Pridnestrovie: Founded on minority rights

Pridnestrovie was founded on the respect for minority rights, under attack from a neo-fascist "Popular Front" movement in Moldova which called for slavs to be fired, deported ... or worse. To understand modern relations between Pridnestrovie and Moldova, and why there is sometimes distrust between the two, it is necessary to first understand what really happened in the tumultous days of the fall of the Soviet empire and the birth of two new republics.

Historically distinct, Pridnestrovie was forcefully lumped together with the territory that became Moldova when Stalin and Hitler redrew Europe's borders in 1940. The shotgun marriage was called MSSR, the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, and despite its name it was actually formed with Pridnestrovie at its core. Pridnestrovie, with Tiraspol as its capital, had already gotten republican status in 1924 under the name of the "Moldavian ASSR" and it was onto the core of this republic that Stalin annexed Moldavia, or Bessarabia as it was then known.

Fast forward nearly fifty years: Glasnost and perestroika is in full swing. Under glasnost, wide powers of self-rule was delegated to the regions of the Soviet Union, and the parliament of the Moldavian SSR was quick to take advantage of these freedoms -- even to the point of ignoring minority rights in the process.

In 1989 the Moldavian parliament made Romanian the only official state language in the Moldavian SSR. This was the first warning sign of an ethnic or linguistic trampling of minority rights in the MSSR. Ethnic Slavs, many of whom couldn't speak or understand the new language, held warning strikes in protest of Romanian being made the only official language. They asked for a second state language to exist equally alongside Romanian and complained bitterly of a lack of concern for minority rights by nationalistic Moldavian authorities. In rallies in Chisinau the minority Russian speakers and Gagauz speakers protested against the law. But despite the protests, Moldavia's parliament made Romanian the only official state language in the Moldavian SSR. For workers of the state (meaning virtually everyone in the old Soviet system), the the law also designated the removal of those who could meet a required proficiency level within a certain date. Compulsory language tests were envisioned, along with the resulting loss of jobs and livelihoods for the minorities. Strikes in Pridnestrovie intensified in response to the law being passed, but the Romanian-speaking majority in Moldavia pressed forward with their plans regardless.

Soon, the wholesale dismantling of minority rights were underway and there were strong signs that Moldavia would merge with Romania. The Moldavian parliament officially adopted the Romanian tricolor with a coat-of-arms as the state flag. "Desteapta-te Romana", the Romanian national anthem, also became the official anthem of Moldavia. Even the country's name changed: Without any consultation, it became the "Republic of Moldova". In those times, it was widely expected in both countries that they were to be united soon; a Movement for Unification of Romania and the Republic of Moldova began in each country.

Increasingly, in all areas of life, the ethnic Romanian-speakers began to defy Moscow. Minority rights had no place in the new Moldova. As the Soviet empire crumbled, nationalists openly attacked their ethnic Russian compatriots called for reunification with Romania. The fear in Tiraspol, not entirely unfounded, was that Russian speakers would be denigrated in the new order. Independence rallies in Chisinau took on an ominous fascist overtone as a new mantra rang out - "chemodan, vokzal, Rossiya!" "suitcase, trainstation, Russia!" - giving the Russian population their marching orders. And so, in Pridnestrovie, the ethnic Russians grew convinced that the natural historical independence of Pridnestrovie from Moldova had to be restored in order to avoid persecution and the very real risk of ethnic genocide.

As a peaceful symbolic protest, the local authorities throughout Pridnestrovie first refused to recognize the Romanian tricolor as the state flag and continued to fly the country's originally legal flag. When this didn't work, they held town hall meetings and organized a refenrendum to find out what the people wanted. The vote was clear: In the face of an intolerant Moldova, a country with no prior historical ties to Pridnestrovie, everyone wanted out. The solution? Independence.

It came just in time. On the other side of the river, in Moldova, groups of roaming Popular Front stormtroopers wore the tricolor, wanted reunification with Romania, and became more and more agressive with the use of the rallying cry "Suitcase - Trainstation - Russia" against ethnic minorities. The implication was clear. The slogan was meant to signify that one way or the other, all Russian-speakers must leave: Either voluntarily, first, or else through forced deportations. And the rule extended even to those who had been born in Moldova and lived their for a lifetime.

On 2 September 1990 the Pridnestrovian republic proclaimed its independence. Unlike Moldova, it's constitution proclaimed full protection for minority rights, with not one and not two but a total of THREE official state languages: Russian, Ukrainian and Moldavian.

The republic was legitimized by Moldova's own decision to declare its sovereignty and nullify the "political and legal consequences" of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, namely the the transfer of Moldavia from Romania to the USSR and the act which artifically brought Pridnestrovie and Moldova together.
Moldova, however, didn't see it that way, and on 29 August 1991 the independence leader Igor Smirnov was arrested by Moldova's secret service. As a nonviolent protest, a group of local women headed by Galina Andreeva blocked the railway in Pridnestrovie. The sit-down strike against the arrest of the independence leader succeeded in stopping the trains on the routes Chisinau-Tiraspol-Odessa and Chisinau-Tiraspol-Moscow. At the beginning there were 10, after that 20, 100, then 1,000. They sat on the railroad and protested until October when the arrested independence leader was finally freed. Soon after his release and triumphant return to Pridnestrovie he was elected president of the new nation.

And the rest, as they say, is history...

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