History of Moldova

This article is about the history of the Republic of Moldova. For the historical region Moldavia, see History of Moldavia.

Inhabited by Dacians in the antiquity and Romaniazed Dacians in the early middle ages, most of today's Moldova was part of the Principality of Moldavia from its founding in 1359 until 1812, when it was annexed (under tha name Bessarabia) by the Russian Empire following one of several Russian-Turkish wars. In 1918, Bessarabia united with Romania, but in 1940 it was occupied by the Soviet Union, to become independent when the latter broke up in 1991.

The cultural heritage of the Principality of Moldavia stands at the core of the identity of Moldova.

Antiquity and early middle ages

Main article: Prehistoric Romania

Main article: Dacia

Main article: Roman Dacia

Main article: Carpathian-Dniester area before 1359

In Antiquity Moldova's territory was inhabited by Dacian tribes. Due to its strategic location on a route between Asia and Europe, Moldova faced several invasions, including those by the Bastarns, Huns, Avars, Magyars, Kievan Rus', Cumans, and the Mongols.

Principality of Moldavia

Main article: Moldavia

The Principality of Moldavia and the modern boundaries‎

Tatar invasions continued also after the establishment of the Principality of Moldavia in 1359, bounded by the Carpathian mountains in the west, Dniester river in the east, and Danube and Black Sea in the south. The medieval principality of Moldavia covered the so-called Carpathian-Danube-Dniester area, stretching from Transylvania in the west to the Dniester River in the east. Its territory comprised the present-day territory of the Republic of Moldova, the eastern 8 of the 41 counties of Romania (which, like the present-day republic, is known to the locals as Moldova), the Chernivtsi oblast and Budjak region of Ukraine. In 1538 the principality became a tributary to the Ottoman Empire, but retained internal and partially external autonomy. Its nucleus was in the northwestern part, the Ţara de Sus ("Upper Land"), part of which later became known as Bukovina. The name of the principality originates from the Moldova River. With the notable exception of Transnistria, the territory of today's Republic of Moldova covers most of the historical region of Bessarabia, a part of Principality of Moldavia until 1812, named so since 1812 by the Russians. Before 1812 the term "Bessarabia" was referring only the region between the Danube, Dniester, the Black Sea shores, and the Upper Trajan Wall, slightly larger than what today is called Budjak.

The founding of Moldavia is attributed to the Vlach noblemen Dragoş of Bedeu, from Maramureş, who had been ordered in 1343 (1345 according to other sources) by the Hungarian king Louis of Anjou to establish a defense for the historic Kingdom of Hungary against the Tatars, and Bogdan I of Cuhea, Maramureş, who became the first independent prince of Moldavia, when he rejected Hungarian authority in 1359. The greatest Moldavian personality was prince Stephen the Great, who ruled from 1457 to 1504. Stephen was succeeded by weaker and weaker princes. In 1538, Moldavia became a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, to which it owed a percentage of the internal revenue, that in time rose to 10%. Moldavia was forbidden to held foreign relations in detriment of the Ottoman Empire (although at times the country managed to circumvent this interdiction), but was allowed internal autonomy, including sole authority over foreign trade. Turks were legally forbidden to owe land or built religious establishments in Moldavia.

In the 18th century, the territory of Moldavia often became a transit or war zone during conflicts between the Ottomans, Austrians, and Russians. In 1774, the principality became a Russian protectorate while remaining formally a vassal of the Ottoman Empire. In 1775, Austria annexed ca 11% of the territory of Moldavia, which became known as Bukovina. By the Treaty of Bucharest following the Russo-Turkish War (1806-1812), Russia has annexed further 50% of its territory, which became known as Bessarabia. The remaining part of the principality emancipated from Ottoman domination in the first part of 19th century, and in 1859 united with Wallachia, establishing Romania.

Part of the Russian Empire

Main article: Bessarabia Governorate

By the Treaty of Bucharest of May 28, 1812 between the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire — concluding the Russo-Turkish War, 1806-1812 — the latter annexed the eastern half of the Principality of Moldavia. That region was then called Bessarabia.

Initially, after being annexed by the Russian Empire, Bessarabia enjoyed a period of local autonomy until 1828. Organized as a region (oblast) as opposed to gubernia, it was governed by a "provisional government" with 2 departments: a civil administration and a religious administration, the former led by the aged Moldavian boyar Scarlat Sturdza, the latter - by the metropolitan archbishop Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni. On top of these was the Russian military administration of Governor General Harting. However, already in 1813, the civil administration was handed to the governor-general. In 1818, reform-minded Russian tsar Alexander I passed a Settlement of the establishment of the region of Bessarabia which divided the legal power between the tsar-appointed Governor General (Bakhmetiev) and a 10-member Hight Council fo the Region with 4 members appointed by the tsar and 6 elected by the local nobility. In lieu of the older 12 lands, the region was divided into 6, later 9 counties. In 1828 however, the conservative tsar Nikolai I abrogated the Settlement and passed a new Reglement, which endowed the Governor General with the supreme power, while a Council of the Region was to have only advisory functions and would meet twice a year. Article 63 of the Reglement formally stated that all administrative personnel must know and perform their duties in Russian. Nevertheless, in practice Romanian language would appear occasionally in documents up to 1854.

At the end of the Crimean War, in 1856, by the Treaty of Paris, two districts of southern Bessarabia - Cahul and Ismail - were returned to Moldavia, and Russia lost access to the Danube river. In 1859, Moldavia, including the two districts Southern part of Bessarabia, and Wallachia united and formed modern Romania. The Romanian War of Independence was fought in 1877-1878, with the help of the Russian allies. Although the treaty of alliance between Romania and Russia specified that Russia would respect the territorial integrity of Romania and not claim any part of Romania at the end of the war, by the Treaty of Berlin, the southern part of Bessarabia was re-annexed to Russia. In exchange, Romania got Dobruja, prior to that moment directly controlled by the Ottomans.

In 1870, the institution of zemstva was instated in Bessarabia. Cities, communes, counties, and the entire region would elect each a local council representing in a censored manner noblemen, merchants and peasants. They had substantial activity in economic and sanitary areas, including roads, posts, food, public safety. On the other hand, political (including justice courts of all levels) and cultural matters remained an exclusive domain of the Governor General and were user as a vehicle of Russification. With the accomplishment of these introductions, in 1871, Bessarabia, previously a region (oblast), became a gubernia.

Public education was entrusted to the religious establishment of the region, which since 1821 had only Russian Archbishops. Dimitrie Sulima (Archbishop in 1821-1855), and Antonie Shokotov (1855-1871) allowed the parallel usage of both Romanian and Russian in church, and did not take any measures to infringe upon the linguistic specifics of the region. With the appointment of Pavel Lebedev (1871-1882), the situation changed radically, and the language of the locals was soon purged from the church. To prevent the printing of religious literature in Romanian, Lebedev closed down the printing press in Chişinău, collected from the region and burned the already printed books in Romanian (in Slavonic Cyrillic alphabet). The following archbishops Sergey Lapidevsky, Isakyi Polozensky, Neofit Novodchikov eased some of Lebedev's measures to help quell the serious dissatisfaction of the population. The next Archbishop Iakov Pyatnitsky (1898-1904) discovered that his desire to popularize a Christian culture and a moral education faced a language barrier, and in 1900 convinced the Russian High Sinod to allow the publication of religious pamphlets in Romanian, while his follower Archbishop Vladimir allowed the printing of books, and from 1908 even of a regular religious journal Luminatorul by Constantin Popovici and Gurie Grosu. The last Russian Archbishops, Serfafim Chichyagov (1908-1914), Platon (1914-1915) and Atanasy (1915-1918) tried to preserve the privileged status of the Russian language in the church in Bessarabia, but did not introduce any new anti-Romanian measures. Left by the last Russian Archbishop on June 23, 1918, the archbishopric was entrusted to the Bishop Nicodem de Huşi from Romania, who appointed a local Archbishop Dionisie Erhan. Then the Clerical Congress on Febrauary 21, 1920 elected Gurie Botoşăneanu as the highest church official in Bessarabia, which afterwards was restored from Archbishop to Metropolitan.

Under the protection of Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni and Dimitrie Sulima a theological school and a seminary were opened in Chişinău, and public schools throughtout the region: in the cities of Chişinău, Hotin, Cetatea Albă, Briceni, Bender, Bălţi, Cahul, Soroca, Orhei, at the monasteries of Dobruşa and Hârjauca, and even in several villages (Rezeni, Mereni, Volcineţ, Nisporeni, Hârtop). However in 1835, the tsarist authorities declared a 7-year deadline to transfer the education from Romanian to Russian. Although the measure was implemented more gradually, since 1867, Romanian was purged entirely from the education. This had the effect of keeping the peasant population of Bessarabia backward, as witnessed by the fact that in 1912 Moldavians had a literacy rate of only 10.5%, lowest among all ethnic groups of the region (63% for Bessarabian Germans, 50% for Bessarabian Jews, 40% for Russians, 31% for Bessarabian Bulgarians), with a record low 1.7% literacy rate for Moldavian women. Of the 1709 primary schools in Bessarabia in 1912, none was in the language of the basic ethnic group.

During 1812-1914, a series of colonizations were made in Bessarabia by the Russian authorities. German colonists from Switzerland (canton Lausanne), France, and Germany (Wurtemberg) settled in 27 localities (most newly settled) in Budjak, and by 1856 Bessarabian Germans were 42,216. Russian veterans of the 1828-1829 war with the Ottomans were settled in 10 localities in Budjak, and 3 other localities were settled by Cossacks from Dobrudja (which got there from the Dniepr region some 50 years earlier). Bassarabian Bulgarians and Gagauzes arrived from modern eastern Bulgaria as early as the second half of the 18th century. In 1817, they were 482 families in 12 localities, in 1856 - 115,000 people in 43 localities. The above settlements were performed under the supervision of the Tsarist authorities. Ukrainians had arrived Bessarabia since before 1812, and already in 1820s they made up 1/3 of the population of the most northern Hotin county. In the following decades further Ukrainians settle throughout the northern part of Bessarabia from Galicia and Podolia. Jews from Galicia, Podolia and Poland also settled in Bessarabia in the 19th century, but mostly in the cities and fairs, in some of these they in time became a plurality. In 1856, there were 78,751 Bessarabian Jews. There was even an attempt by the Russian authorities to create 16 Jewish agricultural colonies, where 10,589 people were settle. However within less than 2 generations, most of them sold the land to the local Molavians and moved to the cities and fairs.

Union with Romania

Main article: Moldavian Democratic Republic

Main article: Sfatul Ţării

Main article: Union of Bessarabia with Romania

Main article: Greater Romania

Declaration of unification of Romania and Bessarabia

After the Russian Revolution, a Romanian national emancipation movement started to develop in Bessarabia.

To quell the chaos brought about by the Russian revolutions of February and October 1917, a National Council, Sfatul Ţării, was established in Bessarabia, with 120 members elected in county meetings of peasants, and by political and professional organizations from Bessarabia. On December 15, 1917, the Council proclaimed the Moldavian Democratic Republic, as part of a Russian Federation, then formed the government of Moldavia. At the request of the Sfatul Ţării executive, approved by the Allies and the Russian White general Dmitriy Shcherbachov, commander-in-chief of the Russian forces on the Romanian Front, on January 26, 1918, Romanian troops entered Bessarabia to help maintain security, which had deteriorated due to large numbers of deserters from the Russian Army. The presence of the Romanian army in Bessarabia has caused tension within the Council, with some of its members, notably Ion Inculeţ, president of Sfatul Ţării and Pantelimon Erhan, head of the provisional Moldavian executive protesting against it.(In particular they feared that big land owners-dominated Romanian Government could use the troups to prevent the envisaged Agrarian reform, a cornerstone priority of the Bessarbian government.) After this, the Council declared the independence of the Moldavian Democratic Republic on February 6 [O.S. January 24] 1918. Under pressure from the Romanian army, on April 9 [O.S. March 27] 1918, Sfatul Ţării, by a vote of 86 to 3, with 36 abstentions, approved the Union of Bessarabia with Romania. The union was recognized by some European coutries, but not by the Soviet government, which claimed the area as the Bessarabian Soviet Socialist Republic, and argued the union was made under conditions of Romanian military occupation by a Council that had not been elected by the people of Bessarabia in elections.

Soviet era

Beginnings of the Soviet period east of the Dniester

Main article: Moldavian ASSR

File:UkrainianSRRmap1933 whitebg.JPG

Ukrainian SSR in 1933, after the Peace of Riga and the consolidation of USSR. Note the rose border line showing the Soviet claims over the former Russian guberniya of Bessarabia

After the creation of the Soviet Union in December 1922, the Soviet government moved in 1924 to establish the Moldavian Autonomous Oblast on the lands to the east of the Dniester River in the Ukrainian SSR. The capital of the oblast was Balta, situated in present-day Ukraine. Seven months later, the oblast was upgraded to the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Moldavian ASSR or MASSR), even though its population was only 30% ethnic Romanian. The capital remained at Balta until 1929, when it was moved to Tiraspol.

Establishment of the MSSR

Main article: Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina

In the secret Nazi-Soviet protocol attached to the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact defining the division of the spheres of influence in Eastern Europe, Nazi Germany declared it had no political interest in Bessarabia, in response to the Soviet Union's expression of interest, thereby consigning Bessarabia to the Soviet "sphere". On June 26, 1940 the Soviet government issued an ultimatum to the Romanian minister in Moscow, demanding Romania immediately cede Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. Italy and Germany, which needed a stable Romania and access to its oil fields, urged King Carol II to do so. Under duress, with no prospect of aid from France or Britain, Carol complied, although Romanians have consistently called it a withdrawal. On June 28, Soviet troops crossed the Dniester and occupied Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and the Hertza region. According to Malbone W. Graham, from an international legal standpoint, this new status was considered as consenting to the retrocession of Bessarabia and the cession of the North Bukovina, based on a formal agreement contained in an exchange of notes.

The Romanian withdrawal was chaotic. Soviet promises of allowing an orderly troop removal were broken. Officials, former Sfatul Ţării members and ordinary citizens were arrested or shot on the spot. The official Soviet press declared that the "peaceful policy of the USSR" had "liquidated the [Bessarabian] Soviet-Romanian conflict".

The Soviet republic created following annexation did not follow Bessarabia's traditional border. The Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic (Moldovan SSR), established August 2, 1940, consisted of six and a half counties of Bessarabia joined with the westernmost part of the already extant MASSR (an autonomous entity within the Ukrainian SSR). Various changes were made to its borders, which were finally settled by November 1940. Territories where ethnic Ukrainians formed a large portion of the population (parts of Northern Bukovina and parts of Hotin, Akkerman, and Izmail) went to the Ukraine, while a small strip of Transnistria east of the Dniester with a significant (49% of inhabitants) Moldovan population was joined to the MSSR. According to Nikita Khrushchev, who led the commission that established the border, the transfer of Bessarabia's Black Sea and Danube frontage to the Ukraine insured its control by a stable Soviet republic. This transfer, along with the division of Bessarabia, was also designed to discourage future Romanian claims and irredentism.

World War II

In, June-July 1941, allied with Nazi Germany, Romania recaptured and reintegrated the annexed territory. Ignoring the counsel of Romanian democratic politicians Iuliu Maniu and Dinu Brătianu, the Romanian dictator Ion Antonescu pushed beyond Romania's interwar borders. In occupied Transnistria, Romanian forces, working with the Germans, deported 147,000 Jews from Bessarabia and Bukovina, 90,000 of which perished of tiphos and hanger.

By April 1944, northern Moldavia and Transnistria was back in the hands of the Soviets, and in August 1944 the entire territory was recaptured by the Red Army. With Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina again under Soviet administration, the peace treaty signed in February 1947 fixed the Romanian-Soviet border to the one established in June 1940.

Postwar reestablishment of Soviet control

Main article: Moldavian SSR

Main article: Soviet deportations from Bessarabia

The territory remained part of the USSR after WWII as the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. Several social and economic groups were targeted to be murdered, imprisoned, and deported to Siberia due to their economic situation, political views, or ties to the former regime. Secret police struck at dissenting people and groups. Over the years, the state imposed a harsh denationalization policy toward the ethnic majority, while ethnic Russians and Ukrainians were encouraged to immigrate to the Moldavian SSR, especially to large cities and to Transnistria, to cover the lack of personnel in the newly-established industries. Most of these industries were built in Transnistria and around large cities, while in the rest of the republic agriculture was developed. By the late Soviet period, the urban intelligentsia and government officials were dominated mostly by ethnic Moldovans, while Russians and Ukrainians made up most of the technical and engineering specialists.

According to mainstream sources, following a historic drought in 1946, the government's policies, such as requisitioning large amounts of agricultural products despite a poor harvest and a labor shortage (due to most WWII conscripts not being decommissioned yet), caused a famine, with 216,000 victims in the Moldavian SSR alone. There were also 389,000 cases of dystrophy due to malnutrition. Some call it a deliberate policy of the Soviet government. Robert Conquest coined the term famine terror to describe famine as deliberate. Official Soviet figures at the time, however, give much lower numbers of deaths, only 36,000, describing the famine was a consequence of war, severe drought and (sometimes) government mismanagement of food reserves. (See also Droughts and famines in Russia and the Soviet Union) The worst months were February-March 1947.

The conditions imposed during the reestablishment of Soviet rule became the basis of deep resentment toward Soviet authorities, manifested in numerous resistance movements to Soviet rule. During Leonid Brezhnev's 1950-1952 tenure as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Moldavia (CPM), he was ruthless comparing to his predecessor N. Coval in putting down numerous resistance groups, and issuing harsh sentences. A wave of repression was aimed at the Romanian intellectuals who decided to remain in Moldova after the war.

Most political and academic positions were given to members of non-Romanian ethnic groups (only 17.5% of the Moldavian SSR's political leaders were ethnic Romanians in 1940).

Although Brezhnev and other CPM first secretaries were largely successful in suppressing Moldovan/Romanian nationalism in 1950s-1980s, Mikhail S. Gorbachev's administration facilitated the revival of the movement in the region. His policies of glasnost and perestroika created conditions in which national feelings could be openly expressed and in which the Soviet republics could consider reforms.

In 1970s and '80s Moldova received substantial investment from the budget of the USSR to develop industrial, scientific facilities, as well as housing. In 1971 the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a decision "About the measures for further development of Kishinev city" that secured more than one billion rubles of funds for Chisinau alone from the USSR budget. Subsequent decisions directed large amounts of funds and brought qualified specialists from all over the USSR to further develop the Moldavian SSR. Such an allocation of USSR assets was influenced by the fact that the-then leader of the Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev, was the First Secretary of the local Communist Party in the 1950s. These investments stopped in 1991 with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, when Moldova became independent.

Independence

Towards independence

Main article: Independence of Moldova

In the climate of Mikhail Gorbachov's glasnost, openness and political self-assertion escalated in the Moldavian SSR in 1988. The year 1989 saw the formation of the Popular Front of Moldova, an association of independent cultural and political groups that had finally gained official recognition. Large demonstrations by ethnic Romanians led to the designation on August 31, 1989 of Moldovan/Romanian as the official language and a return to the Latin alphabet. The head of the CPM was also replaced.

However, opposition was growing to the Romanian language and to the potentially increasing influence of ethnic Moldovans, especially in Transnistria, where the Yedinstvo-Unitatea (Unity) Intermovement had been formed in 1988 by by Slavic minorities, and in the south, where the organization Gagauz Halkî (Gagauz People), formed in November 1989, came to represent the Gagauz, a Turkic-speaking minority there.

The first democratic elections to the Moldavian SSR's Supreme Soviet were held on February 25, 1990. Runoff elections were held in March. The Popular Front won a majority of the votes. After the elections, Mircea Snegur, a reformed communist, was elected chairman of the Supreme Soviet; in September he became president of the republic. The reformist government that took over in May 1990 made many changes that did not please the minorities, including changing the republic's name in June from the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic to the Soviet Socialist Republic of Moldova and declaring it sovereign the following month. At the same time, Romanian tricolor with the Moldavian coat-of-arms was adopted as the state flag, and Deşteaptă-te române!, the Romanian anthem, became the anthem of Moldova. During that period a Movement for unification of Romania and the Republic of Moldova began in each country.

In August 1990 the a separate "Gagauz Republic" (Gagauz-Yeri) was declared in the south, in the city of Comrat. In September in Tiraspol, the main city on the east bank of the Dniester River, a "Dnestr Moldavian Republic" (commonly called the "Dnestr Republic") was proclaimed. Although the Parliament of Moldova immediately declared these declarations null, both "republics" went on to hold elections.

In mid-October 1990, approximately 30,000 Moldovan nationalist volunteers were sent to Gagauzia and Transnistria, where widespread violence was temporarily averted by the intervention of the Soviet 14th Army. (The Soviet 14th Army, now the Russian 14th Army, had been headquartered in Chişinău since 1956.) Negotiations in Moscow among the Gagauz, the Transnistrian Slavs, and the government of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Moldova failed, and the government refused to join in further negotiations.

In May 1991, the country's official name was changed to the Republic of Moldova (Republica Moldova). The name of the Supreme Soviet also was changed, to the Moldovan Parliament.

During the 1991 August coup d'état in Moscow against Mikhail Gorbachev, commanders of the Soviet Union's Southwestern Theater of Military Operations attempted to impose a state of emergency in Moldova. They were overruled by the Moldovan government, which declared its support for Russian president Boris Yeltsin, who led the counter-coup in Moscow. On 27 August 1991, following the coup's collapse, Moldova declared its independence from the Soviet Union.

The leader of breakaway Transnistria Igor Smirnov was arrested, but later freed. The December elections of Stepan Topal and Igor Smirnov as presidents of their respective "republics," and the official dissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of the year, had further increased tensions in Moldova.

Post-independence

Main article: Politics of Moldova

In December 1991, an ex-communist reformer, Mircea Snegur, ran an unopposed election for the presidency. On March 2, 1992, the country achieved formal recognition as an independent state at the United Nations. The Soviet system was falling apart quickly, and Moldovan leadership decided to rely on itself to bring the breakaway Transnistria back under its control. In April 1992, the Parliament formed a Ministry of Defense, and Moldova began to organize its own armed forces.

In 1992, Moldova became involved in a brief conflict against local insurgents in Transnistria, who were aided by locally stationed Russian armed forces and Don Cossacks, which resulted in the failure of Moldova to regain control over the breakaway republic. A ceasefire for this war was negotiated by presidents Mircea Snegur and Boris Yeltsin in July 1992. A demarcation line was to be maintained by a tripartite peacekeeping force (composed of Moldovan, Russian, and Transnistrian forces), and Moscow agreed to withdraw its 14th Army in parallel with finding a permanent solution for Transnistrian conflict. Also, Transnistria would have a special status within Moldova and would have the right to secede if Moldova changed its statehood, for instance by uniting with Romania. However, in subsequent talks the Transnistrian authorities declined this offer, setting course for continued independence instead. As of 2008, this conflict remains unresoved.

Starting 1993, Moldova began to distance itself from Romania. The constitution adopted in 1994 used the term "Moldovan language" instead of "Romanian" and changed the national anthem to Limba noastră.

New parliamentary elections were held in Moldova on 27 February 1994. Although the election was described by international observers as free and fair, authorities in Transnistria did not allow balloting there and made efforts to discourage the inhabitants from participating. Only some 7,500 inhabitants voted at specially established precincts in right-bank Moldova.

The new Parliament, with its Democratic Agrarian Party of Moldova majority, did not face the same gridlock that characterized the old Parliament with its majority of Popular Front hard-line nationalists: legislation was passed, and changes were made. President Snegur signed the Partnership for Peace agreement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in March 1994.

A March 1994 referendum saw an overwhelming majority of voters favoring continued independence. In April, the Parliament approved Moldova's membership in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and in a CIS charter on economic union. On 28 July, Parliament ratified a new constitution, which went into effect 27 August 1994, and provided substantial autonomy to Transnistria and to Gagauzia.

Russia and Moldova signed an agreement in October 1994 on the withdrawal of Russian troops from Transnistria, but the Russian government did not ratify it; another stalemate ensued. Although the cease-fire remained in effect, further negotiations that included the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe and the United Nations made little progress.

In March and April 1995, Moldovan college and secondary school students participated in a series of strikes and demonstrations in Chişinău to protest the government's cultural and educational policies. The students were joined by others protesting for economic reasons. The most emotional issue was that of the national language - whether it should be called Moldovan, as named in the 1994 constitution, or Romanian.

In a 27 April speech to the Parliament, President Snegur asked the Parliament to amend the constitution and change the name of the language to Romanian. The government's final decision was postponed until the fall of 1995 because of the stipulation that six months must pass before a proposed change to the constitution can be made. The student demonstrators declared a moratorium on further strikes until 6 September.

The 1996 attempt by President Snegur to change the official language to "Romanian" was dismissed by the Moldovan Parliament as "promoting Romanian expansionism".

The Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with the European Union (EU) came into force in July 1998 for an initial period of ten years. It established the institutional framework for bilateral relations, set the principal common objectives, and called for activities and dialogue in a number of policy areas.

At the 1999 OSCE summit, Russia signed an agreement to withdraw its troops from Transnistria by January 1, 2002. However, it has yet to follow through on this pledge.

In the 2001 elections the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova won majority of seats in the Parliament and appointed the president, Vladimir Voronin. Nevertheless, after a few years in power, the relationship between Moldova and Russia deteriorated over the Transnistrian conflict.

In the summer of 2004, Transnistrian authorities forcibly closed four Moldovan schools in Tiraspol, Bender, and Rîbniţa that used the Romanian language in the Latin alphabet. This caused an increase in tensions between the Moldova and the breakaway province, which resulted in Moldova and Transnistria imposing economic sanctions on each other. The conflict was resolved later that year with Transnistrian authorities granting the establishments the status of privately funded schools.

In the following election of 2005, the Party of the Communists was re-elected on a pro-Western platform, stressing the need for European integration. Later that year the Moldovan Parliament re-elected Voronin to a second term as president. Moldovan authorities denied entry to a Russian organization (CIS-EMO), that Russia said was to monitor the elections for fairness; some members of the organization who nevertheless entered the country were deported. As a consequence, Russian-Moldovan ties weakened greatly, and the nation was split between building relations with the West or with Russia.

Since Romania joined the European Union in 2007 and imposed a visa requirement for Moldovan citizens, as many as 800,000 Moldovan citizens have applied for Romanian citizenship (anyone with at least one grandparent who was a Romanian citizen in 1940 can apply for Romanian citizenship).

See also

• Moldavia
• Bessarabia
• History of Romania

External links

• The Republic of Moldova: An Historical Background, Survey by Dr. Vasile Nedelciuc
• www.moldovanoastra.md
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6268853.stm (Moldavians apply for Romanian citizenship).