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

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.

Analysis and Estimation of Economic Influence of IoT and Telecommunication in Regional Media Based on Evolution and Electronic Markets in Romania

“…In Romania, a communist country until 1989, the media were owned by the state. Later, after the fall of the communist regime, they underwent an extensive privatization process [40]. In other words, the Romanian media appeared after the 1989 Revolution because society was facing a series of turbulence specific to the transit of the political regime.…”