ABSTRACT
Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, two such challenges, among others, have inuenced curricular reform in the Russian Federation. With the reemergence of an independent Russia, a new state, ideologically and politically, emerged and distanced itself from the former Soviet Union by positioning itself as a new republic adherent to the democratic development. Nation-building and identity construction were among major governmental political concerns. us, nation-building rationale dictated the context, conditions, and priorities of education reforms that were launched immediately a©er 1991, particularly a reform in civic education. However, it is worth noting that the nation-state is no longer the sole repository of citizenship. If we accept a nation’s imaginary status (Anderson 1991; Zajda 2009), why would we assume that a nation-state or the national citizenship model is less vulnerable or less susceptible to changes? e term nation-building presents an interesting example of syntactic dichotomy: on the one hand, the nation-building process, as the term implies, aims at building a nation; on the other, due to its ideological nature, nation-building is an endless process whose ultimate goal, a nation, never takes a nal shape. at is why history, or rather mythology, from which political leaders usually draw inspiration, is so carefully monitored and constructed to make sure that ‘a continuous process of redenition, revision, reinterpretation, and rewriting of historical narratives’ (Zajda 2009: 4) is under control. Russia, which recently has experienced contradictory reforms in civic education, is not an exception here.
