An exploration of the importance of interpretations of history during President Gorbachev’s Perestroika in the U.S.S.R..
This paper discusses how in the Soviet Union, interpretations of history were used to promote the various political agendas of the day by successive Soviet governments. It looks at how various historical figures were condemned or rehabilitated in line with the changing political climate and how history was also manipulated to help create a stronger sense of shared national identity in the Soviet Union and to promote patriotism. It shows how in this way there developed a tradition of imposing historical interpretations from above and how during Perestroika the government continued this policy of manipulating history to its own ends although there were a number of important developments. It also examines how the expansion of Glasnost in the Soviet Union led to open questioning of official interpretations of the past and increased calls for new investigations of the key events in the history of the Soviet Union.
The Week of Conscience was an event organized by Memorial and members of Moscow’s intelligentsia in November 1988. During this week people came to pay tribute to the victims of Stalin’s terror in an act of remembrance. The event also served to attempt to fill in gaps in the history of the Soviet people by sharing information about the Gulag camps and victims of Stalin’s persecution whose fate is not officially known. This event marked the emergence of an unofficial public history which attempted to fill in the gaps in official accounts of the era. The huge success of the event shows the importance for the Soviet people of finding the historical truth.