The territory that Moldova occupies today, bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the east, has witnessed numerous empires over the last thousand years. The Roman and Mongolian Empires left a profound mark on the area. Nevertheless, The first roots of the modern State of Moldova date back to the creation of the Principality of Moldova in the region of Bessarabia at the end of the Middle Ages, which occupied a large part of the current territory of Moldova and placed the eastern border on the natural barrier of the Dniester River. The new principality left an indelible cultural legacy in the region: Romanian culture, with the presence of characters like Stephen the Great and, especially, the Romanian language, shared with the neighbors to the west, in the principalities of Wallachia and Transylvania, which would later form the State of Romania, were transcendental in creating a solid link between Romanian culture and the inhabitants. from Bessarabia. Since then, Moldovan and Romanian culture would be practically identical.
Although Moldova managed to retain some autonomy until the end of the 15th century, fell under Turkish rule in the mid-16th century and became a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. The political implication of the Sublime Door in the Bessarabia region was, however, minor compared to the role carried out in the Balkans or other occupied regions in the Middle East. This lack of political control and absolute dominion over the region, together with the decline of the Ottoman Empire due to the war scourges of Saint Petersburg, ended up distancing the Ottoman Government from Moldova. In 1812, after the signing of the Treaty of Bucharest, Moldova came under the control of the Russian Empire.. The Romanian language and culture in Moldova would once again be vilified.
Tsar Nicholas I’s iron fist on the region was not applied until 1828, when the autonomy of Bessarabia was revoked, bilingualism was abolished and Russian became the official language. Besides, A Russification campaign was launched that displaced a large number of Russian officials and administrators to the area and which was only interrupted by the reestablishment of the Ottoman Empire’s control over the region in the 1860s. Imperial Russia also encouraged the immigration of other populations residing in the empire, such as Ukrainians, Germans, Jews—who They represented a third of the urban population at the beginning of the 20th century.— or Gagaúzos —a people of Turkish origin belonging, almost entirely, to the Orthodox Church—, who ended up settling in Bessarabia and thus caused a very diverse mix of ethnic groups.
He Berlin Congress of 1878, which had freed Serbia, Montenegro and Romania, declared independent states, from Ottoman yoke, left a bittersweet taste in the Romanian people. On the one hand, the Executive in Bucharest celebrated its independence from the Ottoman Empire, although on the other it observed how the Russian Empire ended usurp the sister territory of Bessarabia and consolidated itself as a legitimate and sovereign force. The outcome of the congress led to the call for the unification of Romania and Bessarabia, which has continued – with nuances – to the present day. Unlike other nationalisms, the Moldovan was late and had very little revolutionary activitysince it did not end up settling until after the Russian revolution of 1905.
Taking advantage of the low hours of imperial Russia, Moldovan nationalism began to demand greater autonomy and the recognition of Romanian as an official language. Finally, the Sfatul Țăriithe National Assembly of Bessarabia, took advantage of the confusion created by the February Revolution in 1917 and declared Moldova an autonomous republic of the Russian Republic in December of that same year. The Bolsheviks did not welcome the wishes for autonomy and weeks later they militarily occupied the capital, Chisinau. However, Romanian and Moldovan forces pushed the Bolsheviks out of the Moldovan capital in early February 1918 to declare the independence of Moldova as a sovereign state on February 6. Their independence was short-lived. In April of that same year, under pressure from the Romanian Executive and with German help, the Sfatul Țării voted in favor of unification with Romania. Living together between brothers was not going to be easy.
To expand: Moldova History: Early History, Beginning of the Soviet PeriodUzo Marvin, 2016
Of brotherhood and occupation
International recognition of the union between Bessarabia and Romania did not come until 1920, although The Kremlin shunned it and established a parallel Moldovan state east of the Dniester in 1924., territory at that time belonging to the Ukrainian Soviet Republic. Across the river, the promises and joy that existed before the union quickly faded. Greater Romania failed to consolidate a period of prosperity in Bessarabia, which on the other hand remained the poorest region of the new Romanian State. Russification campaigns were replaced by Romanianization campaigns and non-Romanian communities, which had arrived in Bessarabian territory decades before, were subjected to intense cultural assimilation programs.
In the late 1930s, control of Bessarabia again underwent a change of command. In a similar way to what happened in 1878, its future was once again marked by the will of the great powers of the moment. On this occasion, the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact from 1939, which divided Eastern Europe into zones of influence, became the new catalyst: Bessarabia became controlled by the Soviet Union (USSR). The Socialist Republic of Moldova modified its borders: it thinned its territory to the north and south and incorporated the territory of the east bank of the Dniester—Transnistria—to the new Republic, borders that it has maintained to the present day.
After a laconic period of Romanian control during the Second World War in which Almost the entire Jewish population of Bessarabia was erased from the map, Moscow took effective control of Moldova. The pre-war Romanianization was again replaced by a intense sovietization campaign. The main objective was de-romanize the Romanian population of Moldova and create a new Soviet-Moldovan identity similar to that carried out in the countries of Central Asia. Around 50,000 Moldovans from the Romanian community were sent to the Siberian gulagsthe Latin alphabet was replaced by the Cyrillic alphabet and the political apparatus was almost completely controlled by the Russian and Ukrainian community of Moldova.
On the positive side, the Moldovan economy finally benefited from a period of economic expansion thanks, among other reasons, to the establishment of collective Soviet state farms. On the other hand, the Government of the USSR managed to extinguish the remnants of the Moldovan-Romanian nationalist movement for more than 30 years, which did not take flight again until the mid-1980s, with the arrival to power of Gorbachev and his opening measures – glasnost and perestroika. —. The Popular Front of Moldova knew how to channel these policies without setbacks and was the main catalyst of the citizen mobilizations that called for the emancipation of the USSR and the return to the Latin alphabet.
In August 1989, the first demands bore fruit: for the first time the Moldovan language, with the Latin alphabet, was designated an official language. Half a year later, elections were held in the Supreme Soviet – the Soviet legislative body – of Moldova, which gave power to the reformist communist Mircea Snegur. His first political measures were not far from controversy: in May 1990 adopted blue, red and yellow as the colors of the new Moldovan flag and the anthem of Romania as the Moldovan, a clear nod to the aspirations of Chisinau and Bucharest. The wishes of a reunion with Romania, in vogue between 1989 and 1991, faded with the declaration of independence of Moldova on August 27, 1991.
An independence stained with blood
In a similar way to what happened in other former Soviet republics, such as Armenia, Georgia either Tajikistan, the political transition and emancipation of Russia triggered internal struggles for power between different political factions. In the Moldovan case, the Russian minorities east of the Dniester and the Gagauz in the south of the country conceived the wishes of a new Moldovan State as a threat to their autonomy. Due to the fear of becoming second-class citizens after the fall of the USSR and being governed by the Moldovan-Romanian leaders, secessionist movements began in both territories. Gagauzia declared himself independent a week before the proclamation of the State of Moldova and established his capital at Comrat; the Transnistria declaration came in early September 1991with the city of Tiraspol as the main political-administrative city.
The new Moldovan ruling class managed to reduce the tension in Gagauzia and thus avoid bloodshed in the south of the country, although it did not manage to prevent the evolution of the revolts into an armed conflict in Transnistria in March 1992. The conflict, which barely lasted five months and took the lives of a thousand people, ended with the victory of the separatist forces east of the Dniester —thanks to the indisputable help from the soviet 14th army— and the establishment of Tiraspol as the capital de facto of the new State of Transnistria.
The negotiations with Chisinau for the resolution of the stagnant conflict were intense, especially during the first two years after the cessation of hostilities in July 1992. The efforts of the Moldovan Executive to offer special status to Transnistria, similar to that granted to Gagauzia in 1994, were in vain. The proclamation of the Moldovan Constitution in July 1994 was rejected by Tiraspol. Transnistria then became an unrecognized state on the international stage with some functional institutions, although dependent on Russia, which has maintained a military contingent in the region to the present.
To expand: “Transnistria, the last Soviet frontier”Adrián Albiac in 2014
Moldova’s path after independence was not a bed of roses. To the territorial obstacles caused by the quiescent conflict in Transnistria were added the transition from a state-controlled economy to a free market economy and a alarming population decline. After the dismantling of the USSR, the loss of productivity, the poor economic balance, the high price of energy and high levels of corruption They took over the work of the Executive in Chisinau. This economic transition was also hindered by the…