Războiul transnistrean reflectat în manualele de istorie din România / The Transnistrian war reflected in the history textbooks in Romania

Abstract

The creation of history textbooks in the post-December period took into account the increase of quality in pre-university education by developing communication and relationship skills, different historical contents being studied depending on the interests of students. In our analysis, we tried to find out to what extent the authors of the history textbooks were interested in presenting the Transnistrian conflict to the young generation. The curriculum for History has undergone many changes during this period. However, both at the gymnasium and the high school level, compulsory content regarding the foreign policy promoted by Romania after 1990 were provided. In our approach, we analyzed 31 textbooks published during this period, out of which only a few addressed the military conflict in the Republic of Moldova. The most consistent presentation is found in the manual made by a team of Alexandru Barnea, Vasile Manea, Eugen Palade, Florin Petrescu and Bogdan Teodorescu and (re)published in 2014 by Corint Educațional. The authors of the history textbooks in Romania showed low interest in the presentation of the Transnistrian war, in the context in which the political, economic and social relations between Bucharest and Chisinau, after 1991, were analyzed to a very small extent. This conflict was presented only in view of the position adopted by Romania regarding this event, without addressing the side regarding the legality of separatist actions undertaken by Tiraspol officials or the emotional impact of a military conflict, in which Moldovan citizens were involved.

Keywords

• history textbook
• history school curriculum
• transnistrian conflict
• foreign policy