Jennifer, the sort of fatuous rewriting of history you describe is in full gear in Russia, where the Moscow Times  reports that Putin is pressing for new high school and university textbooks “built around a single concept, with the logical continuity of Russian history, the relationship between the different stages in history, and respect for all the pages of our past." Naturally the new history will explain Stalinism as a necessary stage in Russian development, no doubt justifying authoritarianism in Russia today. As one of my students pointed out to me this week (thanks Dylan!), this effort to rewrite the Soviet past even extends to video games. Angered by the portrayal of the Soviet military in “Company of Heroes 2,” the Russian Ministry of Culture has announced plans to subsidize the development of Russian video games that will offer a “realistic and historically truthful representation of events." No doubt the new games will depict a brave new Russia world….