When the Future Came: The Collapse of the USSR and the Emergence of National Memory in Post-Soviet History Textbooks

“This is a fascinating study of how textbooks from various post-Soviet contexts portray and interpret Perestroika—the foundational event for contemporary Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova. The authors skillfully address the panoply issues, central for understanding today’s regimes in these countries as well as differences among them. The book homes in on the problems of social change and continuity, legitimacy and resistance, people’s agency and conformism.”—Michail Suslov, Assistant Professor of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen
“Bjorkman/Kurbatov book is that of the importance of path-dependence – going back yet from pre-Soviet times. Local views of perestroika are highly specific and enduring, something that will be of great significance for current and future politics. The well presented study of state-enhanced identity creation and socialization has done a fine service in pointing out the endurance of national perceptions and identities to specialists and readers interested in the region.”— Dennis Soltys Professor at the Department of Public Administration and International Development, KIMEP University
"Overall, […] the volume offers a timely reminder of how our lived memory can be dismantled and reassembled to serve national needs. Textbook depictions of the Soviet past range from total renouncement to regret and mourning. But not even in Belarus is there a unified narrative of what perestroika meant. The final word has not yet been spoken: the memory and meaning of perestroika are still in the making."—Helge Blakkisrud, The Russian Review, Vol. 80, No. 1