Textbook as a Censor of Memory: Representation of M. Devyatayev’s Feat in Soviet and Modern School Textbooks

The feat of Mikhail Devyatayev, who hijacked a German Heinkel111 bomber from the airfield of Usedom Island together with other Soviet prisoners of war on February 8, 1945, is well known. This study is the first to analyze the dynamics of representation of the unique feat of prisoner of war M. Devyatayev (escape and hijacking of a strategic aircraft from a missile test site) in school history textbooks, revealing how ideological selection and pedagogical adaptation transformed the content of textbooks. In particular, the textbooks “Stories on the History of the USSR” for the 4th grade were analyzed. The appearance of the plot with the feat of M. Devyatayev in 1965 during the “thaw” and its disappearance by 1984 demonstrates the conflict between the uniqueness of the feat (associated with overcoming the double stigma: Nazi captivity and Soviet mistrust) and the requirements of a simplified, conflictfree military narrative of the “stagnation” era, which raises the question of the boundaries of what is permissible in the formation of historical memory through a textbook, since an unprecedented example of resistance in captivity in world practice was excluded from historical memory for younger students. Research on the topic of covering the feat of M. Devyatayev in school textbooks has not been conducted previously ‒ this is the scientific and practical significance of the article. Initially, the problem of only Soviet textbooks was studied, but in the course of the study it turned out that information about the feat of M. Devyatayev appeared in modern textbooks and this gave additional relevance, prospects and significance to the study. The chronological framework of the article has expanded: from 1957, when M. Devyatayev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, to the present day, that is, over the past 68 years.