Textbook and Teaching Manual: The Primary Tools for the Teaching of Medieval History in Soviet Secondary Schools, 1934–1956

Abstract

The Communist totalitarian system eventually abandoned the experimental efforts that dominated public education during the first fifteen years of Soviet rule. The reform of 1934 introduced sweeping changes in the organization of history education in Soviet secondary schools. The Soviet state equipped teachers with a diverse “arsenal” of instructional and methodological resources. In the general-education school of the Stalinist era (1934–1956), the library of the average teacher of medieval history consisted of a single “unionwide” textbook supplemented by a methodological manual for teachers, a reader, and a book for classroom reading. The present paper analyzes the teacher’s two primary working tools: the textbook and the lesson-by-lesson methodological manual. A defining feature of the Soviet approach to teaching and learning in secondary schools was the involvement of leading scholars from institutions of higher education and research, along with highly qualified methodologists. Throughout this period, a select professorial cohort handpicked by the Party leadership (Ye. Kosminsky, S. Skazkin, N. Gratsiansky, and others) served as authors and editors of textbooks, methodological manuals, readers, and classroom reading books. A trusted group of methodologists worked alongside these scholars, together providing the necessary level of professional support for the instructional process. In the view of Soviet authorities, this combination of expertise in research and teaching methods guaranteed a high standard of instruction. The most important publications (textbooks, readers, and manuals) were translated into the languages of the union republics, including Ukrainian, ensuring the implementation of Soviet educational policy among the national minorities. A major feature of the teaching of medieval history in Soviet general-education schools was the oversaturation of its content and substance with Soviet ideological directives and Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist postulates, to the detriment of genuine knowledge and understanding of historical phenomena, developments, and events.