“Soviet occupation” in Moldavian History Textbooks

The article shows the coverage of the Soviet period in Moldavian history textbooks. In the Republic of Moldova today, instead of national history, a history course is taught for one of its national minorities, the history of Romanians. There are almost no references to other ethnic groups living in the Carpathian-Dniester lands. The Soviet period was one of falsification, and textbooks emphasized negative aspects of history, while most achievements and successes of the country were hushed up or distorted while it was part of the USSR. Although the Soviet Union restored Moldavian statehood, many textbooks circulated the thesis about the illegality of Bessarabia’s annexation to Russia in 1812, and then the annexation of the region into the USSR in 1940. Bessarabia could not be a “primordial Romanian land” because the state of Romania itself arose much later. Regarding the Romanian occupation of Bessarabia in 1918, it is necessary to note the illegitimacy of both the Sfatul Tsarii (Regional Government) and its decisions, as well as the fact that the Bessarabian (Paris) Protocol of 1920 on the unification of Bessarabia and Romania did not enter into force. However, authors of most textbooks raise the question of the “illegal occupation” of Bessarabia and the subsequent formation of the MSSR, within the borders of which the present Republic of Moldova exists. Despite the fact that this course is anti-state, it ignores not only the existence of the titular ethnic group, the Moldavians, but also other national minorities, and many of its pages are written in the spirit of Russophobia and anti-Semitism. This remains mandatory in all educational institutions of the republic