Source: HRO.org

The EU-Russia Civil Forum, the St Petersburg Academy for Postgraduate Teacher Training and the Russia office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation issued invitations to the opening ceremony of the exhibition "Different wars: national school history textbooks about World War II", which will open at 16:00 hours on 13th February 2017, in the exhibition hall of the Academy (Room 429, 11-13 Lomonosov St., St. Petersburg, 11-13).

The exhibition “Different wars” explores different approaches with regard to perception and presentation of the history of World War II through a comparison of modern textbooks written for senior high school students in Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and the Czech Republic.

The choice of this theme for comparison is not accidental, since World War II remains the most painful and controversial event in the history of European countries. In Russia, victory in this war is one of the most important pages in the history of the country. In the exhibition different interpretations of the history of the war as presented by school textbooks are considered, compared and contrasted. Here are presented national and thematic stories, including the coverage of little-known aspects of the memory of World War II. Visitors have the opportunity to flick through the pages of textbooks and teaching methods and get acquainted with the history of the different European countries.

The exhibition was prepared by the Working Group on historical memory and education of the EU-Russia civil forum, in close collaboration with historians, civil society activists, teachers and lovers of history from all six participating countries. The Russian version of the exhibition has already been put on show in Moscow, Ekaterinburg, Perm, Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk. In the countries of the European Union, the English language version of the exhibition has been shown with success in Prague, Strasbourg and Milan.

The exhibition will be opened by Stepan Zholovan, Principal of the Academy of Postgraduate Teacher Training, Elena Belokurova, member of the steering committee of the EU-Russia Civil Forum, and Alicja Vantsezh-Gluza, historian and officer of the KARTA Centre in Warsaw, one of the sponsors of the exhibition. Representatives from the consulates of Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic, as well as from the German office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, were invited to the opening event.

Robert Latypov, chairman of Perm region affiliate of the Memorial International Society and one of the creators and the curators of the exhibition, will lead the first tour around the exhibition.

The exhibition will run at the Academy until April 21, 2017. The exhibition will be open from 9.30 am to 6:00 pm on weekdays (Monday-Friday) for individual visitors. And it will be possible for seminars to be arranged for organized groups (pupils, students, teachers) by appointment.

Admission to the exhibition is free.

Contact: Anna Rapoport, associate professor of cultural education, St. Petersburg Academy for Postgraduate Teacher Training, Tel. +7 -921 -348 -94 -94, anna. rapoport @ gmail . com

We would like to draw your attention to a small selection of publications in the Russian media about the exhibition "Different wars”
Presentation in Moscow
Presentation in Ekaterinburg
Presentation of the exhibition in Perm
Presentation in Novosibirsk

You can find more useful information in English about the exhibition at HERE 

Translated by Graham Jones