Russian-style State Program of Patriotic Education in an unrecognized state: The case of Transnistria (Pridnestr)

Since the last month of 2016, after the assumption of the self-proclaimed presidency of Vadim Krasnoselsky, Pridnestrovskaya Moldavskaya Respublika (PMR, Transnistria) has implemented full-fledged “State Program of Patriotic Education in PMR” and its legal-administrative decisions concerned, in addition to pro-Kremlin patriotic policy. It is worthy to note that the political outcomes were abided on the 5year State Program of Patriotic Education of Citizens of Russian Federation and have obvious similarities to patriotic educational programs which were introduced in Luhansk, Donetsk, Crimea, and other areas. The patriotic policy in PMR was officially launched at the establishment of selfproclaimed independence in September 1990 in the aim of promoting national solidarity among inhabitants as “Pridnestrovians,” which was essentially created along the Soviet national line. In contrast to the policy, however, the PMR Patriotic Program and subsequent related decisions after 2016 more focused on national awareness as “Russo-Pridnestrovians” which had inherited an indivisible historical legacy from Russian civilization. To recognize internal-external PMR policy and geopolitical relation between PMR and Russia, this paper deals with “State Program of Patriotic Education in PMR” and its related political decisions for the purpose of fostering patriotic awareness among “Pridnestrovian” youth. Eye-grabbing patriotism and patriotic movements followed Soviet nostalgia by retired veterans and elderly people are not main objects of this paper; rather, inconspicuous state-planned patriotic activities through school regular education, cultural festivals, academic-cultural exchange based on the state program are focal themes. The theory of “everyday patriotism,” which is penetrated in daily life without discomfort among subjects, leads to understanding this political phenomenon.