The Cold War in European history textbooks: practices of commemoration and new media

Abstract

The article is a review of modern research on the representation of the Cold War in history textbooks of different countries of the world. A comparative analysis of video tutorials and textbook texts, practices of commenting on them and autobiographical memoirs of teachers raises the problem of heterogeneity of existing narratives and the need for reflection on the political component of these discussions. It is proved that academic historiography, memory studies and modern didactics presuppose the development of an analytical distance in relation to the past, including the exposure of myths and the binary opposition of freedom and slavery, individualism and collectivism, characteristic of the Cold War of1946-1991.