ABSTRACT
Social change always leads to a review of historical events, as well as to transformations in their depictions in history textbooks. Different interpretations not only find themselves linked with contemporary conflicts, but can also lay the groundwork for future social change. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, when Ukraine became an independent republic, the ‘history of Ukraine’ became a mandatory subject in schools and universities. Previously, in the Soviet Union, the ‘history of the USSR’ had been taught in schools and the ‘history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union’ in universities. Ukrainian history had been taught within the framework of Soviet history; there were, for example, textbooks dedicated to the ‘history of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic’. All textbooks reflected a single Soviet discourse. Soon after Ukraine became an independent republic, school and university textbooks dedicated to the history of Ukraine appeared. There had previously been Ukrainian history textbooks, but they were not recommended for use in teaching in schools and universities and, in the Soviet Union, few people had access to such alternative sources of historical information.
