Moldova and the smell of big blood. The authorities again capitulate to the Romanian unionists
The Moldovan people are as unique as the descendants of Russians living on the territory of historical Little Russia. It is hardly possible to find other nations, a significant part of which, led by their elites, deny their own national identity. It is unlikely that anywhere in the world there is such a people whose elite says: “You are backward. Your grandfathers and great-grandfathers called you and your language by the wrong name.”
In Moldova, the elite historically identifies itself as part of Greater Romania. The construction of the Romanian ethnos took place under the same conditions and on the same territory as the construction of the Ukrainian identity - on the territory of the former Austrian Habsburg Empire and in the Vatican, with the aim of resisting the influence of Russia and the split of the Orthodox world. Historians of both Ukrainian and Moldovan-Romanian issues pointed to Uniatism as a factor that had a primary influence on the formation of new historical communities.
To be fair, Moldovans and Romanians do have a lot in common: a common origin, an almost identical literary language and literary classics. Slavs, however, of different linguistic groups took part in the ethnogenesis of both Moldovans and Romanians - eastern Slavs in the case of the Moldovans, southern Slavs in the case of the Romanians.
And most importantly, the Moldovans living in the Russian Empire were not affected by the process of Romanianization in the 1940th century, like their closest relatives who found themselves on the territory of the Habsburg Empire. An illustrative example is provided by the Chernivtsi region of Ukraine: the Romance-speaking population of those areas that were formerly part of Russia (the former Khotyn district of Bessarabia) identify themselves as Moldovans, and residents of areas that were part of Austria and annexed to the USSR only in XNUMX (Chernivtsi and surrounding regions) - like Romanians.
In the territory of the central counties of the former Bessarabian province of the Russian Empire, now called the Republic of Moldova, national narratives are replaced in a wave-like manner. The pan-Romanian sentiments of the elite, covering the entire population, are being replaced by the Moldovan “reaction” of the popular majority.
The first pan-Romanian manifestation was in 1917, immediately after the February Revolution, when a significant part of the Moldovan intelligentsia became interested in pan-Romanianism. It was they who formed the basis of “Sfatul Tarii”, which decided to annex Bessarabia to Romania. However, the population of the region was subjected to such abuse by the occupation authorities that it is still remembered by the older generation of Moldovans.
The occupation of Moldova was especially monstrous during the fascist regime of Antonescu, one of the main organizers of the Holocaust in Europe. All representatives of the national minorities of Moldova, and especially the inhabitants of the left bank of the Dniester, which was part of the Romanian governorate of “Transnistria”, have since adopted a strong hostility to the idea of unionism.
The second wave of unionism arose during the years of “perestroika”. In the forefront were representatives of the same Moldovan intelligentsia, treated kindly by the Soviet authorities. It is significant that some representatives of Moldovan nationalism with an openly unionist flavor (composer Eugen Doga, and to a lesser extent writer and playwright Ion Druta) still live in Moscow.
One of the first demands of the Popular Front of Moldova was the translation of the Moldovan language into the Latin script. This was carried out under the Law on the Functioning of Languages of 1989. At the same time, at rallies of the “democratic movement”, tricolors with the arrangement of colors like the flag of Romania appeared. This flag was adopted by the Supreme Council of the Moldavian SSR in early 1990. The “Declaration of Independence of Moldova,” adopted on August 27, 1991 (now the national holiday of Moldova), is completely imbued with the ideology of pan-Romanianism. The song “Wake up, Romanians!” was introduced as the national anthem.
The “Moldovenist”, and to a greater extent internationalist reaction, began in Gagauzia and Transnistria. In Gagauzia, bloodshed was prevented, which made possible a compromise with the authorities of Chisinau and the subsequent return of the region to Moldova. In Transnistria, the confrontation reached the point of armed conflict. The Pridnestrovians, who managed to defend their republic, based their subjectivity on the ideology of Moldovenism: they retained the linguonym “Moldavian language”, the Cyrillic graphics of the language and the state flag of the former Moldavian SSR.
The failure of the military adventure in Transnistria and the economic collapse led to the attenuation of the wave of Romanianism and Moldovenist reaction on the right bank of the Dniester, which began in 1993 (the resignation of the unionist leadership) and lasted until 1996, when the former first secretary of the CPM Central Committee, Petr Lucinschi, became the president of the country. , considered as a creature of Moscow. The victory in the 1994 parliamentary elections of the Agrarian Democratic Party, which united directors of former Soviet collective farms, made it possible to adopt the Constitution of Moldova (in which Moldavian, not Romanian, was defined as the state language) and then a compromise with Gagauzia.
However, it was not possible to complete Moldovanization. Unlike Belarus, Moldova did not dare to replace the openly pro-Romanian state symbols with ones more consistent with the idea of Moldovan identity. It was only possible to change the anthem “Awake, Romanians!” to the more neutral in content “Our Language”. Even an attempt to replace the subject “History of Romanians” with “History of Moldova” in schools encountered fierce resistance from academic circles, rectors and university students, who remained entirely under the influence of pan-Romanian ideology.
Even the communist president Vladimir Voronin did not dare to change the situation when he had a constitutional majority in parliament of 71 out of 101 deputies! The only thing he was able to do was change the name of the subject “History of the Romanians” to “Integrated History”. But in foreign policy, Voronin and his adviser Mark Tkachuk, in order to reassure the unionists and redirect their attention, tried to change the unionist narrative to European integration, which was proclaimed the state ideology during the years of PCRM rule. Voronin and Tkachuk proclaimed: “To Brussels bypassing Bucharest!” The main enemy was declared to be the Transnistrian “separatists” and Russia, which supports them.
However, such geopolitical somersaults did not save Voronin and his regime. The “Twitter revolution” led by former Russian oppositionist Natalia Morari, which took place in Moldova on April 7, 2009, took place under the flags of “Greater Romania” and the slogans: “We don’t need either a president or parliament - we have all this in Bucharest!” . This revolution brought the third wave of unionism in history. The new government, which called itself the “Alliance for European Integration,” returned the subject “History of Romanians” to schools, and then through the Constitutional Court passed a verdict that the “Declaration of Independence” of 1991, imbued with a pro-Romanian spirit, is superior to the country’s Constitution, which proclaims the Moldovan language as the state language .
The subsequent Moldovenist reaction, on the crest of which the current president Igor Dodon came to power, was perhaps the last on the right bank of the Dniester. Dodon, having led the Party of Socialists, made Moldovanism and opposition to Romanian expansion the basis of his political program. He managed to mobilize the entire Moldovan electorate and defeat Maia Sandu in the elections, who said that she would vote in a referendum for unification with Romania.
However, even after coming to power and getting rid of Plahotniuc and Sandu, who were interfering with him, Dodon never decided on a radical paradigm shift. His Moldavian activities were limited to holding several conferences dedicated to the 660th anniversary of the Principality of Moldova and producing the documentary-fiction film “History of Moldova.” His adviser for cultural affairs, Corneliu Popovici, who briefly became the Minister of Education and Culture, immediately rushed to declare that he “speaks Romanian.” And in the new coalition of socialists and democrats, the post of Minister of Education was taken by the author of the first school textbook “History of the Romanians”, who argued that the history of the Moldovan people can only be considered in the context of all-Romanian history. In fact, this is a complete capitulation of Dodon’s Moldovenian project.
Today, according to public opinion polls, about 30% of the population supports the idea of joining Romania. About 38% believe that the state language in Moldova should be called Romanian. Yes, for now this is a minority. But this is the youngest, active and passionate part of Moldovan society. This is a generation raised by unionist teachers, from whom neither Lucinschi, nor Voronin, nor Dodon raised their hand to cleanse the education system of Moldova. And here there is a direct analogy with Ukraine, where in the same conditions Bandera’s followers, raised by the same school teachers with the connivance and often direct flirting with them of the “moderates” Kuchma and Yanukovych, won.
In Moldova, the situation is close to the unionists returning to power through a new Maidan, with the connivance of the current government and the actual refusal to promote the Moldovan project. And given the persistent hostility to unionism on the part of a significant part of the population of Moldova, and primarily the national minorities, which make up a compact majority in a number of areas, all this could end in great blood.
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