World History Must be Rewritten to Put Russia, Not the West, at Its Center, Kholmogorov Says

 Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan. 18 – Nationalist commentator Yegor Kholmogorov says it isn’t enough to rewrite the history of Russia domestically to counter the Russophobia it and its people have been victims of. Instead, the entire history of the world for the last 1500 years must be changed – and he has announced plans to prepare this year a school textbook which does just that.

            Russophobia, the commentator says, “starts with the thesis that after ‘the fall of the Roman empire,’ the main movement of the history of humanity continued through the Franks, Charlemagne, the crusades and was crowned by the Renaissance, the Reformation and the French revolution” (apn.ru/index.php?newsid=43010).

            Such a narrative puts Russia “on the sidelines of history,” and it must be overcome the another and more truthful narrative that “the Roman Empire didn’t end in 476 but existed until 1453 during which time it achieved outstanding historical and spiritual results” before being destroyed by attacks from the West and from the East.

            Russians must “correct the global historical narrative” not as some in the West do by adding a little about China or Africa but by presenting Russia “as a world-historical force and the axis of the world-historical process.” This is required even as Russians also work to cleanse their history from Western interpretations of its domestic development.

            “Now,” Kholmogorov says, “the authorities have decided that courses of world and Russian history will be combined into one. That is a strategically correct decision but there are some concerns about patriotic forces” that this could have the effect of marginalizing Russian history still further – and hence a new textbook that sets the record straight is needed.

            According to the commentator, “in recent years, some successes have been achieved in the Russification of courses of the history of the fatherland. But now the entire course may land in the hands of globalizers and Westernizers because we know the rules of our administrative ballet” in which progress in one direction is undercut by retreat in another.

            Kholmogorov outlines his ideas about the textbook he wants to see in the course of an appeal for funding to allow him to complete a draft before the end of this year.