Communism and Anti-Communist Dissent in Romania as Reflected in Contemporary Textbooks

Radu Săgeată, Nicoleta Damian and Bianca Mitrică
Additional contact information
Radu Săgeată: Institute of Geography, Romanian Academy, 023993 Bucharest, Romania
Nicoleta Damian: Institute of Geography, Romanian Academy, 023993 Bucharest, Romania
Bianca Mitrică: Institute of Geography, Romanian Academy, 023993 Bucharest, Romania

Societies, 2021, vol. 11, issue 4, 1-18

Abstract: The structural changes brought about by the collapse of the communist system also included the reconfiguration of social memory, so that future generations have a more objective imagining of the impact of the communist period on the societies from Central and Eastern Europe. In this view, the depoliticization of recent history is a top priority. The present study aims to highlight the way in which the schoolbooks in Romania bring into the memory of the young generation a strictly secret episode in recent (pre-1990) history: anti-communist dissent. Two categories of methods were used: researching the data and information contained in history textbooks and other bibliographic sources on anti-communist dissent in Romania in the overall socio-political context of that era; and assessing—with the help of a set of surveys—the degree of assimilation by young people in Romania of the knowledge about communism conveyed through textbooks. Research points to the conclusion that the Romanian curriculum and textbooks provide an objective picture of the communist period in this country, but young people’s perception of communism in general and of Romanian communism in particular tends to be distorted by poor education, poverty and surrounding mentalities rooted in that period.

Keywords: anti-communist dissent; recent history; schoolbooks; young generation; Romania (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 A14 P P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/11/4/140/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/11/4/140/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:11:y:2021:i:4:p:140-:d:691292

Access Statistics for this article

Societies is currently edited by Ms. Farrah Sun

More articles in Societies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().