Abstract:

Critical appraisal of the military component of the Soviet past at all levels of education and in all subjects has so far not been sufficiently integrated into the curriculum and has not been synchronized in the interdisciplinary context in the competence-based education model. The research question of this article is critical acquisition of the Soviet military history during the Cold War time in post-Soviet Latvia school and university curricula. Until now, the military history of the USSR has been updated episodically, no methodological recommendations have been developed for pedagogues to integrate this issue and the related media literacy skills into the curriculum of various subjects. This situation paves the way for students to be easily influenced by fake news and hate speech, as demonstrated by the war in Ukraine caused by the Russian Federation and the underlying propaganda manipulation of speculative interpretations of Soviet military history.

The need to identify and correctly interpret the Soviet military occupation and its consequences is determined by the fact that there are many Soviet army degraded areas in Eastern Europe, but many former Soviet soldiers live in the Baltic States, forming a disloyal segment in certain situations. An understanding of the Soviet military history and its presence in modern Latvia and other post-Soviet territories is necessary to provide pupils and students with an objective understanding of its impact on the environment, the landscape and the social model of the population. The research question put forward is methodologically solved with the interdisciplinary and critical thinking practices offered by the competence-based education.

The goal of this research is to develop methodological recommendations that can be used for the integration of innovative materials and new tools in teaching the phenomenon of Cold War period of the USSR military history. The research results obtained with the development of thematic plans will focus on the phenomena of Cold War and Soviet-era for the integration into interdisciplinary topics through interdisciplinary links and interactive forms of work.

Keywords:

Critical thinking practices, interdisciplinarity, competence-based education, Soviet military history.