Moldovan historians ask President Vladimir Voronin to stop experiment with integrated history

A group of historians including university lecturers, researchers, and book writers have signed under a joint open letter to President Vladimir Voronin, demanding him to stop the experiment with the integrated history. They expressed concerns over the situation around history teaching, which they described degrading, since the Communists took power in 2001. In the letter the group made public at a news conference on Wednesday, 22 March, they say the authorities have not made any conclusions from earlier attempts to replace the Romanians’ History course, attempts that had led teachers, artists, scientists, and students to protests in street. The popular resistance forced then-president Mircea Snegur in 1995 and later the Council of Europe in 2002 to impose moratoriums on history issues in Moldova. The historians asked the president to pay attention to the “illegal and deliberate mode” of the introduction of the integrated history book and to the fact that the concept concerning this book has never been discussed with anyone or approved by anyone. At the same time, they stressed that the concept contained “aberrations and untrue facts.” The group also criticised the integrated history book for the 5th grade, which has been already printed and released to the schools participating in the history experiment. They indicated that the themes of national history are missing, while the few existing ones are treated superficially. “Because of the distorted mode of interpretation of the Council of Europe recommendations regarding European history issues, our country risks to become the only one where national history is not studied.” The signatories of the letter asked President Voronin to respect the announced moratorium, to stop the experiment, to restore the Romanians’ History discipline, and to end the harassment of teachers who oppose the new history course. The letter was signed by some 30 persons, including the chairman of the Moldovan Association of Historians, Anatol Petrencu, a member of the Academy of Sciences; Andrei Esanu, dean of the history department in the Ion Creanga Pedagogical University, and others. Anatol Petrencu told reporters that though the teachers reject the integrated history concept, his Association does not intend to organise open protests, for the sake of the ongoing study process. “We want to settle the conflict peacefully, in a dialogue, as recommended by the European community. We want to explain our rulers that the existing course Romanians’ History is what we need,” said Petrencu.