On January the 9th, 2012, the former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced the year 2012 as the Russian Year of History, marking anniversaries for a good number of historical events, to name just a few, the 1150th anniversary of the founding of Rus, the 400th anniversary of Moscow’s emancipation from Poland, the 200th anniversary of imperial Russia driving out French intruders, and the 150th anniversary of the birth of Pyotr Stolypin, a respectable Russian reformist. Accordingly, the Russian government has been holding grand celebrations for them to show its respect for history.

The Russian people in the last 20 to 25 years have also taken greater and greater interest in Russian history. With awareness of the close relation between history and the future development of Russia, they have become increasingly concerned about what the exact historical truth is and how some historical events took place and why they came up.

As far as Russia is concerned, its history has been marked by vicissitudes in the past 20 years. The disintegration of the Soviet Union brought about a new economic system and the abandonment of the Marxist ideology has given rise to diverse methodologies in historical studies.

As a result, this last couple of decades has witnessed a boom in historical sciences in Russia, which originates from two factors. For one thing, more and more documents have been declassified and then deciphered to facilitate historical research and for another, it is easier for Russian historians to exchange views with their Western counterparts to refresh their minds, as the government gives them more and more support.

However, there are also some phenomena detrimental to the development of historical sciences, among which pseudo-history is the most notable. In particular, bookstores are ridden with historical books made up of fabricated information and for commercial purposes. Commercially oriented, most of them use made-up events and distorted facts to cater to the curiosity of the people and cause a sensation, so that they can become bestsellers. In addition, the film industry in Russia is also worth worrying about, since most history-related films misrepresent historical events for commercial gain. Yet, if the market were dominated by unorthodox ideas, the Russian people would be misled. Moreover, some people overstress only a part of the historical truth, which is even more harmful to historical studies, posing a huge challenge for truth-seekers.

To the gratification of historians, the Russian government is attaching much importance to the falsification of history, though it imposed great pressure on scientific researchers in the past, restricting them from researching on the right track and ordering them to pander to its policies. Having lifted control over scientific studies, it now asks researchers for help in ruling the country, regarding them as experts and allowing them to give full play to their abilities. Academia, in particular, is now a much freer place for historians to air their views. After Vladimir Putin regained the presidency of Russia, he also contributed to restoring the important position of the historical sciences within humanities. On June 20, 2012, he signed a document to establish the Russian Historians’ Association with a designated chairman. Hopefully, he will participate in guiding the association for its better development.

In the years to come, Russia is still confronted with daunting tasks to promote the historical sciences. It is expected that the Russian people could spare efforts to determine the authenticity of historical literature and documents, and join hands to battle against the distortion of historical facts.

Yury Alexandrovich Petrov is now Director of Institute of Historical Studies, Russian Academy of Science, and President of the Committee of Experts of Russian History from the 20th to the Early 21st Century, Russian Foundation for Humanities.

　　Translated by Chen Mirong

　Revised by Gabriele Corsetti