Turkish Image in Russian HistoryTextbooks in the Soviet Union Period

Abstract

The nation-states established in the 20th century attach importance to the teaching of history in their schools. History lessons aimed to identify the socio-cultural aspects of the new generation and introduce the state they belong to as citizens. In this sense, the strategy of history education has a content that all states build their national identities. Non-nation state countries such as the Soviet Union have also been affected. In this study, textbooks prepared according to the education policy applied in the Soviet Union between 1917 and 1991 and shaped by the idea of "Communism" were selected. The approaches to Turkish and Ottoman images in these books have been examined. Focusing on the Turkish image of the history textbooks, the situation of the Turkish and Ottoman image changed accordingto the periods in history lessons in Russia during the period of the USSR. The view of the Soviet Union, which has millions of Muslims and Turkish populations in its sovereignty, towards the concept of Turks was found important. This work has been done to show the effects of political changes, ideologies on education and textbooks. Historye ducation in the Soviet Union was examined through history methodology, and the changes that occurred according to the periods were interpreted. Content analysis were used in the study. The pictures in the history textbooks are also included in the study to interpret them visually. At the end of the examination, the Soviet Union, which was trying to create the "Sovietnation" with the Bolshevik revolution, was found to be the "other" in terms of its view on historytext books. Although it was not a nation-state, it was noticed that the changes in the political arena affected the history textbooks of the USSR. At the end of the examination, it was determined that the "Turkish image" in the history textbooks differed according to the periods and political developments.