THE SOVIET CONCEPT OF “FRIENDSHIP OF NATIONS” IN MODERN HISTORY TEXTBOOKS

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to determine the place of the ideological concept "friendship of peoples" in the teaching of modern history in Russian schools, as well as in the conduct of the hybrid war of the Russian Federation with Ukraine. In the summer of 2023, in the second year of the full-scale war with Ukraine, schools in Russia and in the occupied territories of the Ukrainian South and East received a new edition of the modern history textbook (authors V. Medynskyi and A. Torkunov). The textbook caused a violent reaction from the public throughout the post-Soviet space, because it became a concentrated presentation of the ideology of rashism. In this propaganda opus, considerable attention is paid to the characteristics of national relations in the post-war USSR. The ideology of "friendship of peoples" was part of state propaganda in the Soviet Union, but it continued to exist with some modifications in the modern Russian Federation. Understanding this fact is important both for professional historians and for the entire Ukrainian society. The article outlines the state of research into the problem of using stereotypes about "friendship of peoples" in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. The new edition of the Russian school textbook was analyzed for the use of the Soviet concept of "friendship of nations". The influence of rashist ideology on the formation of the content of the textbook is evaluated. It was determined that the Soviet interpretation of the ideologeme "friendship of peoples" assumed the existence of "older" and "smaller" peoples, and this is exactly the content that modern rashists put into their fakes about "brotherly peoples". Behind the words about "fraternal nations" hides the chauvinistic attitude of the "elder brother" – the Russian people towards others as second-class. The use of Soviet stereotypes in modern history textbooks should be considered as an ideological weapon in a hybrid war, and valid arguments should be used to debunk historical myths. The concept of "friendship of peoples" in its modern interpretation presupposes equal and tolerant relations between peoples, respect for national sovereignty and observance of universally recognized human rights.