The Russian Military’s Use of History to Create a Post-Soviet Identity: The Development of Conceptual Understandings from the 1990s to the Mid-2000s

Abstract

ABSTRACT The current article aims to show the development of Russian perceptions of the use of military history as a tool for ideology in Russia from the 1990s to the mid-2000s. Russian military history has been instrumentalized following the example of authoritarian/totalitarian countries of the past to mobilize the population for war against the image of the enemy — the West. The role of the history of war was used in Russia for the patriotic education of the armed forces and Russian people. With Putin’s rise to power, the General Staff of the Russian army received spiritual and material support and from that time they became more involved in using military history as a tool of influence in shaping public opinion.