"Official history" changes caused by ( completely ) political changes ...

[Mîtiu Ioan]

I initiated this thread especially for the people who live(d) in country which experimented a major political changes ( like in Eastern Europe ).

What is the aspects in "official history" ( I mean history teached in high school for example ) which was changed after such a political changes ?

There are some "new myths" which replaced the "old one" ?

Regards

 

[MCdread]

Though I did not live it, my parents did and I haveread some of their books schools. I'm talking about the revolution of 1974 when a democratic government was installed replacing a right-wing, slightly fascist dictatorship.

The opld history books were much about the great heroes of the past, the fight against the muslin infidels, the discoveries, the good of the colonisation, etc. It was a policy of romanticising what was good and turn the bad into good.
Shortly after, there was a sudden change to the extreme opposite. It took 2 or 3 years for things going to the normal.

 

[Stefan Haertel]

I think anyone can imagine how bizarre it is to browse a German historical atlas from 1942.
I'm talking about...

-Maps of the Jewish population of Europe
-Maps of Hitlers flight to visit German cities in the early thirties
-Comparrison of Cannae and Tannenberg
and much, much, much more.

Not to mention the foreword.

 

[Archer 007]

America never really has had these sorts of problems.

 

[Xen]

wouldnt belong better in OT?

 

[Crimson Sunrise]

It didn't happen to the same extent in America, certainly.

My mother remembers that when she was in school, they were never taught about the Vietnam War. In earlier years, while the war was still happening, she didn't even know there was a war going on - the schoolkids were very much insulated from it.

More recently, you've got books coming out that heavily criticize traditional American heroes such as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

 

[Azadre]

Hehe, George Washington had a mistress living in his closet. History taught in school is sugar coated!

 

[Aphex_Twin]

Didn't Thomas Jefferson have 7 children with one of his black female slaves?

 

[Azadre]

I know Jefferson did have sex with his slaves. In fact, you weren't a man unless you raped your slaves. You can find that out in Roots.

 

[nixon]

And not to mention how the Soviets taught their schoolchildren history.

 

[covok48]

"I know Jefferson did have sex with his slaves. In fact, you weren't a man unless you raped your slaves. You can find that out in Roots."

"Hehe, George Washington had a mistress living in his closet. History taught in school is sugar coated!"



Perhapes you have some credible souces to back up such outragous statements?

 

[andrewgprv]

Not major changes in America just less sugar-coating about the past.

Also History will vary greatly depending on the politcal leanings of your teacher.

 

[Finmaster]

In Finland... lemme see...

it's funny, we were never one of those communist nations, we were basically the only free democratic nation in the entire eastern Europe, and yet we were in better relations with USSR than many communist nations - such as Yogoslavia. Especially in the early 60's when president Kekkonen was at the peak of his power and Hrustsev (who our president Kekkonen calls "great friend of Finland" in his diary in 1964) was still in power in the Soviet Union.

It is clear that this friendship had some effects on the way how Finnish schools and media portrayed history. For example, the fact that USSR started the Winter War in 1939 was not allowed to be printed in our history books until the 1980's. And only recently, during the last few years, people and schools here have started to accept the fact that USSR had a great influence in Finnish domestic and foreign policies from the 50's to the 70's - despite the fact that Boris Yeltsin apologized about it publically over 10 years ago!

 

[Mîtiu Ioan]

He he ... after 1989 in Romania was a trend to glorify almost all the political leaders from 1918-1940 because some of them was imprisoned and killed slowly by the new comunist regime in the 1950's. Some of them was in fact completely jerks, very corrupts but ... sometime the circumstances of death of a man seems more important than his previous life ...

Regards

P.S. : This is just an example ...

 

[Vrylakas]

He he ... after 1989 in Romania was a trend to glorify almost all the political leaders from 1918-1940 because some of them was imprisoned and killed slowly by the new comunist regime in the 1950's. Some of them was in fact completely jerks, very corrupts but ... sometime the circumstances of death of a man seems more important than his previous life ...

This is a common theme in Eastern Europe. Lech Walesa in 1990 made a big deal of re-uniting the the Polish government in Warsaw with the government-in-exile that held out in London since 1940 and while this was all good and well for closing a chapter in the country's history, his emphasis on his continuation of pre-1939 Poland didn't sit too well with many Poles. There was a short euphoria at first that "now we can continue where we left off in 1939", but then as they examined it a bit in depth Poles began to sense that perhaps pre-1939 Poland wasn't necessarily a model worth emulating. Huge social tensions between working class, intelligentsia and the peasants, even worse relations with the minorities who made up more than a third of the population, extreme under-investment in economic infrastructure, a "soft" dictatorship, old szlachta (nobility) still having influence disproportionate to their actual numbers, terrible relations with all neighboring states.... The Polish state's ugly death in 1939 was undeserved and a crime, but its status as a victim doesn't cover for the fact that 1918-1939 Poland was fairly badly run and a pretty bad place to live for most of its citizens. Maybe that model shouldn't be our goal then....

 

[The Yankee]

The best solution for Poland, and many other Eastern European states for that matter, was to simply start over. In Poland's case, going back to the weak dictatorship between the wars would be horrible, especially to anyone who happened to remember those times. However, the government-in-exile in London didn't really reflect the needs and desires of the people. It was probably a better alternative to 1918-39 style of government, but it wouldn't go very far either.

Not to mention that many people (at least ones I've talked to) look to integrate with the West while still keeping their identity.

As for the corruption of history, well, I can't say much. I was born just in time to have some memories of the fall of Communism and the rise of new democracies. I knew it was a big thing back then, but only recently have I begun to understand what it really means. The histories...well, that is something I'd have to study sometime...preferably when I can finally go on my mission to Poland.


EDIT: Well, now that I think about the distortion of history, I come to think about the handling of the fall of Communism and the breakup of the Soviet empire by American history books, at least those in use for general public high school education. They talk about this great reformer being Gorbachev and how he tried to push through new ideas but everyone resisted and eventually, the Soviets kind of grew tired and went home and everything was hunky-dory after that. I don't remember EVER seeing even a side note of the attempted coup by those who want to try to save the Soviet empire. I don't remember reading about how some people were going to try to keep the Soviet republics together...all I see is that all these nations declared independence and everyone seemed happy. I certainly read nothing about the Solidarity movement in Poland through the 1980s or other movements that started to come about in Eastern Europe and some Soviet republics.

Come to think of it, even going back, there's no mention of revolts being crushed in Hungary in '56 and Czechoslovakia in '68 (nor another other times) or the rift between Yugoslavia and the Soviets. It came across that the books were seeming to suggest that Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union were one big happy family of evil....which is far from the truth.

 

[luiz]

From 1964 to 1985 Brazil was ruled by a right-wing military dictatorship. In that time, th history tought in schools glorified our national heroes and was completely anti-communist. Most of the history teachers were communists, but they couldnt spread their views openly.
With the end of the dictatorship, our history is teached according to marxist believes. The national heroes are often ridicularized, the USA is regarded as an enemy and foreigners like Guevara, Lenin and Trotsky became our new heroes.
In my opinion we just chenged right-wing BS for left-wing BS.

 

[The Yankee]

So how are things being taught in Brazil today? I know several people in Brazil (Sao Paulo area) but I never bothered to ask, especially since they're my age and are starting to go to college or work for a living. Brazil has always held my interest.




One more thing about recent history: Textbooks seem to glorify Ronald Reagan as the one who defeated the Soviet Evil Empire with all these great plans. Truth is, he simply locked them into a spending war while the Soviets were flailing and realizing they couldn't drive a column of tanks up the Afghan mountains. There is also no mention of him placing those missiles in Europe aimed right at Moscow.

This also brings up the point that many people put the "trickle-down" system on a pedastel. My high school textbooks conveyed this as some kind of revolutionary plan...when it really didn't work all that well. Many of those who got the huge tax cuts just shoved it in the bank. Trust me, life was difficult for many working class Americans back then, especially during the bust in the mid-late 80s going towards the first Bush reign (something that seems to be left out as well).

 

[Case]

Australia is another country where the history textbooks are being revised to include things previously ingnored. While Aboriginal Australian's responces to British colonisation were once completely ignored, they're now given the attention they deserve.

 

[luiz]

Originally posted by The Yankee
So how are things being taught in Brazil today? I know several people in Brazil (Sao Paulo area) but I never bothered to ask, especially since they're my age and are starting to go to college or work for a living. Brazil has always held my interest.

Things are still beign taught with strong marxist leanings, at leats when it comes to history. It depends on the region of the country, though. Rio de Janeiro, my home state, always had leftist leanings. Minas Gerais state and all the Northeastern region, on the other side, are generally conservative. The Southern region, especially Rio Grande do Sul state used to be left-leaning, but things changed great deal because of a moronic left-wing governor they had. São Paulo state doesnt have a clear political definition, so as the Mid-West Region and the Norhern/Amazon region.