The territory of the Republic of Moldova from the Left Bank of Dniestcr River has belonged to the Carpathian - Danube - Black Sea area from geographical, ethnocultural and historical point of view since ancient times. The population of the Left Bank of Dniestcr River participated along with that one from the Right Bank in the same historical processes since immemorial times, notably since the Neolithic Cucuteni-Tripolie civilization has bcen creatcd in the area. Cucuteni-Tripolie pre-ceded the emergence of the great European civilization of Thracians in the 8 h century B.C. Known as Getae by the Greeks and Dacians by the Romans, the Getae-Dacians branch of Thracians lived in the North Danube territory in various tribal unions, unified for the first time in a common kingdom by Burebista in 82-44 B.C., which included also a part of present day Transnistria.
As a result of wars betvveen Dacians and Romans in 101-102 and 105-106 years A.D., Dacia is conquered and becomes a Roman province of Dacia. In conscquence, the Getae-Dacians inside the province as well as those outside it, witnessed a process of Romanization. Beginning with the invasion of Huns in 376 A.D. the Romanized Getae-Dacians have been confronted with several migratory waves, including the Slavic one in the 6th century A.D. The Slavic tribes infiuenced the material, social and cultural life of local population, including from the Transnistrian region, but they didn’t changed its Romanized char-acter as a whole. As a result of the symbiosis between local and migratory tribes, the Romanian people and language have bcen creatcd basically during 6lh-9lh centuries (known by foreigners as Vlachs, Volochs, Blachs etc.). During llth-13lh centuries there were various proto-states in the territories inhabited by Romanians, including one called the “land of bolohovenians” (or Vlachs, i.e. Romanians). Only the States of Moldova and Walachia succeeded in preserving their individuality. In the early period of the crcation of Moldavian medieval state, the territories from the Left Bank have been under the influence of Moldavian princes. In 1387 the Moldavian-Polish border is established along the Dniester River. As the Polish-Lithuanian authority has been sometimes very weak in the region, Moldavian princes intervened directly on various occasions on the Left Bank. In 16"' - 17,h centuries the Transnistrian territory has been often devastated as a result of almost permanent fighting between Polish and Tartars armies as well as campaigns of Cossacks inhabiting the Southern borderlands of Poland. Finally the Polish-Ottoman border along the Iagorlâc River, an affluent of Dniester River, has been established in 1634. The territory situated in the south of Iagorlâc has been administered by the Khanate of Crimea.
In 1672 the Ottomans are conqucring Podolia, which is given for adminis-tration to the prince of Moldavia Gheorghe Duca. In 1683-1703 Camenca, Raşcov and other localities from the Left Bank are under the Moldavian administration. In spiţe of the political instability in the area, the Romanian population from the Left Bank continued to be in economic, social, political and cultural relations vvith their brethren from the Right Bank.
As a result of the Russo-Turkish war of 1787-1791, since 1792 the terri-tory situated on the south of Iagorlâc has been annexed by Tsarist Empire. In the next year, following the last division of Poland between Great Povvers, the territo-ries North of Iagorlâc passes also to Russia. After another Russo-Turkish war, that of 1806-1812, Russian Empire occupies the Eastern part of Moldavian Principality (1812), by naming it Bessarabia. In this way, since early 19th century both the Left and Right Bank, populated in majority by Romanian population, came under the same political entity. Between 1819 and 1827 the Orthodox Christians from the Left Bank have been included under the authority of archbishop of Chisinau and Hotin. Since 1830s however, as in Bessarabia, the process of Russification in Transnistria is accelerating. The Transnistrian area is changing its ethnic composition, as a result of a large influx of Ukrainians, Russians, and Germans. Both Transnistria and Bessarabia are becoming internai colonies of Tsarist Empire. In late 18th century about 50 per cent of the population of Oceacov region has been Romanian, but in the 19th century only the localities neighboring Dniester River prescrved almost the same ethnic composition. In spiţe of this proccsses, the local Romanians strive to keep its language, naţional traditions, folklore and so on. The Union of Western Moldavia and Walachia in 1859 creates the modem Romanian state and anticipates the fulfillment of naţional unity of Romanian lands in 1918. The Romanian popula tion from the Left Bank became a part of this modernizing process in naţional sense latter on and only slowly, as a result of particular conditions during past centuries. The Russification of Bessarabia contributed further to the isolation of Transnistria from the process of naţional revival witnessed by Western Moldavia and other Ro manian provinccs. The local intelligentsia has been educated in the spirit of Russian culture and thus fails to be socialized according to the values and traditions, litera-ture and art of Romanian nation. The local Romanian population from the Left Bank preserved their seif identification as Moldavians, perpetuating the medieval way of identification based on state or regional allegiance and identification. The modem ethno-national identification came lately and local Romanians continued to identify themselves as Moldavians also because they kept in this way the memory that they came from the Moldavian Principality (or the memory that they have been for certain periods under the authority of Moldavian princes as in the late 17,h century). This was true also related to their local idiom called traditionally Moldavian.
The 1905-1907 Russian Revolution created favorable conditions for the naţional movement in Bessarabia and also in Transnistria. In 1907 the diocese Congress of Podolia votes for the introduction of Romanian language in the schools and churches in Moldavian inhabited villages. In the context of February 1917 revolution and abdication of the Tsar, the Moldavian/Romanian naţional movenient witnesses a great upheaval both in Bessarabia and on the Left EJank. On the 21sl of Novcmber 1917 a local parliament in Chisinau called Sfatul Ţării (National Council) reserves 10 seats for deputies representing the Transnistrian Moldavian/Romanian population. A special event in this rcgard was the establishment of the Congress of Moldavians from the Left Bank (December 17,h-18,h 1917). The Congress decided on a wide range of problems, notably the setting up a of naţional education system based on Moldavian/Romanian language. It was also envisioned a National Assembly of Transnistrian Moldavians from Herson and Podolia region which had to decide the union with Bessarabia. Fur-ther political developments in Ukraine, civil war and the establishment of the Bolshe-vik rcgime hindered and finally rendered impossible the Assembly to be convoked as envisioned initially.
After 1918 when Bessarabia unites with Romania, the democratization of the Right Bank influences positively the Transnistrian Romanians. The Soviets how-ever tried to internationalize the “Bessarabian question” by establishing a Moldavian Autonomous Republic on the Left Bank in October 1924, a decision taken by the Ukrainian Executive Committee. A part of Ukrainian SSR, the western border of MASSR was considered to be the Prut River, with Chisinau as its capital. In other words, this project intended to bring closer culturally and linguistically the two sides of Dniester River and prepare a bridgehead to expansion of Communism in Romania and Balkans. This was true especially for 1932-1938 years when the Latin alphabet has becn introduced as part of the broader de-Russification of naţional languages in Soviet Union. After 1938 however the Romanianization process is stopped and the policy of late 1920s is rehabilitated, aimed at the creation of a separate Moldavian language out of the local Russified vemacular. Even though the Moldavian population of the MASSR comprised only one third of the total population, in this way Moscow recognized indirectly the right to naţional selfdetermination of local Romanian speaking population. The political and cultural elites were represented mainly by non-Romanians and after a brief indigenization process the Russification has been intensihed again. The local Romanian population witnessed with local Ukrainian, Russian, Jewish and other ethnic groups all the hardships of mass famine, forced collectivization and industrialization of early 1930s as well as the consequences of Great Terror of 1937-1938.
After the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia on June 28 1940, for more than a month the authority of MASSR (with capital in Tiraspol since 1929) has been expandcd to the Right Bank. Even though Soviet public opinion expected a formal union between MASSR and Bessarabia, the Supreme Soviet of USSR decided on August 2nd that only 6 out of 14 districts will be included in the newly created Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. In this sense, geopolitica! interests of the Soviet Union took precedence over the official nationalities policy. Besides, the 8 rcmaining districts of former MASSR have been given back to Ukraine as well as the Southern Bessarabian Counties of Cetatea Albă, Ismail and a part of Hotin County in the North.
In June 1941 Romania has allied with Germany in the war against Soviet Union. After liberating Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina occupied a year before by Stalin, Romanian army under General Ion Antonescu decided to continue fighting beyond Dniester River along with German troops. In August 1941, Romania accepted to organize a civil administration in the area between Dniester and Bug Rivcrs, while military affairs rcmaining basically in German hands. The Romanian administration of war time Transnistria tried to organize the area in order satisfying the economic needs for the front. In naţional terms, the Government of Transnistria opened schools and churches and promoted Romanian language at all levels, by sustaining the publi-cation of literature, various newspapers and journals etc. It should be mentioned that Transnistria served as a graveyard for a part of Romanian Jews deported on the Left Bank by Antonescu. It was especially true about all Bessarabian Jews and practically all Bukovinian Jews as well as a part of Roma minority interned in Transnistria where more than a half died out of diseases, famine and inhuman treatment. As the Red Army continued its advance on the West, the province of Transnistria (never officially a part of Romania) has been abandoned in January-February 1944.
The Soviet reoccupation of Bessarabia in 1944 brought back the Communist regime of 1940-1941. The Soviet authority on the Left Bank has been entirely and immediately re-established: collective farms, re-nationalization of industry etc. in comparison with Bessarabian part where re-Sovietization took longer, basically till early 1950s. During immediate post-war years, there were a lot of Transnistrians Crossing Dniester River for seasonal or permanent work in individual farms (not yet collectivized), as a result of hardships imposed by Soviet kolkhozes on the Left Bank. The famine of 1946-1947 touched initially the Left Bank too, but afterwards Moscow and Chisinau authorities helped with grain the Transnistrian districts in order to save the prestige of the regime (if Soviets does not aid submissive Left Bank kolkhozniks, why bother to enter the kolkhozes, would thought Bessarabian peasants). After 1944, the Transnistrian interwar establishment dominated the po-litical, economical and cultural domains in Moldavian SSR. It was especially true till 1960s, when the Bessarabians no matter the ethnic allegiance, but especially of Romanian background, began to be promoted more and more in the higher posts at all levels, local and central.
From ethnic point of view, in 1944 the Romanians/Moldavians constituted 44,5 % of the Transnistrian population, decrcasing at 40 % in 1989 as a result of migratory policy of Soviet Union in the region as well as a direct consequence of Soviet nationalities policy (ethnic assimilation). From economic point of view, the Transnistrian districts have been privileged in the sense 10 % of the territory received around 30% of total investments in Soviet Moldavia up to late 1970-early 1980s. Nevertheless, regional developmcnts in Soviet Moldavia did not anticipate the conflict of late 1989-early 1990s.
The phenomenon of Transnistrean separatism has its origins in the politics of disunion and domination of the naţional republics (divide et imperal), promoted by the Soviet authorities from Moscow in the last ycars of Michael Gorbatchev’s perestroika, to determine them to remain inside the Soviet Union underway its re-newal and both dezagregat ion. Cutting off the Transnistrean separatist enclave, like the Găgăuz one too, in the former Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic territory, it is strongly attached to the name Anatoly Lukianov, head of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. With the political, economical, informaţional and military suppoil of Moscow, the separatist forces from Tiraspol succeeded in forming and anti-constitutional „transnistrean republic” included a part of the right-bank of Nistru river (Bender) and claimed the status of subject of the USSR, excluding any kind of relationships with the MSSR. Once with the dissolution of the USSR, after the August 1991 putch from Moscow, openly supportcd by the separatist forces, the confrontation from the banks of Nistru river loses more and more its political and axiologica! character in the favour of a geopolitical one. The geopolitical Russian interest and Boris Eltsin’s Russia implication in this conflict is noticed with all the clarity during the Nistru spring-summer 1992 war, when Russian troops have participated openly to hostilities on the side of separatist forces. The Snegur-Eltin Convention from July 21, 1992 has put an end to all the hostilities, but in a certain way that has disadvantaged the naţional interests of the Republic of Moldova as independent state, subject of the internaţional law. Further, proposing a series of projects like Primakov’s Plan of the „common state” (1997), the Kozak Memorandum of federalization of RM (2003), Russia followed to solve this conflict in favour of its own geostrategical and geopolitical interests. Moscow tries to keep its military presence on the naţional territory of the RM, disregard-ing the Moldavian Constitution and ignoring its own commitments asummed before the OSCE summit in Istanbul (1999) to withdraw its troops and ammunitions from the right bank of Nistru river by the end of the year 2002. The extension of the negociations format (2004) by inviting USA and EU to this process, but with the status of observers, together with Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, OSCE and the administration from Tiraspol, had somehow balanced the scales of interests in the region, creating some iniţial premises, for time-lasting settlement of the Transnistrean differend, according to the internaţional law. In 2005 the Moldovan Parliament adopted the Law concerning the fundamental stipulations of the special juridical status of the places from the left bank of Nistru river (Transnistria), that aimes to make impossible the future use of the Transnistrean enclave as a tool of state dismantling, to block the attempts to rcvive the Kozak Memorandum and to serve as shield to the Moldovan diplomacy to resist to the pressures that will pursue the sacrificing of the naţional interests of the Republic of Moldova.
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