Moldova: History

Pre-20th-Century History

Originally Moldova was part of the greater region of Moldavia, but it has spent much of its history being the skinny kid pushed around by the bigger boys. It lies directly between the rock of Russia and the hard place of Romania and has always been the focal point for border disputes and expansionist policies. Prior to its tenuous unification it had been overrun, split up, reunited, conquered, annexed, renamed and taken back again more times than you can shake a stick at. It's been a long and bloody journey from the principality of Moldavia to the republic of Moldova, and it seems fitting that the flag includes a band of red signifying the blood spilled in defending the country. Moldovans are descended from the Dacians who were conquered by the Romans in 100 AD. This was followed by a millennium of instability and change, as the region was invaded by neighbouring countries and made a focal point for the diaspora of Magyars, Slavs and Bulgarians spreading across Eastern Europe. It was also a port of call for Byzantine, Italian and Greek merchants. By the beginning of the Middle Ages, when the flow of people had died down to a trickle and an organised state had begun to emerge, Moldavia (as part of Romania) was already a potpourri of different races and cultures.

During the mid-14th century, under the leadership of Stefan cel Mare (or Stephen the Great), the principality of Moldavia flourished, but by the time his son succeeded him the Turkish army had become too strong, and Moldavia was subsumed under the Ottoman Empire. It remained under Turkish suzerainty until 1711 when the Russians appeared on the Moldavian borders for the first time. Although the Russian army was initially repelled, the next century saw Russia and Turkey going at it hammer and tongs. Annexations, partitions, skirmishes, invasions and wars were the order of the day. Moldavia exchanged hands more times than a bent coin. In 1774 Austria acquired northern Moldavia, renaming it Bucovina, in exchange for brokering a peace treaty between the warring Russians and Turks. In 1812 hostilities between Turkey and Russia were temporarily suspended by the signing of the Bucharest Treaty, which gave the eastern half of Moldavia to the Russians (who renamed the region Bessarabia) and the rest of Moldavia and Wallachia to Romania. Russia persistently tried to gain control of strategic parts of Romania by various sleights of hand and hairsplitting, and in 1878 did a couple of backroom deals with the other superpowers to expand the Bessarabian borders into Romania.

Modern History

Bessarabia remained under Russian control until the 1918 Bolshevik Revolution, when the ideology of self-determination was put back on the agenda with a bang. Bessarabia reacted to this historical sea change by declaring itself an autonomous republic but, after Ukraine started running speculative eyes over its undefended flanks, decided to reunite with Romania as a protective measure. Autonomy granted by Lenin was one thing but reunification with an old enemy was another thing altogether. The reunification was never recognised or condoned by the Soviet Union, and in 1924 a group of peasants, loyal to Lenin, formed the breakaway Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (MASSR), which was later to become the Transdniestr republic. In 1940 the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet-German agreement on dividing Eastern Europe, handed Bessarabia back to the USSR who joined the fledging MASSR to the greater region of Bessarabia and renamed the entire region the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (MSSR).

The area was reoccupied by Romanian forces between 1941 and 1944, during which time thousands of Bessarabian Jews were deported to Auschwitz. In 1944 the Romanians were forced to relinquish their hold on the area, and the Soviet authorities once again took control. The consequent Sovietisation of Moldavia included the deportation of over 25,000 ethnic Moldavians to Siberia and Kazakhstan, the closing of Jewish synagogues, the outlawing of religious ceremonies and the imposition of the Cyrillic script on the Latin-based Romanian alphabet. There was also all the usual monument-building, statue-constructing, road-naming, city square-dedicating hi-jinks that comes with trying to impose an unnatural order on a conquered race of people. With the collapse of communism in the mid-1980s and Gorbachev's policies of glasnost and perestroika , the nationalist Moldovan Popular Front finally got a forum to air their views. Several years of reform and consultation followed: in 1989 the Latin alphabet was reintroduced as the official written language; in 1990 the Moldovan flag was instated and a declaration of Moldovan sovereignty was passed; and finally in 1991 Moldova declared its full independence, with communist Mircea Snegur as its first democratically elected president.

Independence has not solved all of Moldova's problems and has, in fact, created some new ones. The Slavic minorities in Transdniestr were keen to retain their cultural and social ties with Russia, while in the south the Turkish-speaking Gagauz minority were worried about possible reunification with Romania. As soon as Moldova cut the umbilical cord and declared itself a republic, the Transdniestr authorities seceded from the republic and reiterated their loyalty to Mother Russia. Matters were further complicated when the Gagauz started muttering about their own breakaway republic in the southeast. The brand new Moldovan republic was shrinking by the minute. Eventually the Gagauz relented after promises of greater regional autonomy and representation in government, but the Transdniestr republic has remained obstinate in its refusal to join Moldova.

An uneasy compromise was reached with a tripartite Russian-Transdniestran-Moldovan peacekeeping force operating in the area, but sporadic fighting between rebel separatists and Moldovan military forces still occurred, and there were constant calls for official recognition of independence from hardline secessionists.

Recent History

Added to these internal tensions were Moldova's economic woes, with austere cost-cutting measures in the pipeline, and a political struggle between those advocating stronger and faster reforms and those calling for a return to communist-style governance.

Mass protests, up to 50,000 strong, that shut down the capital, were held almost daily from January 2002, when attempts were made to reinstate the Russian language in this predominately Romanian-speaking country wary of the government's increasing ties with Russia. The mysterious disappearance of the opposition leader and the suspension of two other leading parliamentarians added fuel to the fire. The protests grew, with demands for the president's resignation and fresh elections. Voronin called in the army, bringing the dissent to an end, though waves of protests have hit the country since. In the 2005 election, Voronin's burgeoning, west-friendly attitude was deemed the lesser of two evils, winning him a second term in office. The long-festering Transdniestr issue remains unresolved.

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