THE IMAGE OF «SOCIALIST BULGARIA» IN SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS ON THE HISTORY OF MODERN BULGARIA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26661/Keywords:
transformation, national identity, totalitarianism, socialist period, history books, politics of memory, BulgariaAbstract
The article examines ways of representing the socialist past (1944–1989) in modern Bulgarian history textbooks. The system of historical education is considered a strategic tool for forming national identity and the «cultural code» of the nation, based on the linear principle of learning from primary school through the system course in the 11th grade. The transformation of the curriculum during the transition from a totalitarian ideology to democratic values and European integration was studied. The author conducts a comparative analysis of the manuals of various publishing houses, identifying discrepancies between the critical condemnation of the regime and relativistic approaches that emphasize the social achievements of the era. It was determined that school education plays a strategic role in deconstructing Soviet myths and strengthening society’s resistance to external propaganda narratives. It was determined that the variability of grades in textbooks contributes to the development of critical thinking of young people in the absence of a single national consensus in the past.
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