Mutual interpretation of Rus and Byzantium cultures: overcoming the falsification of history in the educational sphere

The article is devoted to analysis of using the Russian Byzantine studies developments in education for overcoming the falsification of history. The main purpose of research is to determine the productivity of the interaction between Byzantine cultural-historical type and Rus in the IX-XV centuries for the formation of Russian statehood and national identity. The modern Russia aspiration for keeping to national interests and traditional ways out of the crisis is opposed by political adherents of the unipolar world. Declaring the need to familiarize Russia with Western values, its backwardness and cultural insolvency is one of the ways of ideological resistance. The civilization path chosen by Russia has several features typical for the Byzantine Empire, such as «multiculturalism», multinationality, the vertical power for the governance and long-term viability, despite the continuing necessity to protect its territories. The popularization of their productivity in historical education will strengthen national self-awareness and determine the efficiency of historical experience. The mutual Rus and Byzantium contacts were determined in various spheres of life. Despite Rus weak position, it had influence over some aspects of Byzantine society and the army. The reciprocal influence of Rus and Byzantium has a prolonged nature and can't be limited only by period of direct interaction. The Russian identity is based on the consideration of civilizational experience and historical analogies, a constant comparison with the cultures of the West and the East. In historical education it is possible and necessary to use the results of Byzantology and the theory of cultural-historical types more widely for the formation of basic value orientations.