UN and OSCE: Pridnestrovie is "different" and "distinct"

Historians, analysts and researchers who study Pridnestrovie all come to the same conclusion: The country is unique, separate, and shouldn't have been part of Moldova to begin with. The trouble in Pridnestrovie began, just as in every regional argument in the former Soviet lands, in the last days of the USSR. However, its roots, not surprisingly, grew out of Stalin's map. Moldova is small nation with a long and tangled past - and a past which would never have included Pridnestrovie if it hadn't been for a secret pact made between Stalin and Nazi-Germany.

Most of Moldova was once part of Romania, occupied by the USSR in 1940 under the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, sealed in secret by the foreign ministers of Stalin and Hitler. Distinct and separate, Pridnestrovie, a territory to the east of Moldova between the Dniester river and Ukraine, was the significant exception. Never part of an independent Moldova or Romania, it had instead been part of Poland, Lithuania, or the Russian Empire in the past. But Pridnestrovie was forced into an unnatural marriage with Moldova as the result of a pact between brutal World War II dictators. ... and of course, the Pridnestrovians opted for independendence as soon as they got the chance.

Their history is one of long and prosperous independence from Moldova. Until communism. In 1924, a separate republic on land on the left bank of the Dniester river was declared as the “Moldovan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic” by the Soviet authorities, as a stepping stone to the acquisition of Bessarabia.

Former presidential advisor Oazu Nantoi, a hardline pro-Moldovan nationalist, explains:
"The former Autonomous Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (Trans-Dniestria) (was) founded in 1924 (...) as a bridge head to strengthen the communist expansion in Romania and, especially, in Basarabia."

The plan worked. On 28 June 1940, as a consequence of the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, the area of Bessarabia was forcibly annexed by Soviet troops and proclaimed as the “Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic” on 2 August 1940; lumped together with the previously created Autonomous Republic on Pridnestrovie's territory on the left bank.

In one cruel move, Pridnestrovie fell into an artifical union with Moldova as a victim of World War II: a small country caught between two of the most ruthless dictators in history… Prior to that, the Dniester river had always formed the border between two distinct countries.

Bringing together two historically distinct areas, Pridnestrovie and Moldova, and trying to make one country out of them was more than even Stalin could do. Although he tried, he never managed to crush the separate national identifies of the two lands.

For nearly fifty years under the rule of the Soviet Union, the artifical union never took root and managed to blend the two distinct nationalities from which is was created. And upon independence in 1990 the two countries were as different as they had always been. Moldova, with its Romanian language and its ties to Romania. And mostly Russian-speaking Pridnestrovie with its ties to Russia.

It's an important fact that can't be denied, not even by expansionsist in Moldova: Pridnestrovie and Russia have strong historical and cultural relations, much more so than the historical or cultural relations with Moldova or any other country.

The different nationality of Pridnestrovie compared to Moldova persisted all throughout "perestroika" and the freedom that followed. In 1999, political analyst Oazu Nantoi described the situation in a report prepared with the support of UNHCR Moldova and submitted to the CIS Conference Follow-Up Process, Fourth Steering Group Meeting of 24-27 June 1999. Explaining the complex reality to outsiders who mistakenly thought that Pridnestrovie belonged inside Moldova and not outside it, he wrote:
"These two segments brought together to form the MSSR (Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic) have a very different historical past, a reality that generated a totally different behaviour when the Gorbachov's perestroika had been initiated."

How different? Nantoi stated that "According to the census of 1989, only 13% of the population of Tiraspol were Moldovans". The rest, in a marked difference to Moldova, were slavs: Mainly of ethnic Russian and Ukrainian descent whose families had lived and died in Pridnestrovie for hundreds of years.

The analysis of Nantoi, writing for the UN, was echoed by the OSCE in a similar report. The OSCE wrote as follows:

"In the assessment of the OSCE Mission, there is a distinct feeling of “Transdniestrian” identity going beyond ethnic lines, justifying a special status for the area. Many ethnic Moldovans living on the left bank have an aversion against being governed directly from the centre, prefer to speak Russian, and do not consider themselves as “Bessarabians”. Several prominent political figures in the self-proclaimed PMR are ethnic Moldovans."

We would cut out the condescending word "self-proclaimed" and also change the word "Transdniestrian" to "Pridnestrovian" (see why), but other than that, the OSCE is of course right. Our identity is indeed unique. Our special status (as an independent nation) is indeed justified. According to the OSCE, even ethnic Moldovans prefer Pridnestrovie and do not consider themselves part of Moldova. They feel like they belong in Pridnestrovie, not in Moldova. They prefer it here and, according to OSCE, actually prefer to speak Russian. Preferring the government in Tiraspol, they certainly don't want to be governed from Chisinau. In that, the OSCE is correct. They don't tell us why, but we know the reason: Historically, Pridnestrovie was never part of an independent Moldova ... so Moldova's recent claim on Pridnestrovie is of course totally unacceptable.

Geopolitical scholar John O'Loughlin makes the same point in Post-Soviet Geography and Economics 39, no 6 (1998), pages 332-58. In his study of Pridnestrovie, "National Construction, Territorial Separatism, and Post-Soviet Geopolitics in the Transdniester Moldovan Republic" he affirms that most citizens do not want to rejoin the territory which is today the Republic of Moldova. Perhaps surprisingly (to outsiders), this includes at least nine out of every ten of even the ethnic Moldavians who live in Pridnestrovie.

Prior to independence, both Moldova and Pridnestrovie showed signs of going in the natural direction: Towards a divorce of their artificial Stalin-Hitler induced marriage of 1940.

In parallel-with Moldova’s process of emancipation from the Soviet center, from 1989 onwards protest movements in Pridnestrovie began organizing themselves to resist Moldovan independence efforts. This resistance was mainly motivated by the fear that Moldova, once fully independent, would wish to reunite with Romania. Pridnestrovie was the territory which had never been part of Romania and which certainly had no wish to join now.

On 27 August 1991 the Moldovan Parliament adopted the Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Moldova. The declaration declared the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact "null and void". The same declaration also denounced the forming of the MSSR and its boundaries as being illegal.

In the absence of the pact and the MSSR, the international legal status of Pridnestrovie was by default restored to the status immediately prior to the pact. There is no legal doubts on this point whatsoever. It merely follows the course of other Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact countries, such as Estonia and Latvia which also regained their sovereignty and independence after the fall of the Soviet Union.
In the case of Pridnestrovie, this meant the restoration of sovereignty and state status of the Moldavian ASSR, with Tiraspol as its capital and of which Bessarabia (present-day Republic of Moldova) was not part.

With the pact gone, and no Moldavian SSR, Pridnestrovie - considering itself the lawful successor state to the Moldavian ASSR - acquired the full right to self-determination and to solely proclaim statehood on the foundation of the dissolving MASSR. That happened on September 2, 1990, the day of Pridnestrovie's formal Declaration of Independence.

Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica was founded on historical grounds and its creation was first and foremost about the people. Moldova, to the extent that it wants to maintain the immoral borders of the MSSR, was created on the grounds of a political game played by the two dictators in World War II. It is artificial.

Moldova was the one who felt most wronged by the Soviet invasion and the subsequent inclusion in a lump republic with Pridnestrovie. It said so in lots of official statements and declarations by its parliament, and even in its Declaration of Independence.

Even so, once it tallied the wealth of Pridnestrovie, Moldova wouldn't let go and wanted to keep hold of what had never rightfully been Moldova's to begin with.

Historically distinct, Pridnestrovie and Moldova were attached when Stalin redrew borders in 1940. They both sought independence as quick as they could. But why wasn't Moldova just happy with its independence? Why did it want to keep a grip on Pridnestrovie? The answer is easy: Greed.

In land size, Pridnestrovie would be just 10% of Moldova's territory. But as a money maker, it would represent between one third and one half of the national income. And with the highly informal allocation of state funds among the elite political leadership in Moldova, it is easy to see a "personal motivation" for wanting to get their hands on small but wealthy Pridnestrovie. It was the same motivation which drove Saddam Hussein to invade Kuwait in 1990. Hussein's primary justifications included a charge that Kuwaiti territory was in fact an Iraqi province, an argument remarkably similar - word for word - to the justification that Moldova incorrectly puts forth as its reason for wanting to rule over Pridnestrovie.

But when Moldova renounced the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, it follows that it also renounced its claim to Pridnestrovie. Other artificial countries who were held together by force under Soviet rule have since divorced.
Pridnestrovie has no claim on Moldova's territory. Moldova, however, still attempts to press its claim over Pridnestrovie's territory. This claim is not backed by history or any legal analysis. Moldova's claim to Pridnestrovie will continue until Pridnestrovie achieves widespread international recognition, a stated goal of the young republic's foreign policy and a necessary requisite to international integration. [ More ]

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