ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the representations of the Afghanistan war in school textbooks published in Russia. It defines school textbooks as a document of public cultural memory showing what it is 'necessary' to know about the past. The concept of social memory consists of a 'cultural memory' saved in documents, records, books and museums, in addition to a communicative memory, both 'live' and 'private'. A cultural memory remains in families and groups of witnesses. The school history textbooks are chosen as sources of cultural memory. Such textbooks are a resource for understanding what readers should know about the past and therefore a school history textbook is an 'official' public cultural memory. History textbooks as a part of official cultural memory represent the work of political institutions in constructing the past. School is a source of cultural models that creates a system of barriers.
