The four pillars of Pridnestrovie's statehood
In the breakup of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, freedom and independence for Pridnestrovie was not just viable but virtually inevitable. The country bases its existence as a nation on self-determination, its separate history, its actual distinctiveness, and on the reversal of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.
For the past decade and a half, Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica has existed as state separate from its larger neighbor, Moldova. Pridnestrovie today exhibits all the signs of a healthy, well functioning country: A market economy, a financial system, its own president, parliament, civic community, independent media, and different TV channels (both public and private) who express different points of view with no apparent censorship.
Pridnestrovie's independence as a nation is based on four main pillars -
- Self-determination;
- Pridnestrovie's separate history;
- Actual distinctiveness;
- Reversal of Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.
Standing alone, each one would be enough to justify the existence of a separate Pridnestrovian nation. Combined, they show that freedom and independence for Pridnestrovie was not just viable but virtually inevitable following the breakup of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.
1. Self-determinationSelf-determination is the right of a people to govern itself. Democracy also means the right to self-determination, and the right of the people to self-determination stands prominently in the UN Charter as well as in other international documents. Of even more importance, self-determination with full secession was actually legal in the waning days of the Soviet Union: So unlike other countries in the world where self-determination might not always be enough to justify secession, the declaration of Pridnestrovie was built upon a moral and a legal basis. (For more on that, read the USSR law which governed this on the territory of Pridnestrovie in 1990).
The United States, and the majority of other nations in today's world, were founded on the principle of self-determination and Pridnestrovie is no exclusion ... although in the case of Pridnestrovie, the case for sovereignty is much stronger than "mere" self-determination. In the case of Pridnestrovie, self-determination represents just one of the four tenets on which the nation is founded; the other three being its history, its distinctiveness from Moldova, and the nullification of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (representing the dissolution of the MSSR which Pridnestrovie was a part of until 1990).
Like the four corners of this Pridnestrovian flag, the PMR is supported by four main principles.
"- Restrictions on self-determination cannot be the answer but rather the extension of democracy and self-determination. A restrictive interpretation of the right of self-determination has in the past led to violence, civil wars, ethnic cleansing and the break up of states. I am convinced that if the international community accepts the principle of democracy and the right of self-determination, we will be able to eliminate wars and to a large extent the oppression of minorities. We will not be able to create paradise here on earth but at least improve the political and economical situation of most people here on our planet."
His speech, dealing with Self-determination and the Future of Democracy, spoke to the heart of Pridnestrovie's experience under the forced Soviet-era shotgun marriage to Moldova:
" - Let us accept the fact that states have lifecycles similar to those of human beings who created them. Hardly any Member State of the United Nations has existed within its present borders for longer than five generations. The attempt to freeze human evolution has in the past been a futile undertaking and has probably brought about more violence than if such a process had been controlled peacefully. Restrictions on self-determination threaten not only democracy itself but the state which seeks its legitimation in democracy."
» More on self-determination
2. Pridnestrovie's separate historyPridnestrovie and Moldova have not historical basis for being one country. Pridnestrovie was never part of an independent Moldova at any time in history. For thousand of years, the Dniester River has formed a natural border between cultures. On one side, Islam flourished. On the other side, Pridnestrovie represented the West and the frontier of Christendom.
Moldova was not a separate country but part of Romania until Hitler and Stalin artificially created it in 1940, as a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. Historically distinct, Pridnestrovie was attached to the territory that became Moldova when Stalin redrew borders in 1940.
Pridnestrovie wasn't part of Moldova before then. From 1940 to 1990, Pridnestrovie and Moldova were forced to artificially be together as a single entity, the Moldavian SSR (MSSR), which was in turn was part of the Soviet Union. The name "Moldavia" was taken from a regional ASSR within the Soviet Union which included Pridnestrovie but NOT Moldova (which was part of Romania at the time). Existing as a region of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1940, the capital of this "Moldavian ASSR" was Tiraspol, today the capital of Pridnestrovie. From 1940 to 1990, when the two countries were artifically joined as one, they were never independent from Soviet rule.
» More on Pridnestrovie's separate history
3. Actual distinctivenessIn Pridnestrovie, most people are of Slavic descent and speak Russian. In Moldova, most people are of Romanian descent and speak Moldavian.
Pridnestrovie is an industrialized, Western-oriented country. Moldova is an agricultural, Roman-oriented country.
Pridnestrovie has a European "look and feel" to it. This is because of centuries of influences from Northern Europe, starting with German immigration and with the period when the country was part of Lithuania and Poland. Afterwards, the country fell under the rule of the Czars where French was spoken at the court level.
Not so in Moldova, which traditionally was under the sway of the Muslim Ottoman Empire, and even today bears the evidence of a strong Islamic cultural tradition.
Apart from the different ethnic makeup, the two countries also have different alphabets, different legal traditions, and a host of other differences that make them incompatible in almost all ways: history, culture, religion, languages, government, economy, and more.
» More on actual distinctiveness
4. Reversal of Molotov-Ribbentrop PactWith its own Declaration of Independence, the Republic of Moldova explicitly annulled the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and declared its legal consequences to be "null and void". In doing so, Moldova also automatically annulled all the consequences of that pact -- including the pact's unnatural annexation of Pridnestrovie and Moldova as a result of Stalin's push to redraw Europe's borders during World War II.
Today, with democracy on the rise, it is almost normal for "artificial countries" to split in two. It happened with Czechoslovakia, an artifical creation of the power-politics of a wartorn Europe. Today, Slovakia is one country and the Czek Republic is another. Following a civilized divorce, today both of these new countries are EU members and responsible participants in the international community.
In the same manner, Estonia and the other Baltic states left the Soviet-imposed union with Russia. Likewise Yugoslavia, another artificial bundling of incompatible states, split into several new and prosperous smaller countries.
The Soviet-imposed marriage between Pridnestrovie and Moldova ended with the fall of the Soviet Union. The "Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic" was dissolved, and Pridnestrovie and Moldova split off as separate countries each with its own Declaration of Independence. Pridnestrovie, although small, is not too small to be an independent country. In territory, it is twice the size of Luxembourg. Population-wise, is has double the inhabitants of Iceland.
Pridnestrovie's Minister of Justice, born 1955 in Grigoriopol (PMR)
New, dynamic states which reflect the true will of the people are carved from old, artificial Cold War structures. In the international community today, the basic human right to self-determition carries more weight than a rigid unflexible defense of the principle of territorial integrity.
Croatia and Slovenia shows that. East Timor is another example, obtaining independence despite the wish of its former ruler, Indonesia. The same is true is Bosnia and Herzegovina. And then there's Kosovo, where self-rule is becoming a result of the wish of a people for independence even against the wish of the leaders of the country which it formerly was part of.
All of these states have either gained recognition or are in the process of gaining recognition. In some cases, recognition will be more selective than in other cases — and will follow the model of Taiwan which after nearly fifty years of existence is still not recognized by the majority of the world's other nations. Even so, there is no denying that the country exists. And as Taiwan has clearly shown, non-recognition does not prevent it from having one of the most prosperous economies in Asia. As a member of the World Trade Organization and a wealthy multi-party democracy, Taiwan is clearly one of the success stories of the region. Taiwan is moving forward with or without the stamp of approval of major world powers. The same is true for Pridnestrovie. No one can deny that the country exists. It bases its existence as a nation on self-determination, its separate history, its actual distinctiveness, and on the reversal of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.
» More on reversal of Molotov-Ribbentrop pact
