ISSN 2078-9823 (Print), ISSN 2587-7879 (Online)

DOI: 10.15507/2078-9823.066.024.202402.135-141

Tatyana I. Shcherbakova

National Research Ogarev Mordovia State University (Saransk, Russia),

 e-mail: tatyana_shcherbakova@bk.ru

 

Historical Science as Weapon in the Fight for Minds: Are Information Wars Lost?

 

Abstract

Introduction. In 2022, Russia’s political elites showed an understanding that historical science is a weapon for the minds of young people. The Ministry of Education and Science has significantly increased the hours for students of all specialties to study history. In this regard, it is appropriate to recall the rich experience of the Soviet Union in the formation of a creative and heroic concept of national history, as well as those mistakes that were made in Soviet period.

Materials and Methods. The task of this work is to trace socially significant trends in the development of historical consciousness from the late 1980s to the present.

Results. The crisis of historical consciousness in Russia arose in the late 1980s with the beginning of the Openness policy. To a large extent, it was due to the inability of Soviet historical science to respond competently to the information stuffing that was made by the mass-media to discredit Soviet history, Soviet heroes and Soviet achievements. To further destroy historical consciousness in the 1990s, pseudo-scientific historical projects were implemented aimed at discrediting history as a system of scientific knowledge, destroying the significance of the USSR’s Victory in the Great Patriotic War, and spreading “alternative” historical concepts exploiting the ignorance of the masses.

Discussion and Conclusion. The most important resources in the fight against false history have become the cognitive interest of society and a massive request for a positive historical position of a patriotic nature. After the Crimean Spring, these resources received state support: the active publication of historical documents on the issues under discussion began on the Internet, popular bloggers appeared, vividly and interestingly discussing historical topics with professional historians. Modern Russia has overcome the crisis of historical consciousness. The basis of modern historical discourse is an interested dialogue between society and professional historians, with the aim of an interested understanding of the main stages of the country’s development.

Keywords: historical consciousness, crisis of historical consciousness, false history, restoration of historical consciousness.

For citation: Shcherbakova T. I. Historical Science as Weapon in the Fight for Minds: Are Information Wars Lost? Gumanitarian: aktual’nye problemy gumanitarnoi nauki i obrazovaniia = Russian Journal of the Humanities. 2024; 24(2): 135–141. (In Russ.). DOI: 10.15507/2078-9823.066.024.202402.135-141.

 

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