Countries of Central Eastern Europe, despite their common ideological backgrounds have experienced a nexus of local challenges toward inclusion. However, the current trails to inclusive education reflect a broader spectrum of interconnections among political, economic and social circumstances. The research investigation focuses on the Republic of Moldova’s (RM) social-cultural origins, and political choices and practice towards inclusion. The current study investigates special needs education (SNE) development through policy reforms in education and practical arrangements between the late 1980s and 2014. This sequence symbolizes borders between two periods of the history of SNE in RM: the Soviet one and the period of Moldovan state independence. The research methodology focuses on the shift to the post-Soviet phase as to the development of SEN within the early phases of RM independence. The main findings are divided into three overarching themes: adoption of the Soviet pattern of SNE; ‘endemic stress’ of breaking the pattern and paradoxes of resolution. © 2021 selection and editorial matter, Liya Kalinnikova Magnusson and Jeremias Rosenqvist.