Narrative, Identity, State: History Teaching in Moldova

From Moldovanism to Europeanization? Moldova's Communists and Nation Building*

“…For example, the Romanian role in the Holocaust in Bessarabia, Transnistria and Bukovina under Romanian occupation in 1941-1944 is de-emphasized (just as Moldovanist historians themselves minimize the participation of Bessarabian and Transnistrian Moldovans in the Holocaust). 37 Moldovanists before the communists had failed to reform the history curriculum. Many pro-Soviet intellectuals had lost their positions during the independence movement and the intelligentsia and educational realm remains a bastion of pan-Romanianist sentiment.…”

National identity and language: Class differences among youth in western Ukraine

“…Research in the former Soviet and Eastern Bloc, for example, has examined how educational reforms were enacted in order to instill a clear national identity in the youngest generation (Mincu, 2009; Wanner, 1995), even if they devalue more local forms of identity in the process (Brown, 2005). Many of these reforms focused on rewriting history textbooks (Popson, 2001; Solonari, 2002; Zorkaia, 2009) and prioritizing the national language (Marshall, 2002; Polese, 2010) in order to dislodge the prevailing Soviet or socialist perspective (Janmaat, 2005; Korostelina, 2010). Youth and local schools, however, can take an agentive role in affirming, rejecting, or challenging these national goals, for example, when they support local (Polese, 2010; Richardson, 2008) or regional perspectives (Rodgers, 2007), or when they temporarily embrace wide-scale social movements (Fournier, 2007).…”

Briser les logiques du « gel »

“…Le récit historique nationaliste (manuel scolaire Histoire des Roumains) insiste sur l'unité historique avec la Roumanie ; le récit communiste (manuels Histoire de la Moldova) suit la version soviétique de la distinction entre Moldaves et Roumains. Dans les deux cas, toutefois, la principauté de la Moldavie représente la fondation étatique et les relations MoldavieRoumanie constituent la préoccupation principale (Solonari 2002). 4.…”