The Medieval History of Russian Regions in the School Textbooks
- Russia is a very specific country, enjoying huge territories and the great variety of ethnic groups, that's why the attempt of studying the history of all, or just the largest regions is doomed to failure; that's why it's necessary to create a special course (or just a separate textbook) of historical ethnology. The study of the regional history in the school course of the medieval history of Russia is connected with the topic "The period of Feudal Partition of Rus"; traditionally Russian schools study the history of Kiev princedom, Galicia and Volhynia, Novgorod lands, Vladimir-Suzdal princedom. In the traditional Soviet text-books the history of princedoms in the period of partition was considered mainly static, only few concrete events were mentioned; in the modern text-books much more detailed concrete historical data are provided. The Northwest and the Southwest of Russia in the text-books is presented in fewer details because their role in the general history of Russia is lessRussia is a very specific country, enjoying huge territories and the great variety of ethnic groups, that's why the attempt of studying the history of all, or just the largest regions is doomed to failure; that's why it's necessary to create a special course (or just a separate textbook) of historical ethnology. The study of the regional history in the school course of the medieval history of Russia is connected with the topic "The period of Feudal Partition of Rus"; traditionally Russian schools study the history of Kiev princedom, Galicia and Volhynia, Novgorod lands, Vladimir-Suzdal princedom. In the traditional Soviet text-books the history of princedoms in the period of partition was considered mainly static, only few concrete events were mentioned; in the modern text-books much more detailed concrete historical data are provided. The Northwest and the Southwest of Russia in the text-books is presented in fewer details because their role in the general history of Russia is less important. The study of Novgorod is focused mainly in peculiarities of economy, social structure and political system; the weak point of all contemporary textbooks is that tlie evolution of Novgorod from the 12th to the 15th century is hardly shown in them. In the chapters covering the epoch of the Golden Horde Yoke (Tatar rule) and the formation of the united Russian state school text-books naturally become Moscow-oriented. In the later editions, the advantage of the Moscow's position is proved more cautiously. Contemporary textbooks state, that in the end of the 13th - beginning of the 14th centuries several centres of unification of Russian lands could be found - Galicia - Volhynia, Lithuania, Tver and Moscow Princedoms. While studying the material dealing with the 16th century the students get acquainted with the history of Russian regions with the population of Kazan and Astrakhan khanates - for the first time. In the textbooks of the Soviet period the history of those states was never revealed; in the contemporary textbooks this period is covered with the sufficient degree of objectivity. The history of Siberia before the 17th century is covered in the text-books pretty fragmentarily: all the textbooks without exception first mention Siberia only regarding Ermak's raid, and later - in connection with the actions of Russian travellers. Thus, the last years show the achievement of some progress in the study of the medieval history of Russian regions. But it's necessary to emphasise that in a country like Russia the complete study of history not only of each, but even of the majority of the regions is impossible in the comprehensive course of the national (state) history, which requires teachers' and local textbooks authors' constant attention to the regional material.…
