История древнего мира в советских школах в годы Великой Отечественной войны: содержательные рекомендации учителям

Abstract

This article analyses the advisory articles by V.I. Avdiev and A.N. Pankratova on ancient history lessons at school during the Great Patriotic War. According on these works, as well as other explanations of the evacuated professors, the local authorities published their own methodical manuals in 1942-1943. Based on these materials, the author concludes that Soviet teachers turned out to be essential workers on the ideological front. The events of antiquity were presented in a simplified way - states waging wars in antiquity were declared either explicitly “good” or explicitly “bad”, depending on the aims of the teacher. This dichotomy created room for historical analogies: comparisons were made with modernity, which were also simplified as much as possible for the sake of clarity. Lessons on the history of the ancient world had different objectives which helped to instill confidence in the younger generation that the Soviet Union was on the right side in the unfolding events. The struggles of the Soviet Union were compared to the liberation wars of antiquity. The teacher, when comparing it to the events current in the country, should have emphasised the complete political freedom of the citizens of the socialist homeland, where all forms of exploitation of man by man had been destroyed and thus attempts to turn the free proletariat living under socialist formation into slaves that existed exclusively within slave-holding societies were contrary to all the laws of historical development.