The Vicissitudes of Socialism in Russian History Textbooks

The article examines the changes in both the meaning and the role of the concept of socialism in post-Soviet historical discourse through the particular prism of the writing of history textbooks. Reinhardt Koselleck's ideas on the nature of modern historical concepts and Jerzy Topolski's model of historical narrative serve as analytical devices for exploring methodological aspects of the subject and for surveying Russian history textbooks. The article claims that the changes undergone by the concept of socialism, which was one of the fundamental Soviet axioms of historical discourse, served as the basis for developing a new theoretical language that became characteristic of post-Soviet historical writing.