‘Millions of Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Jews, People of All Ethnicities’: teaching and remembering the Holocaust in Russian schools

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article investigates how the history of the Holocaust is taught and remembered within Russian secondary education. It questions the accuracy and ‘cosmopolitan’ character of this memory in various discourses produced in and for schools. The first part analyses how the persecution and annihilation of Jews by the Nazis is presented in history curricula and textbooks. The second part explores discourses within different extracurricular activities such as students’ research projects, school museums, and commemorative ceremonies. The article argues that the narrative of the Holocaust is often incomplete because it doesn’t fit into the ‘master narrative’ of the Great Patriotic War.