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The 'Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic' (Moldovan Cyrillic / Romanian:: Република Советикэ Сочиалистэ Молдовеняскэ / Republica Sovietică Socialistă Moldovenească, Russian: Молда́вская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респу́блика) was one of fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union. It existed from 1940 to 1941 and from 1945 to 1991.

Contents

History

Culture and ideology

Demographics

Economy

External links

History

Previously, on October 12, 1924 the Soviet Union set up an autonomous Moldavian ASSR as a part of the Ukrainian SSR on part of the territory between Dniester and Bug rivers (Transnistria). Many regarded this autonomous unit as a starting point for a communist revolution in the Balkans.
After the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina on June 28, 1940, which occuried according to the provisions of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Soviet Union and Hitler's Reich, the old Moldavian ASSR was dismantled, and a new Moldavian SSR was reorganised from most (but not all) the territories occupied by the USSR, and approximately 40% of the territory of the former autonomous SSR. On August 2, 1940 the new Moldavian SSR was created as a separate republic of the USSR, while the other occupied territories (Chernivtsi oblast and Budjak) were transferred to the Ukrainian SSR. The occupation prompted Romania to join Hitler's Reich in the summer of 1941 and reconquer the lost territories. By the end of World War II the Soviet Union re-conquered back the same territory, and reorganised it again as Moldavian SSR.
The Soviet authorities targeted several social and economic groups to be murdered, imprisoned, and deported to Siberia due to their economic situation, political views, or ties to the former (democratic) regime. The authorities also imposed a harsh denationalization policy toward the native Romanian population. Secret police struck at nationalist groups; and Russophones were encouraged to immigrate to the Moldavian SSR, especially to Transnistria. At the same time, most of the Moldovan industry was built in Transnistria, while in Bessarabia mostly agriculture was developed. While accounting for roughly 15% of the population of Moldavian SSR, Transnistria was responsible for 40% of its GDP (mainly because most of the industry was there), and for 90% of power production.
The government's policies - requisitioning large amounts of agricultural products despite a poor harvest - induced a famine - with 300,000 victims - following the catastrophic drought of 1945-1947, and the absence of many farmers from their lands, kept enrolled in the Soviet army up to two years after the end of the war.
A wave of repression was aimed at the Romanian intellectuals that decided to remain in Moldova after the war and propaganda was directed against everything that was Romanian. Political and academic positions were given to members of non-Romanian ethnic groups (only 14% of the Moldavian SSR's political leaders were ethnic Romanians in 1946).
The conditions imposed during the reestablishment of the Soviet rule became the basis of deep resentment toward Soviet authorities — a resentment that soon manifested itself through a dosen of anti-Soviet groups emerging in the territory. During Leonid I. Brezhnev's 1950-1952 tenure as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Moldavia (CPM), he finished putting down this rebellion of ethnic Romanians by killing or deporting thousands of people and instituting forced collectivization.
In 1970s and '80s Moldova received substantial "investment" from the budget of the USSR to develop industrial, scientific facilities, as well as housing. In 1971, the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a decision "About the measures for further development of Kishinev city" that secured more than one billion rubles of "investment" from the USSR budget. Subsequent decisions that directed "enormous wealth" and brought highly qualified specialists from all over the USSR to develop Moldova. Such an allocation of USSR assets was partially influenced by the fact that Leonid Brezhnev, the effective ruler of the USSR from 1964 to 1982, was the Communist Party First Secretary in the Moldavian SSR in 1950-1952. One should however beaware of the accounting practices during the USSR, when all revenue was collected into the central budget, and only there all the spending was decided. Thus, "investment" meant simply the spending side of the balance sheet, and most of this "investment" was from locally collected revenue, with only a small portion of funds truly coming from outside MSSR. These "investments" stopped in 1991 with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, when Moldova became independent.
Although Brezhnev and other CPM first secretaries were largely successful in suppressing Moldovan/Romanian nationalism, Mikhail S. Gorbachev's administration facilitated the revival of the movement in the region. His policies of glasnost and perestroika created conditions in which national feelings could be openly expressed and in which the Soviet republics could consider reforms.
The MSSR's passage to independence from the USSR was marked by civil strife as conservative activists in the east (especially in Tiraspol), as well as communist party activists in Chişinău worked to keep the MSSR within the Soviet Union. In 1990, when it became clear that Moldova was going to secede, pro-Soviet activists in Transnistria created the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic with its capital in Tiraspol. This later became (changed the name) the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic.
On May 23 1991, the Moldovan parliament changed the name from the Moldavian SSR to the 'Republic of Moldova'. Although many parliamentary leaders expressed a desire to unite with Romania^[1], Moldova exited the USSR by becoming a sovereign, independent country on August 27, 1991, after the failed putsch/coup in the Soviet Union. Independence was quickly followed by civil war in the east (Transnistria), where the central government in Chişinău battled with separatists, who were supported by pro-Soviet forces in Chişinău (battling to re-establish themselves in power) and by different forces from Russia (battling to assert themselves in the new post-1991 environment). The conflict left the breakaway regime (Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic) in control of Transnistria.

Culture and ideology

Much of the pre-WWII elite of Moldova (the "intellectuals" and the "bourgeoisie"), as well as hundreds of thousands of ordinary people were killed or deported, especially to Siberia and to the Asian steppes such as those of Kazakhstan (in 1940 and then massively in 1949). (Even nowadays, there are tens of thousands of Romanians living there.) A large influx of Ukrainians and Russians after the second world war created a 13% Russian-speaking minority in Moldova.
Moldovans were encouraged to adopt the Russian language, which was required for any leadership job (Russian was supposed to be the language of international communication). Political and academic positions were given to members of non-Romanian ethnic groups (only 14% of the Moldavian SSR's political leaders were ethnic Moldovans in 1946), although this changed as time went on.
The USSR government encouraged the developing of a "Moldavian culture", said to be distinct from the Romanian one, as well as a Moldavian language, which was claimed to be different from Romanian (although even some Soviet linguists disagreed with this). Literary critics stressed the Russian influence on Moldovan literature and ignored the parts shared with Romanian literature. In order to emphasize the alleged differences and to break ties with Romania, Moldovan language was written with the Cyrillic alphabet. Some towns and villages had their names changed to more Slavic-sounding or were renamed after various Communist leaders.
Soviet propaganda included the doctrine that the Romanians oppressed the Moldovan people before World War II and that they were liberated by the Soviets.

Demographics

Ethnicities (1989 est.):

★ Moldovans 64.5%

★ Ukrainians 13.8%

★ Russians 13%

★ Bulgarians 2%

★ Jews 1.5%

★ Gagauz and other 5.2%

Economy

Although it was the most densely populated republic of the USSR, the Moldavian SSR was meant to be specialized in agriculture, notably fruit production. The only region of Moldova in which industry was built was Transnistria, which in 1990 accounted for 40% of Moldavian GDP and 90% of its electricity production.

External links

★ THE NEW CONSTITUTION OF THE MOLDAVIAN SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLIC by George Cioranescu and R. Flers