Teaching U.S. History in Russia

While the academic level of some books and articles of Russian Americanists is still pretty high, îne of the urgent needs in contemporary Russia is a discussion on the methodology of the American Studies.

Additional problems for teaching are created not only by the traditional narrative position but by the shortage of volumes devoted to the sweeping generalizations of U.S. History, by the uncritical perception of it, and by the decline of professionalism as well.

Russian Americanists should suggest better institutional framing of the field for coordination between academic and university centers. During Soviet Period there were no special text-books and readers on U.S. history at all. Students had an opportunity to know about American History from the text-books/readers devoted to the history of the West. Meantime University courses on U.S. History had been taught. In recent decades situation became quite different. End of the Cold War stimulated the improvement of University American Studies programs. Russian students received an opportunity to read best works of American Historians and American text-books in the translation and in source language, to take part in the exchange programs and to use Internet-sources. But more importantly, first text-books and a reader on U.S. History were prepared in Russia. At the same time professors and students are interested in diversification of text-books and readers taking into consideration content variety of American Studies programs. The writing of such text-books could stimulate the teaching of the U.S. History in different contexts.            One of the particular challenges of teaching United States history in Russia is the climate of Russian-American Relations. The 90^th faced transition from demonization to idealization of the U.S. History. Beginning of the 21^st century actualized the role of the American «Other» in the construction of Russian identity and the problem of self-censorship.