The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - ELTE BTK Történelem Szakos Portál

Delmouly, Laura
The German-Soviet pact in french coursebooks
„The German Russian agreement can be justified if you look at it from the
angle of the interested powers, but it did mean a war in the West” 1 . This
quotation is mentioned in a History school book from 1947, and the agreement
seems to be the most concrete action that will lead to war.
A study on the Nazi-Soviet Pact in the French school books allows us to ask
ourselves how this historical fact was perceived. How was this event taught
from 1945 till today? For this we will use examples out of books edited from
1945 till today: 5 books were used between 1945 and 1960, 2 for the years
1960 till 1970, 2 for the eighties, 4 for the nineties and finally 3 for the years
2000. However, these books come from different editors (Nathan, Hatier,
Hachette and so forth), and as the school market is private and the books
chosen by the teachers, not every student uses the same book. Nevertheless
right after the war the school books include in their pages the conflict, the facts
until the victory of the Allied. Therefore the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement
takes an important place in explaining the conflict to the students. Although the
war is taught to every French student, it isn’t studied at all levels and the
programs have often changed. Out of the 16 books that talk about the conflict
one is used in primary school (that is 6 years old), 2 are for the students who
are 13/14 years old, 2 for the 14/15 years old, 5 for the 16/17 years old, 2 for 18
years old used in their last year of high school and then 4 used at a University
level. Automatically there is a difference in the explanation of the agreement
according to the age of the student and its level. Also, the school book is often
a tool and not systematically used by the teacher.
Equally it is important to mention the fact that school books endure the
current dominating standards during their edition which has an impact on the
way of teaching. What was the place given to the Molotov-Ribbentrop
agreement in the programs? How was this event taught? Was the agreement
influenced by the different historical events? We will study the way the
agreement was taught right after the war and than we will show a change in the
seventies in the way of perceiving the agreement. Then finally we will present
the way the German-Russian treaty was studied in order to reflect on
totalitarianism.
The name itself of the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement has known a number
of different versions; the name Nazi-Soviet Pact or Molotov-Ribbentrop
agreement emerges in the seventies. The names that were used during the two
former decades where they talk about „treaty” or „German-Russian
1 GENET, Louis: L’Epoque contemporaine 1848-1939, classes préparatoires de philosophie
et de mathématique. A. Hatier, Paris, 1946, 830-831.
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