The representation of the history of Polish uprisings in Soviet textbooks in 1947-1956

Introduction. Soviet memory politics remains one of the most pressing topics in contemporary historiography. Of considerable interest to researchers is the still insufficiently studied period in the history of Soviet memory politics after World War II. An important, still unstudied aspect of Soviet memory politics is the representation in the USSR of such conflict periods and events as the Polish uprisings – themes of a common problematic past with a new ally – socialist Poland.

Materials and Methods. The source base of the research is Soviet history textbooks for primary, secondary, secondary vocational and higher historical education published in the period from 1947 to 1956. The author refers to the methods of studying historical memory (memory studies), the work of the founder of this methodology, M. Halbwachs and his concept of the social framework of memory.

Analysis. In this article, the author examines the representation of the Polish uprisings of 1794, 1830-1831 and 1863 in various Soviet textbooks for secondary, specialized secondary and higher education from 1947 (the establishment of the Institute of Slavic Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the strengthening of the pro-Soviet government in Poland) to 1956 (de-Stalinization in the USSR and the end of the B. Bierut era in Poland).

Results. The author concludes that Polish uprisings in Soviet educational literature of the late Stalinist period were presented as having primarily class causes, while the ethnopolitical motive in the ideology of Polish insurgents was presented as secondary. The uprising of 1863 received the greatest attention in Soviet educational literature, as the closest to revolutionary democratic ideology.

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