The Option For Pluralist Models In School Textbooks In Romania After December 1989
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The communist regime
There are major differences in the way the communist regime is presented. For the 1989 textbook, this theme represents an occasion to worship Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, as the personality cult being a common presence in textbooks.
The textbooks written after 1989 divide the communist times in two major periods:
a. the Dej period or the Stalinist period, when the Romanian society has undergone the Stalinization process
b. the Ceausescu period or the period of national-communism, of the dynastic regime or the neo-Stalinist period.
All textbooks mention the single party, the planned economy, the five year plans, the repression, the political crimes, the political prisons and the forced labour centres (Pitesti, Gherla, Sighet, the Danube – Black Sea canal), the Stalinization and the reverse process, the detente period, the personality cult of Ceausescu, the economic decrease, the fall of the communist regime and the revolution in 1989.
However, there are significant differences between the way these aspects are presented and the periods divided:
- The 1992 Didactica si Pedagogica Publishing house textbook gives a global view of the facts, highlighting the international context and linking the characteristics of the Romanian communism to the evolution of the Romanian – Soviet relations. It divides the Ceausescu period in three: the détente period 1965-1971, the personality cult period 1971-1980, the economic fall period 1980-1989. It only briefly mentions the events that occurred in 1989 in Romania, choosing to emphasize the fall of the communist regimes throughout Europe.
- The Sigma Publishing house textbook speaks of propaganda as means of legitimising the party and its actions, and also as means of social control. It links the re-education experiment at Pitesti with the obsession for creating the “new man”. It divides the Ceausescu period in only two stages: the consolidation period, a détente period when the tactics of “weakening the screw” was applied (1965-1974), and the cultural revolution and the economic fall period (1974-1989).
- The Teora Publishing house textbook puts little emphasis on the international context, highlighting the main events and changes within the country. It is very interesting to note the four-period division it makes of the Ceausescu regime: 1965-1971, 1971-1980, 1980 -1987, 1987-1989. It also mentions the dissidents of the 1980s and their actions: Paul Goma, Gabriel Andreescu, Ana Blandiana etc. The 1989 revolution is extensively described and the events in Timisoara are explained.
- The Humanitas Publishing house textbook sees the expansion of the Soviet influence as being a result of the abandonment of Eastern and Central Europe by the Anglo-Americans. It defines the principles of political Stalinism – the single party sustained by the political police, economic Stalinism – centralized economy based on state ownership, and cultural Stalinism – ending all relations with the Occident and applying the Soviet model – “proletcultism”. The Ceausescu regime is described as neo-Stalinism or dynastic socialism and it is divided in two periods: the détente (1965-1974) and the dynastic socialism – after 1971/1974. It mentions the systematization plans of towns and villages and the numerous demolitions. It also mentions the dislocation of the rural population and their forced urbanization.
