This article aims to reflect on the different historical narratives about Stalin’s period in nowadays Russia, especially with reference to the versions promoted in history textbooks for schools. After a reconstruction of the current educational policies in Russia, three textbooks adopted for the year 2018/2019 have been analysed. From the one hand, we can see how Russian authorities aim to use history as a mighty tool to shape people’s identity: we propose the category of “ritual” to understand this use; on the other hand, the three narratives by Zagladin, Volobuev and Torkunov are very different and seem to prove the existence of a “relative” freedom in the writing of history, if compared to the period 2004-2012.