«Short history», «imperfect business people» and the fight for symbolic capital: presentation of the Russian Far East in regional textbooks

Abstract

Based on the content of regional school textbooks, the article examines the forms of self-presentation of the Russian Far East and a number of techniques used by the region (and its subjects) to increase symbolic capital. On the one hand, the article presents an analysis of techniques that allow the Russian Far East to «match» with the historical center and its federal subjects to lengthen their history, which in a substantial sense seems relatively short (in fact, not earlier than the second half of the XIX^th century). On the other hand, it shows the uniqueness of the region’s self-presentation strategies, an example of which is a narrative about «imperfect business people».