Learning Myths in the Soviet School

Hanna Paulouskaya examines the use of mythology in Soviet schools, where it was presented only to children through a number of textbooks that were widely used across the Soviet Union. These books taught that Soviet children belonged to a common Greek heritage, ridiculed religion, and depicted figures such as Heracles or Prometheus as Soviet heroes and revolutionaries fighting for the people. The strong ideological tone – and indeed the books themselves – changed little throughout the period of Soviet rule despite the freedoms and more progressive attitudes in later years. Nevertheless, the very stability of the teaching material, which
quickly became deeply familiar to the teacher, actually allowed for creativity within teaching, since there was rarely new material to be internalized, and efforts could then be expended on teaching methods.

The complete volume "Our Mythical Education: The Reception of Classical Myth Worldwide in Formal Education, 1900–2020",   edited by Lisa Maurice, focuses on school education including a wide geographical and chronological range.  The volume covers Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas (including Canada, the USA, and South America), Australia and New Zealand.

Published in the series “Our Mythical Childhood”, edited by Prof. Katarzyna Marciniak, Faculty of “Artes Liberales”, University of Warsaw, Poland.

Open Access of the whole volume is available at  https://www.wuw.pl/product-eng-14887-Our-Mythical-Education-The-Reception-of-Classical-Myth-Worldwide-in-Formal-Education-1900-2020-PDF.html