Descriptive Models of Great Patriotic War in the Printed Media of the Republic of Moldova

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of discourses about the Great Patriotic / World War II in three newspapers published in the Republic of Moldova. Through this analysis we consider which tactics and strategies are used in the media space of Moldova in the struggle for historical memory in relation to those periods, the importance of which affects the current (geo) political choice of the country. Thus, the analyzed Russian-language publications devoted to the Great Patriotic War appeal to the theme of the joint heroic efforts of the peoples of the former USSR and marks Moldova as a friendly country to Russia, emphasizes Moldova’s involvement in the post- Soviet space. The analyzed Romanian-language publications include Moldova in the list of Eastern European countries affected by totalitarian communist regimes. At the same time, May 9 is used as a resource to emphasize the urgency of the problem of interaction with the heirs of totalitarian regimes, since May 9 is not Europe’s Day, but Russian Victory Day. However, despite the presentation of positions that compete with each other and often give the opposite assessment of history, the publications use the same strategies of depiction of the past of the Republic of Moldova.