History of Moldova

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

Most of today's Republic of Moldova, formerly known as Bessarabia, was part of the Principality of Moldavia from the 14th century until 1812, when it was ceded to the Russian Empire following one of several Russian-Turkish wars. The cultural heritage of the Principality of Moldavia stands at the core of Moldovan identity and the official state ideology of the Republic of Moldova.

Further Moldovenist claims are controversial from a legal and historical point of view and also lead to political imbroglio. In particular, an official document adopted in 2003 by the Moldovan parliament reclaims the Republic of Moldova as the rightful successor to the medieval Principality. However, the Principality of Moldova did not cease to exist after 1812. Far from it, its institutions steadily evolved and grew stronger, the development of a Romanian national feeling continued, and the population democratically chose, in 1859, union with Wallachia inside the Romanian national state.

This article concentrates on the historical events that lead to the construction of the Republic of Moldova and of the Moldovan identity outside the political framework of the Principality of Moldavia (and outside its successor state, Romania).

Bessarabia as part of the Principality of Moldavia

Main article: Moldavia

With the notable exception of Transnistria, the territory of today's Republic of Moldova covers most of the historical region of Bessarabia, a territory that belonged, from the 14th century and until 1812 to the Principality of Moldavia. Moldavia was a medieval principality on the lower Danube river which, along with Wallachia, formed the basis for the modern Romanian state. Its name originates from the Moldova River. The principality in its greatest extent stretched from Transylvania in the west to the Dniester River in the east, but had its nucleus in the northwestern part, the Ţara de Sus ("Upper Land"), which later became known as Bukovina. This area contained Suceava, the capital of the principality from 1359-1565. Iaşi was the capital from 1565 and until union inside Romania in 1859.

The political entity known as Moldavia was founded in the mid-14th century by the Romanian leader Dragoş of Maramureş, who had been ordered by the Hungarian king to establish a defense line for the Kingdom of Hungary against the Tatars. Bogdan I became the first independent prince of Moldavia when he rejected Hungarian authority in 1359. In 1387 it became a vassal of Poland. The greatest Moldavian prince was Ştefan cel Mare, (Stephen the Great), who ruled from 1457-1504. Ştefan was succeeded by weak princes so that by 1512 Moldavia became a vassal of the Ottoman Empire.

The territory of Moldavia often was a transit or war zone during conflicts between the Ottomans, Crimean Tatars, and Russians. In 1774 the territory became a Russian protectorship while remaining formally a vassal of the Ottoman Empire. By the Treaty of Bucharest following the Russo-Turkish War (1806-1812), Moldavia lost Bessarabia to Russia.

Part of the Russian Empire

Main article: Bessarabia

By the Treaty of Bucharest of May 28, 1812 — concluding the Russo-Turkish War, 1806-1812 — the Ottoman Empire ceded the eastern half of the Principality of Moldavia to the Russian Empire. That region was then called Bessarabia. Prior to this year, the name was used only for approximately its southern one quarter, which was already under direct Ottoman control ever since 1484. At the end of the Crimean War, in 1856, by the Treaty of Paris, two districts of southern Bessarabia were returned to Moldavia, Russia lost access to the Danube river. Many localities, including Chişinău (Kishinev), now fell in the border area. In 1859, Moldavia and Wallachia united as the Kingdom of Romania in 1866, including the Southern part of Bessarabia. 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 again came under the control of Russia.

Union with Romania

Declaration of unification of Romania and Bessarabia

After the Russian Revolution, a Romanian nationalist movement started to develop in Bessarabia. In the chaos brought by the Russian revolution of October 1917, a National Council (Sfatul Ţării) was established in Bessarabia, with 120 members elected from Bessarabia and 10 elected from Transnistria (the left shore of the river Dnister, inhabited by ethnic Moldavians/Romanians). The new body declared the indpendence of the Republic of Moldova on December 2 1917. On the request of the new Moldovan administration, on December 13, Romanian troops entered Bessarabia. On March 27 1918 there was a vote for the unification with Romania. The unification was not recognised by the Soviet government, which claimed the area as the Bessarabian Soviet Socialist Republic.

Beginning of the Soviet period

Main article: Moldavian ASSR

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), 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 and World War II

With consent from Nazi Germany (cf. the secret protocol attached to the 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact), Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina were occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940. On 2 August 1940, the Soviet government created the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (Moldavian SSR), with its capital at Chişinău (Kishinev), by joining most of Bessarabia with a portion of the Moldavian ASSR (Northern Bukovina and the remainder of Bessarabia were assigned to the Ukrainian SSR). While Bessarabia had access to the Black Sea and the Danube, the Moldavian ASSR had none (it was landlocked).

In June 1941, a year after the Soviet Union occupied Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, German and Romanian troops attacked the Soviet Union. The Romanians took back the territories occupied by the Soviets, and occupied the land between the Dniester and Bug rivers north to Bar in Ukraine. This territory, called Pivdennyy Buh in Ukrainian and Yuzhnyy Bug in Russian, was administered by Romania under the name of Transnistria. This arrangement lasted until 1944, when Soviet forces drove the Axis out of the region, liberating Transnistria and re-occupying Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. In 1947, the previous Soviet administrative divisions and Russian placenames were reinstated.

Postwar reestablishment of Soviet control

Main article: Moldavian SSR

The territory remained part of the USSR after WWII as the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic and the state imposed a harsh denationalization policy toward the native Romanian population. 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 nationalist groups; and ethnic Russians and Ukrainians were encouraged to immigrate to the Moldavian SSR, especially to Transnistria. At the same time, most of the Moldovan industry was built in Transnistria, while in Bessarabia mostly agriculture was developed.

The government's policies - requisitioning large amounts of agricultural products despite a poor harvest - induced a famine - with 300,000 victims - following the catastrophic drought of 1945-1947, and political and academic positions were given to members of non-Romanian ethnic groups (only 14% of the Moldavian SSR's political leaders were ethnic Romanians in 1946).

A wave of repression was aimed at the Romanian intellectuals that decided to remain in Moldova after the war and propaganda was directed against everything that was Romanian.

The conditions imposed during the reestablishment of Soviet rule became the basis of deep resentment toward Soviet authorities — a resentment that soon manifested itself. During Leonid I. Brezhnev's 1950-1952 tenure as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Moldavia (CPM), he put down a rebellion of ethnic Romanians by killing or deporting thousands of people and instituting forced collectivization. Although Brezhnev and other CPM first secretaries were largely successful in suppressing Moldovan/Romanian nationalism, 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 investment from the USSR budget. Subsequent decisions that directed enormous wealth and brought highly qualified specialists from all over the USSR to develop Moldova. Such an allocation of USSR assets was influenced by the fact that Leonid Brezhnev (the effective ruler of the USSR from 1964 to 1982) was the Communist Party First Secretary in the Moldavian SSR in 1950s. These investments stopped in 1991 with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, when Moldova became independent.

Increasing self-expression

In this climate of openness, political self-assertion escalated in the Moldavian SSR in 1988. The year 1989 saw the formation of the Moldovan Popular Front (commonly called the Popular Front), an association of independent cultural and political groups that had finally gained official recognition. Large demonstrations by ethnic Romanians led to the designation of Romanian as the official language and the replacement of the head of the CPM. However, opposition was growing to the increasing influence of ethnic Romanians, especially in Transnistria, where the Yedinstvo-Unitatea (Unity) Intermovement had been formed in 1988 by the Slavic minorities, and in the south, where Gagauz Halkî (Gagauz People), formed in November 1989, came to represent the Gagauz, a Turkic-speaking minority there (see Ethnic Composition, this ch.).

The first democratic elections to the Moldavian SSR's Supreme Soviet were held 25 February 1990. Runoff elections were held in March. The Popular Front won a majority of the votes. After the elections, Mircea Snegur, a 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 same month.

Secession of Gagauzia and Transnistria

Main article: Conflict in Transnistria and Gagauzia

In August 1990 the Gagauz declared a separate "Gagauz Republic" (Gagauz-Yeri) in the south, around the city of Comrat. In September the people on the east bank of the Dniester River (with mostly Slavic population) proclaimed the "Dnestr Moldavian Republic" (commonly called the "Dnestr Republic") in Transnistria, with its capital at Tiraspol. Although the Supreme Soviet immediately declared these declarations null, both "republics" went on to hold elections. Stepan Topal was elected president of the "Gagauz Republic" in December 1991, and Igor' N. Smirnov was elected president of the "Dnestr Republic" in the same month.

Approximately 50,000 armed Moldovan nationalist volunteers went to Transnistria, where widespread violence was temporarily averted by the intervention of the Russian 14th Army. (The Soviet 14th Army, now the Russian 14th Army, had been headquartered in Chişinău under the High Command of the Southwestern Theater of Military Operations 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.

Independence

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.

In October, Moldova began to organize its own armed forces. The Soviet Union was falling apart quickly, and Moldova had to rely on itself to prevent the spread of violence from the "Dnestr Republic" to the rest of the country. 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, led to increased tensions in Moldova.

At the end of 1991, an ex-communist reformer, Mircea Snegur, won an election for the presidency. Four months later, the country achieved formal recognition as an independent state at the United Nations.

Following independence in 1991, the Romanian tricolor with a coat-of-arms was used as the state flag, and Deşteaptă-te române!, the Romanian anthem also became the anthem of Moldova. During that period a Movement for unification of Romania and the Republic of Moldova began in each country.

In 1992, Moldova became involved in a brief conflict against local insurgents in Transnistria, who were aided by Russian armed forces and Ukrainian Cossacks. A ceasefire for this war was negotiated by presidents Mircea Snegur and Boris Yeltsin in July. 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 if a suitable constitutional provision were made for Transnistria. Also, Transnistria would have a special status within Moldova and would have the right to secede if Moldova decided to reunite with Romania.

Post independence: 1993 to 1998

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 staged 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.

Recent history: 2001 to present

In the 2001 elections a pro-Russian Communist party won majority of seats in the Parliament and appointed a Communist 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, Tighina/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 Communist party 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 visa for Moldavian citizens, as many as 800.000 Moldavian 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).