New Europe College Regional Program Yearbook 2001-2002

N.E.C. Yearbook 2001-2002
the nineteenth century – 1848, 1859, 1877-1879 – that were crucial to
the formation of the Romanian nation, there was nonetheless an impact
on the national consciousness of certain generations as the result of the
cultural politics of Romanian state in the period 1918-1940, as described
by Irina Livezeanu:
Cultural politics is the third part of a triptych, preceded by the economic or
cultural revolution and bureaucratic-military revolution. Whilst Romania
and the other Eastern European states experienced weakened forms of the
first two types of revolution, they experienced an all the more vigorous
version of cultural revolution. 28
Attitudes towards state: Moldova is the second Romanian state or is
another Romanian state, and union of the states will come sooner or
later.
Integration of minorities: The example of Estonia can be used as a
model for this discourse: citizenship should be granted only on ethnic
grounds or, in the case of members of ethnic groups, only on proof of
knowledge of the official language.
Us - them relations:
- We and Romania: This is a case of a permanent inclusion: “We
are Romanians”.
- We and Russia: “Russians are occupiers”. Russians are identified
with Soviets and Communists as the three faces of the same enemy
of this Romanian region.
- We and Europe: European integration will come, sooner or later,
together with Romania.
(ii) Moldovan discourse:
Attitudes towards (national) community: The Moldovan nation is
different from the Romanian nation, not from an ethnic point of view, but
from a political point of view.
Attitudes towards language: “The national language is the Moldovan
language based on the Latin alphabet” (Constitution, Article 13).
Use of history: Ernest Rennan, in his well-known conference What is
a Nation (1882), 29 said that forgetting history as well as remembering it
is an essential factor in forging a nation. But in Moldova, what is forgotten
by one discourse is stressed by another, as happened, for example, in the
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