Two separate and very different countries
Although Stalin forced Moldova and Pridnestrovie into a shot-gun marriage which lasted half a century, the two countries are as different as night and day: In culture, historical background, governance, languages, the two countries have almost nothing in common. A brief look at history makes it clear that to force them into a joint union again is a recipe for failure.
A river runs through it: The traditional border between Pridnestrovie and Moldova.
Historically separate, Pridnestrovie has almost nothing in common with Moldova on the other side of the river.
- History: Pridnestrovie was once part of the Russian empire, and before that part of Poland and Lithuania. Moldova was in the Ottoman Empire, and later Romania. Pridnestrovie, on the other hand, was never under Muslim rule; never a part of neither the Ottoman Empire nor of Romania.
- Culture: Pridnestrovie has a strong Western background and has historically been home to a large German immigrant population. As a former part of Poland and Lithuania, a clear sense of European identity has evolved. This is evident in the country's architecture and the outlook of its people. Later, incorporation under Imperial Russia (where French was the official language of the court) only reinforced Pridnestrovie's European identity. Moldova, in contrast, was under the sway of the Muslim Ottoman Empire.
- Alphabet: Pridnestrovie uses the cyrillic alphabet. Moldova, in contrast, uses latin script.
- Religion: Pridnestrovie is 98% Christian and 2% Jewish. It has never been under Muslim role at any time in its history. There is no Arab community in Pridnestrovie. Moldova, although nominally Christian, has a background as a Muslim country and still maintains a strong Arab/Muslim community in Chisinau, its capital.
- Ethnicity: Pridnestrovie is a multi-ethnic country, but predominantly Slav. Moldova is predominantly Moldavian (ethnic Romanian, not slav). As you cross the bridge on the river Dniester, the character traits and physical difference between the inhabitants of either side are obvious.
- Languages: Pridnestrovians mostly speak Russian. Moldovans speak Moldavian, a close cousin of Romanian. While the right bank of the Dniester (Moldova) has strong cultural links with Romania, and used to be part of Romania, the left bank has more historical connections with Russia and with Western Europe.
- Territory: The Republic of Moldova inhabits a territory which was forcibly annexed from Romania in 1940. This is not the case of Pridnestrovie, a completely separate territory which was never part of Romania and which was never forcibly annexed.
- Government: Pridnestrovie has a multi-party democracy with a separation of powers between the executive, the legislative and the judicial branches. The presidency is held by the non-Communist Respublica party, while the opposition (also non-Communist) is in control of the parliament. In Moldova, however, the Communist party controls both the presidency and the parliament. The president of Moldova, a former Soviet apparatchik bureaucrat, is also the president of Moldova's Communist Party.
- Economy: Pridnestrovie has a highly industrialized and specialized economy. It exports to the United States and Europe. Moldova is mainly an agricultural country, also engaging in small scale wine production. It has trouble finding markets for its exports.
- Mutual distrust: Moldova does not like Pridnestrovie. Propaganda and name-calling is common. Pridnestrovians, for that reason, distrust Moldova's motives and allege that its highly dubious territorial claim is merely an excuse to get its hands on Pridnestrovie's industrial powerbase and relative wealth (relative to Moldova, that is).
Ask even the ethnic Moldavians who live in Pridnestrovie if they would want to unite with Moldova and the answer, in nine cases out of ten, is not just "No" but "Hell No!"... In fact, for anyone to still propose a union of these two very different entities is to either be deliberately misleading (which is the case of Chisinau) or else completely unaware of the reality in Pridnestrovie (which is the case in some Western capitals). Anyone who knows how different Pridnestrovie is from Moldova, and who is aware of the historical record, will also immediately know that to force the two to merge is a dud. Only Stalin, with the support of Hitler through the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, was able to do it — and even so, only at gunpoint.
Pridnestrovie has proven its viability as a state
In 1990, in the fall of the Soviet Union, the population residing on the east bank of the Dniester river declared independence as the "Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica" or Pridnestrovie for short, also abbreviated PMR. The country incorrectly became known in the West by the name Transnistria, an artificial geographic term created by Romanian fascists collaborating with the Nazi extermination of Jews in World War II.
Whereas Moldova, today back under Communist rule, has been characterized by some as a "failed state", the same can not be said of Pridnestrovie: Ever since independence in 1990, Pridnestrovie has been busy building a full and viable nation state which today has a higher standard of living than its neighbor, Moldova.
Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica, to use its full title, has its own border controls, its own currency – the PMR ruble – its own state languages, a president and a parliament, a judicial system, an army, a police force, a security service, a constitution, a coat of arms, a national flag and a national anthem. Now in its 16th year of separate existence, the PMR has proven its viability as a state; both to its citizens and to the world at large.
It is a success story in contemporary nation-building. Even though "nation-building" is a tricky task — and fails almost everywhere else where foreigners try their hand it at — in Pridnestrovie, the locals have succeeded to a remarkably degree. Forget Bosnia, Afghanistan, Somalia. Come to Tiraspol, in Pridnestrovie, and see a stable, democratic multi-party system of government which for the past decade and a half have worked under adverse conditions but provided good governance to the country's 555,000 inhabitants.
Pridnestrovie has its own defined territory, with over 500 miles of international borders. The country exercises exclusive jurisdiction, coinage and taxation. It is a model of good governance: Effective borders, schools, pensions, health, ecology, and a state built network of gasification spanning thousands of miles crisscrossing the nation.
Should all of this be sacrificed to grant Moldova its frivolous claim to a territory which, historically, has never been part of that country? Pridnestrovians, as the affected people, respectfully ask that the matter be put to a free and democratic vote.
