Dear friends! The textbook you are holding in your hands is dedicated to the history of our Motherland… from the end of the Great Patriotic War to our days. We will trace the journey of the Soviet Union from its greatest historical triumph to its tragic disintegration.

This greeting is addressed to hundreds of thousands of Russian schoolchildren who, in September 2008, began to receive a new history text book printed by the "Enlightenment" publishing house and approved by the Ministry of Education.

"The Soviet Union," it explains, "was not a democracy, but it was an example for millions of people around the world of the best and fairest society." Furthermore, over the past 70 years, the USSR, "a gigantic superpower which managed a social revolution and won the most cruel of wars" put pressure on the Western countries so that they would pay attention to human rights. In the early part of this century, its argument goes on, the West has taken a hostil...