Russian History in the mirror of the Political situation in China in the 50s of the XX century (based on school history textbooks)

Efimenko Nikolai Aleksandrovich ORCID: 0000-0002-4003-5887 Student, Department of Regional Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University 119991, Russia, Moscow, Leninskie Gory str., 1, p. 13 efimenko200205@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Textbooks and manuals are an obligatory part of the education system, which means their importance not only as sources of information, but also as tools that influence people's consciousness and worldview. This is especially noticeable in the humanities, where subjects such as native language, literature, history, social studies have a huge impact on people, on their attitude to other people and to events that took place in different historical periods. However, it is possible not only to study from a textbook, but also to study the textbook itself – both as a source of information and as a reflection of the mentality of its compilers, i.e. in the imagological aspect.

In China, the subject of "History" appears only from the 7th grade, and for the first 2 years only the history of China is studied. Starting from the 9th grade, a universal history appears, which, of course, was the reason that we chose the textbook for the 9th grade for analysis.

Analyzing this textbook, we will be able to answer questions about how the Chinese government in a certain historical period wanted Chinese schoolchildren to understand the image of Russia, and how this is related to the events that took place in the same period in Russian-Chinese relations.

The source of the research material is a history textbook for the 9th grade in 2 volumes: volume 1 (1955) ^[7] and volume 2 (1956) ^[8]. These textbooks were published by the publishing house "National Education", which is the most authoritative publishing house that produces textbooks necessary for the education system to this day. In fact, schoolchildren all over the country master the school curriculum with the help of their textbooks, so, of course, using this textbook as the main source, we will be able to draw more correct conclusions as a result.

It must be said that the content of school and university textbooks issued in different years in the People's Republic of China in various humanitarian disciplines has repeatedly become the object of scientific research by Russian scientists. The paragraphs and chapters devoted to the Soviet Union and Russia were of particular interest to them.

So, N. A. Samoilov and Li Suyan for their article "The Image of the Soviet Union in Chinese textbooks of the 1950s" ^[4] chose Chinese school textbooks published in China immediately after the formation of the PRC as the source of their research. The authors of this work, having studied Chinese school textbooks on Chinese language and literature, point out that an important part of these textbooks were numerous educational texts about the successes of the Soviet Union at that time, i.e. the 1950s, for example, about the construction of the Volga-Don Canal in 1952, about the launch of the first Soviet satellite in 1957 year, the first nuclear icebreaker in 1959, etc. ^{[4, p. 16]}. According to Samoilov and Li Suyan, it is precisely this content of textbooks on Chinese language and literature that "contributed to the formation of a positive image of the USSR in the minds of the younger generation of Chinese" ^[4].

Russian Russian Literature in the school curriculum of the People's Republic of China ^{[2, p. 119-132]} – another article on a similar topic – the article by Li Linyin, E. V. Markasova, Zhang Zhuhan and Cao Yuting ^{[2, pp. 119-132]} - examines not old, but modern Chinese textbooks on Chinese language and literature, which, among other didactic materials, include Russian literary and artistic texts given in translation into Chinese. These are, for example, Chekhov's stories "Vanka", "Chameleon", "The Man in the Case", Pushkin's poems "If life deceives you" and Gorky's "The Song of the Petrel" and a number of others. Russian Russian literature, as the authors of this article emphasize, "the Chinese program does not take any psychotraumatic works (it is not customary to study, for example, "Taras Bulba" and "Crime and Punishment") <...>. Accordingly, the student develops an idea of Russian literature as literature in which everything is clear, definite, harmonious". ^{[2, p. 125]}.

Chinese university textbooks on Russian as a foreign language (RCT) belong to a completely different type of textbooks that have become the object of scientific analysis. In the studies of this kind known to us, for example, in the article of Russian practitioners: L. E. Vesnina and I. V. Kirilova "The image of Russia in Chinese educational materials on Russian as a foreign language: an axiological aspect" ^{[1, pp. 83-88]} and the article by E. V. Pobedash "The Image of Russia in modern Chinese textbooks of the Russian Language" ^{[3, pp. 37-40]} – the subject of analysis is the image (or image) Russia and its inhabitants in Chinese textbooks, more precisely, "axiological (value–based. - N. E.) features of the image of Russia and Russians, which is formed through the problem-thematic content of the textbook" ^{[1, p. 84]}. Both of these articles differ from the ones we mentioned above in their sharp criticism of the content of the analyzed Chinese textbooks. Thus, Vesnina and Kirilova, analyzing one of the modern Chinese textbooks on reading in Russian, find that "the texts about Russia presented in (this. – N. E.) textbook emphasize social injustice and economic disorder in the country (i.e. in Russia. – N. E.)" ^{[1, p. 87]}, and on the other hand, "there are texts in the textbook aimed at forming a positive image of China <...> by discrediting the image of Russia", presented by "encyclopediically caricatured" ^{[1, p. 86]}. E. V. Pobedash in her analysis of modern Chinese textbooks on RCT also states, that "unfortunately, at the present stage there is a negative image of Russia and Russians in China" ^{[3, p. 37]}.

As we can see, in all such studies, reference to textbooks and textbooks only in philological disciplines prevails: literature and the native language, as well as Russian as a foreign language. However, the use of the original Chinese history textbook as a source of research on Russian-Chinese relations has not yet been observed. Meanwhile, the importance of history as a school and university subject, which largely forms the worldview and "picture of the world" of each person, cannot be underestimated, as the famous French historian Marc Ferro very accurately said: "There is no doubt: the image of other peoples <...> it depends on how we were taught history in childhood" ^{[6, p. 7]}.

For a clearer presentation of information, the main part of the work will be divided into two parts: in the first part, an analysis of history textbooks is carried out, in the second part, emphasis is placed on the relationship of politics with the description of history in the textbook. The parts, in turn, are divided into paragraphs that consider the main aspects of the issues under discussion. At the end of the article, conclusions are made, where the results of the work done are summarized and prospects for its continuation are outlined.

PART 1. Analysis of Chinese school textbooks

§ 1. 1. A brief overview of the Chinese textbook of Universal History

As mentioned above, we will analyze the Chinese textbook of universal history for the 9th grade, published in 2 volumes. These two volumes are divided into 9 parts, and of them Russia is mentioned in the following parts, which will be analyzed:

1. In the part "Early Middle Ages" in the 4th chapter, 4 pages are used to describe Kievan Rus.

2. In the part "Classical Middle Ages" in the 4th chapter, which is called "Centralized states of Europe from the XII to XV centuries", there is one paragraph dedicated to Russia.

3. In the part "Late Middle Ages" in the 5th chapter, 4 pages are used to describe Russia from the XVI to the XVII centuries.

4. In the part "New History" in the 9th chapter, 5 pages were used for the topic "Revolutionary movements in Russia".

5. Next comes the part "The Modern Era", in which the 1st chapter "The Great October Revolution" and the 2nd chapter "The Successes of Socialist construction" are directly related to Russia, or more precisely, to the USSR, whereas in other chapters of this part the topic of the USSR is only indirectly touched upon.

Next, we will move on to an overview of these parts of the textbook.

§ 1. 2. Description of Kievan Rus

The chapter of the Chinese textbook on world history, which is called "Kievan Rus", includes information from the settlement of the Slavs to the collapse of Kievan Rus. The description of Kievan Rus is practically only positive: the country of Kievan Rus was strong in religious and cultural terms, had its own "law" and was even more economically developed than Western Europe. But only one aspect was negative: as it is written in the textbook, many people who had power began to occupy public lands and forcibly force peasants to work for them, and this led to the fact that many peasants became serfs, but at the same time to the fact that feudal lords began to have more and more land and the authorities, which in the end caused fragmentation. But the author also emphasizes that, despite the fragmentation, Russia was still a protection for the whole of Western Europe.      

In this chapter, the author first explained what factors made the country strong, but then wrote that serfdom against peasants and violence against the people led even such a strong country to collapse, which once again confirms the thesis that the country should rely on the people, not the elite.

§ 1. 3. Description of medieval Russia

The 4th chapter of the part "Classical Middle Ages" describes the Tatar-Mongol yoke. As it says, many towns and villages were destroyed, but then it was thanks to the hard work of the people that these places were rebuilt. Agriculture, handicrafts, and trade have all been restored only thanks to the people. The following describes the spread of the influence of the Moscow state and the Battle of Kulikovo. The chapter ends with a description of the Moscow state during the period of Ivan III and the successful centralization of power. 

Again in the Chapter strongly emphasized the importance of people, even in the conclusion of the Chapter is written: ... "A common economic base was created thanks to the hard work of the people, <...> accelerated the process of unification of the state" ^{[7, p. 161]}.

§ 1. 4. Description of the reign of Ivan IV and the uprising under the leadership of Stepan Razin

In the 5th chapter of the "Late Middle Ages" part, the narrative begins with Ivan IV. He is described as a tyrant who bloodily suppressed all uprisings, made peasants serfs and told them to absolutely obey the landlords, but was able to expand the territory of Russia.

The following describes how the Russians resisted foreign intervention, namely the intervention of Poland and Sweden.

The 3rd paragraph of this chapter describes the uprising of Stepan Razin. 2 dates were mentioned in it (the dates were not mentioned in the previous paragraphs): 1667 – the peasant uprising on the Don and 1671 – the suppression of the uprising by the army of the tsar and landowners. A detailed description of the uprising was given.

The author of the textbook clearly wrote this entire chapter with a strong emotional bias. When the description of serfs was given, they always appeared in the text together with such words and expressions as "unhappy", "bound", "rob", "the people suffer endlessly" ^{[8, p. 22]}. And when the author began to describe the opposition to the intervention, he did not use the word "army", but only used the word "people" everywhere ^[8], starting with military operations and ending with the restoration of cities. According to the textbook, all this was done by the people, not the government. Also, when describing the uprising of Stepan Razin, it is said that he did not just rise up, but "saved suffering people" ^{[8, p. 23]}, his execution is also described as "sacrifice" ^[8]. As stated in the textbook, the main reason for the failure of the uprising was that the army of the peasants were poor, and they didn't know then how to establish authority, but at the end of the Chapter still emphasizes that "Razin's uprising was the largest uprising of the Russian people against feudal oppression in the XVII century. The exploits of the rebels will forever remain in the memory of the Russian people" ^{[8, p. 24]}.

It seems that a negative image of Russia is immediately described here, but in fact this chapter is used as a preparation for the next chapters. The author wanted to show that in tsarist Russia people lived badly, even only the people fought against intervention, not the state. And the only positive thing that can be found is the uprising and the disobedience of the people, so the whole uprising of Stepan Razin was described with very positive emotions and he was called a real hero. Like the next chapter, all this will be necessary in order to emphasize and highlight the part about the Soviet Union.

§ 1. 5. Description of revolutionary movements

The 9th chapter of the "New History" part immediately begins with the abolition of serfdom, but this event is not described as positive. The textbook says that the situation of the peasants has not improved, since Russia entered the era of imperialism and now the people were robbed not only by landlords, but also by capitalists. And in such a period, Lenin appeared, who took upon himself the task of making a revolution.

The following is a description of his biography and revolutionary movements. The chapter ends with the unsuccessful December uprising in Moscow in 1905. The reason for the failure is described in one phrase: "The lack of a strong union of workers and peasants" ^{[8, p. 72]}. But the author further writes that, despite this defeat, the Bolsheviks knew that the culmination of the revolutionary movement would soon happen.

In this chapter, when describing Lenin for the first time, the word great was already used ^{[8, p. 73]}, when describing the Bolshevik Party, adjectives such as "united", "fighting", "Leninist" were used ^[8]. This once again confirms the fact that everything connected with Lenin was deified in the history textbooks of that time.

In this regard, let's pay attention to the cover of the 2nd volume. There is only one picture on the cover – this is a picture of Lenin's speech at the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets in 1917. It is the only picture that is located in the center of the textbook cover, which once again emphasizes the importance of the USSR for the PRC of that period. 

§ 1. 6. Description of the October Revolution, the NEP and the Stalinist period

Here we turn to the most important part of the textbook "Modern Era", which is divided into 2 parts: the praise of the Soviet Union and the oppression of the entire capitalist world. This is reflected even in the table of contents of this textbook: in the titles of its chapters, from the description of the October Revolution to the construction of socialism, words such as great or success are used everywhere ^{[8, p. 2]}, and the only chapter describing all capitalist countries, the author called "The development of the crisis of capitalism" ^[8], which initially already has a negative connotation. 

The 1st chapter "The Great October Revolution" is divided into 3 more paragraphs. This chapter occupies as many as 10 pages and is the largest chapter in all two volumes of the textbook, which underlines its importance.

§ 1 is called """" "Russia on the way to the socialist Revolution" ^{[8, p. 79]}. The paragraph begins with a description of the crisis of the imperial power, it says how soldiers are suffering at the front and the people are hungry, but the government still does not pay attention to the minimum needs of people, but wants to cooperate with capitalists to suppress the anger of the people, and this leads people to mass strikes. Further, under the influence of the Bolsheviks, the strikes turned into an armed uprising. The main reason for this armed uprising is described in the textbook as follows: the working class became the vanguard in the revolution and was able to lead millions of soldiers who were of peasant origin. The following describes the Provisional Government, and it is described as an organization where capitalists and monarchists united. And they not only do not give the people peace, bread and land, but even massively exterminate the rebels and repress the Bolsheviks, which further led to the peak of the revolution.

§ 2 is called "The Victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution" ^{[8, p. 82]}. First, the storming of the Winter Palace and the Soviets obtaining power is described. This victory is described in the textbook as a "new era in the history of mankind" ^{[8, p. 83]}. The main reasons for the victory in the textbook are the diligence and work of the working class and the good leadership of the Bolsheviks.

§ 3 is called "The struggle of the Soviet government for peace and the end of the World War" ^{[8, p. 86]}. The paragraph begins with the fact that the Soviet government began negotiations with Germany and Austria-Hungary on the conclusion of peace, but during the Brest meeting Trotsky refused to sign the treaty, which then led to great consequences. Trotsky's act is described in the textbook as the actions of a "traitor who betrayed his homeland" ^{[8, p. 86]}, and in the following paragraphs he will also be described only negatively. Then the peace treaty was signed, but with absolutely unequal conditions for the Russians.

The chapter does not describe the civil war at all. It is only reported that the remnants of the nobles and capitalists, with the help of the intervention of capitalist countries, tried to take power away from the Bolshevik government, but they did not succeed because the people in capitalist countries were also very tortured and began to understand the majesty of communism, and in the end those capitalist countries simply could not resist Soviet Russia anymore.

Next, the results of the First World War are described, the number of victims and wounded during this period is reported, and it is said that almost all the countries that participated in it entered an economic crisis. But then it is immediately written that the very first important event during the First World War is the October Revolution. It is concluded that after the First World War, the countries of the communist camp made great strides forward, and the capitalist countries were getting closer to their death every day.   

In this chapter, all political regimes, except communism, are described with a clearly negative connotation. Very often capitalists and monarchists are united in one group, as people who interfere with the right regime and do not want the happiness of the people. In all countries that are not part of the socialist camp, people cannot live well and everyone is hungry for revolution.

In the textbook, the Bolshevik Party is very often described by one root phrase ? "party", which has a direct association with the CCP for the Chinese. All the actions of the party are described only positively, not a word was said in the textbook that the people did not support communism at some point, as if only people found out about it, so they immediately believed in it. All the events went very smoothly, from the descriptions in the textbook it is absolutely not felt what efforts the Bolsheviks made to come to power and keep it, and after that all the policies they carried out immediately got results and the people supported it. This description will continue in the next chapter.     

The 2nd chapter "The Successes of socialist construction" ^{[8, p. 89]} begins with the indication that after the war the USSR suffered very much. The economic situation was already on the verge of crisis, there was famine all over the country.

Since Lenin introduced the policy of war communism during the Civil War, the entire harvest of the peasants was given to the state, but the textbook also emphasizes that this was a special period and the peasants themselves willingly did it and supported the country. After the civil war, a new economic policy (NEP) was introduced, which in just a year was able to solve the problem of hunger, and the economy went up.

On January 21, 1924, Lenin died, this event is characterized as "the greatest misfortune of the Soviet Union and all the peoples of the world" ^{[8, p. 91]}.

Then there is a description of industrialization and collective farms, various fantastic achievements are described, and of the difficulties it is written only about Bukharin, who supported the Kulaks and was a traitor to the country, but they were able to deal with him quickly too. 

Five-year plans in the USSR were also very successful. And the reason for all the success was that the Soviet Union was able to absolutely destroy capitalism in industry and agriculture, and workers and peasants stopped being exploited by any means. This is what led to success.

In chapter 3, where capitalism is described, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that during the entire chapter not a single positive word is used when describing capitalist countries, but only negative lexemes are used, for example, "exploit", "oppress", "pressure", "violate". Even when describing the emergence of fascism indicated only one reason: ,"The Italian capitalists and landlords created the most reactionary fascist organization that cruelly oppressed the people" ^{[8, p. 95]}.

The following describes the Second World War. The textbook says that this was an absolutely aggressive war on the Nazi side. The Soviet Union has always loved and offered peace, and for it this war had a just and liberating character. Even military events in World War II are described only in favor of the Red Army. There are many descriptions of the strength of the German troops, but the Red Army only defeated them. After the defeat of Nazi Germany, the Red Army quickly focused on militaristic Japan and in a very short time was able to defeat it together with the Chinese people.

The results of the Second World War were the strengthening of the Union of socialist countries and their even faster development, and for the capitalist camp only more conflicts and the strongest weakening. The following describes how the USSR is already gradually moving into the phase of communism.

The last paragraph of the textbook was devoted to the PRC. China is described as one of the members of the "big family" of the socialist camp and it is said that China's importance in it is also enormous.

All these features that are available in the textbook are not accidental, but have a great connection with the historical events of that period, which we will analyze in the next part.

PART 2. The content of history textbooks as a reflection of Soviet-Chinese relations

§ 2. 1. The connection of the politics of a certain time with the description of history in the textbook

From the contents of the textbook, it is easy to notice the worship of Lenin and Stalin. For example, Lenin is described as the greatest man of the new era. Of course, this can be explained by the fact that the PRC is a country that was part of the socialist camp, which is why the textbook speaks so well about the USSR. But it should be noted that in the later Chinese textbook of universal history of 1978, the actions of the Russians are no longer praised, but receive harsh criticism. In the 1956 textbook, the cult of the personality of Lenin and Stalin was not just built, but they were deified, which was no longer repeated in textbooks of other periods. And this is certainly strongly connected with the historical events of that time.

When L. D. Trotsky was ousted from the Bolshevik government in October 1926, the harsh policy of I. V. Stalin frightened Chiang Kai-shek. Despite the fact that officially the USSR provided more assistance to his party, he felt that he was gradually losing the confidence of the Soviet side. Besides, he himself always wanted to become an independent ruler, and not feel like a puppet. Therefore, when a tragedy occurred on April 12, 1927 – the counterrevolutionary coup on April 12, where there was a mass massacre of communists in Shanghai, and a new authority, the National Government, was created in Nanjing on April 18, the Kuomintang stopped cooperating with the USSR, and began to receive assistance from capitalist countries, primarily from the United States.

So, in the course of these events, relations between the Kuomintang deteriorated simultaneously with both the CPC and the USSR. Then Stalin decided to invest only in the CPC, because he no longer had a choice. Compared to Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Zedong was more restrained and loyal to the Soviet Union. When making all important decisions, he consulted with Stalin and never showed at least some anti-Soviet ideas. 

In the two decades following the counter-revolutionary coup of April 12, 1927, the power and influence of the CCP gradually became stronger and stronger, and finally in 1949 the Communists were able to expel the Kuomintang from mainland China and purge all capitalist remnants in China. Until the end of Stalin's death, Mao showed himself to be his most loyal follower, which is reflected in the analyzed history textbooks.

But Mao was never a puppet, what he needed was economic and military support. In a book about the personal Secretary of Mao Zedong, Hu Taomu "20 years of work, Hu Taomu under Mao Zedong" describes the scene of speeches by Mao Zedong after the exposure of Stalin's personality cult with this speech: ?,,,,, "I wrote for his life three articles praising Stalin. To be honest, I was reluctant to write these three articles. If we talk about feelings, I didn't want to write, but intellectually I couldn't help but write, and I couldn't help but write the way I wrote." ,,4,,,,,,,,, - "Now the case the situation is different. Khrushchev has already told everything. Our next article will no longer praise his (Stalin's) virtues, but affirm the main right sides of Stalin and criticize his minor wrong sides, but they cannot be disclosed in detail. Now I want to write a second article that should further clarify the problem, not only confirm his achievements, but also analyze his mistakes, but not tell the whole story, but partially speak out" ^{[9, p. 214]}.

The period of Soviet-Chinese relations from 1949 until the exposure of the cult of Stalin's personality in 1956 was called the period of "great friendship". The Chinese side then called the USSR “” (big brother), China was following in the footsteps of the USSR with great strides. And for Mao, it was the Lenin and Stalin USSR that was important, because he took all his ideology from their thoughts. And the most important thing is that it was the Leninist and Stalinist USSR that sponsored the CPC.

This is reflected in the analyzed textbook. 1956 is the last year of the "great friendship". In the textbook, all information about the USSR is described exclusively positively, there is not the slightest criticism of any event.

When the textbook of 1956 was published, there was a stable political situation in the country, the chairman of the People's Republic of China was Mao Zedong, who firmly held power in his hands.

By the end of the 50s, China no longer needed Soviet support, the main thing for it was to gain absolute independence. Therefore, Khrushchev's rise to power with such noise was an important chance for Mao. After 1956, the attitude towards the USSR in textbooks changed dramatically, because it was no longer necessary to obey everything from the Soviet Union and China had already begun to find its own way of developing communism.

§ 2. 2. Features of the Chinese presentation of Russian history

The analysis of the Chinese textbooks of general history of 1955-1956 allows us to identify the main features that the author wanted to convey to schoolchildren when studying the material. Let's list them.

1. Revolution is the main way to seize power.

Revolutions are much praised in the textbook. No wonder for the chapter devoted to the period of the XVII century, when there were many important events in the country, the author chose only the uprising of Stepan Razin. This was done in order to show the resistance of the people against the "wrong" government. All regimes, except the socialist one, were wrong, so the only way to end the suffering of the people is a socialist revolution, so that the people themselves become the power and are already independent. Therefore, almost every time when describing the October Revolution, the adjective great is used, implying that people have entered an absolutely new era, where they themselves have become masters of the state.

2. All the chapters about Russia before the October Revolution were a preface.

Starting with the description of Kievan Rus, the author did not use the word "fragmentation", but used only the word "split" ^{[7, p. 128]}. The author's goal was to show that Russia did not become fragmented for inevitable reasons, namely, there was a split due to the fact that the people were oppressed. After all, as we have seen, in the whole description of Russia, apart from pressure on the people, and especially on poor peasants and working people, there were no other negative descriptions. But it is important for the author to emphasize that this aspect is the most important and he alone can destroy any strong state.

This maneuver is also used in the following chapters of the textbook. It is important for the author to show that the main reason for the success of the USSR lies precisely in the fact that in the USSR the main force is the workers and peasants, and this is the main moment for the unity of the state.

3. In textbooks, the word "people" is used many times on almost every page. No matter what regime this people is under, it always shows up positive. Under regimes other than socialist, people are always under pressure and suffer, but even so they are always ready to defend their country and make it strong again. When describing any liberation wars, the textbook always emphasizes that it is not led by the army of any country, but by the people of this or that country. But when describing wars of conquest, only the name of the army and the country is always written, and the word people is never used.  

But after the Bolsheviks came to power, the sufferings of the people of Russia stopped and the people began to appear not just as the people, but as "the people under the leadership of the party." This once again underlines the fact that the people can get happiness and freedom only under the leadership of the Communist Party, whereas in other regimes the state was bad, and the people were always the victim. 

4. In the textbook, the personalities of V. I. Lenin and I. V. Stalin are described only positively, all the policies they carried out are praised. All the people who did not support their policies, for example, L. D. Trotsky or N. I. Bukharin, are called traitors to the motherland. But the textbook absolutely does not indicate who they are, even that they, too, were Bolsheviks, not a word was said. But when it was necessary to show their guilt in some event, their names appeared, and in other places they were simply absent.  

5. In the whole part of the "New History" there are only 3 portraits of personalities in the form of reproductions – these are portraits of Lenin, Stalin and Mao Zedong. At that moment, Mao Zedong already had a fantastic cult in China, but even so, the PRC under his rule is described only as one of the members of the socialist camp, as the "younger brother" of the USSR, and even Mao Zedong is characterized primarily as a faithful follower of the ideas of Lenin and Stalin. This highlights the crucial importance and influence of their personalities on China of that period.

6. The textbook does not cover the negative aspects in Russian-Chinese relations at all. It is easy to notice that the textbook does not describe the XVII-XVIII centuries of Russian history at all (except for the uprising of Stepan Razin), i.e. we can say that one of the most important parts of the history of Russia was skipped, and it was exactly the period when Russia began to sign various unequal treaties with China. For comparison, here you can take a similar Chinese textbook of universal history for the 9th grade of 1978, which was already mentioned above. If the textbooks of 1955-56 did not describe events in Russia in the XVI-XVII centuries at all, then this later textbook described Russia from the XVII to the XVIII centuries and Russians there were called "cannibals and demons" ^{[10, p. 123]}, "armed bandits" ^[10]. But the 1956 textbook deliberately avoided all these points, and the periods of unequal contracts were simply not described in it.    

The analysis of Chinese history textbooks once again confirmed the important conclusion made in the article by N. A. Samoilov and Li Suyan: "textbooks in the PRC (in 1950 – N. E.) served as one of the tools for implementing the policy of the Communist Party and the new state, performing not only educational and educational functions, but also becoming a means of political propaganda" ^{[4, p. 15]}.

Conclusion

A school textbook is a subject reflecting the real policy of the Government. Textbooks of incomplete secondary education have a particularly strong influence on people, because absolutely everyone passes them, at an age when a person does not yet know how to think independently, and what is written there, schoolchildren will consider to be the absolute truth. 

Since the sphere of education in socialist countries is under the absolute control of the state, it is especially easy to change the position in the eyes of the people in relation to any phenomenon or event in them, and textbooks can always be changed as the political situation changes.

V. P. Trykov offers a profound difference between a historian and an imagologist as an "interpreter of history": "A historian works with facts that took place in the past. It identifies and analyzes the structure of the material. The interpreter creates the structure of the material (facts) during its processing" ^{[5, p. 125]}.

Probably, there is no historical research without the influence of the ruling ideology on them. Therefore, such textbooks do not reflect the whole reality. It is better to say that the content inside them may be factually correct, but it is transmitted incompletely, with omissions, and as a result – with distortions. Only those facts and events that speak in favor of the rulers can be shown, and the narrative is conducted from a single, pre-occupied position, and not neutrally. Such an angle of presentation, of course, greatly affects the thinking of schoolchildren.