Hur må vi berätta om detta? : Forum för levande historias porträttering av Sovjetunionen.

My purpose is to analyses Forum för levande historias (FFLH) portrayal of the Soviet Union during the time period of 1918-1953. My reason for doing this is to find out what nuances of the Soviet Union FFLH finds important to present to the public, but also, to teachers and student in the Swedish education system. My source material consists of historian Klas- Göran Karlssons text Crimes against humanity during communist regimes and I’ve applied a critical discourse analysis, along with several marxist theories of how language, ideology and ideological reproduction manifests in society. However, since this is an essay focused on the didactical aspect of history, I’ve also used theories that explains how ideologies use, and reproduce history as a way to repress ideologies that doesn’t conform to a capitalist reproduction of a society. The questions that I’ve asked are: How are the periods in the Soviet Union during Lenin and Stalin’s chairmanship portrayed in the material? How does the material portray the historical processes in the Soviet Union? And: Which types of ideological naturalizations can be found in the text? I’ve come the conclusion that FFLHs text, focuses on: 1) A strong connection between Soviet politics and a discourse around “ethnic cleansings”, and that ethnic groups where persecuted by both Lenin and Stalin. 2) Soviet politics, and especially Stalin, is connected to a anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish ideology. 3) Soviet politics, in general, is portrayed as lacking “legal basis” and is often ridiculed or rejected without a proper explanation as to what the soviets wanted to achieve. 4) Historical processes and phenomenons are often portrayed without a context, and also without different sides arguments, choices and opinions. 5) The text is at some times prone to make speculative accusations, to enhance an ideological agenda. I’ve also concluded that, based on all of the remarks above, that FFLH material should be used cautiously in an educational situation, since the material is ideologically biased, leaves out certain aspects of the historical processes, and in doing so, to vilifies the soviets. Futhermore, I’ve concluded that the vilification of the soviet union, and the anticommunist agenda, has gone from a portrayal focused on “judeo-bolshevism”, where every communist is a Jew, and every Jew is a communist, to the exact opposite – now the bolsheviks are actively seeking out Jews in their midst, in order to persecute, and/or execute this specific ethnic group