Diversification of the "Late Soviet": Attitudes to Mikhail Gorbachev in the mirrors of history textbooks

The article deals with representations of Mikhail Gorbachev, last leader of the USSR, in textbooks on the history of three Post-Soviet countries: Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. The personality of Gorbachev is seen in the wider framework of attitudes to the "late Soviet" and its embedding in three histories based on the official discourses. The results of historical textbook analysis show the ambiguity and diversification of these attitudes reflected in three "faces" of Gorbachev changing with the pace of perestroika. It is seen that negative attitudes to the personality of Gorbachev are connected to his representations within the framework of Machiavelist elite theories and general fight for power, with certain manifest or latent nostalgia for the Soviet past. The case of Ukraine is the most in contrast with a positive evaluation of Gorbachev's personality and activities in comparison to Russia and Belarus.