools? I can easily imagine that Putin would want to put the best possible gloss on these times, but what does that mean for Russian society?

Reading about Russia under Putin's leadership is not particularly pleasant. Under Putin corruption has become endemic, the state is being run by mafia related groups, an already feeble rule of law has been asphyxiated and the Kremlin has worked hard to centralize control over economic activity. And I cannot but think that part of the explanation for the general acceptance of this is a collective societal amnesia.

This is not to say that Putin is trying to recreate the communist, or really socialist, system exactly as it is existed before Gorbachev unwittingly pulled the plug. The means of government control and the economic structure have been updated and are now more subtle, but there are many similarities. But will these similarities be discussed and debated or repressed? Will students be encouraged to think through these issues and to think about better paths that may lie ahead? In Putin's Russia, I doubt that will be on the curriculum any time soon.