Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic
Encyclopedia : M : MO : MOL : Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic
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| State motto: Пролетарь дин тоате цэриле, униць-вэ! | |||||
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| Official language | None. (Informally:Moldavian and Russian as the language of international communication.) | ||||
| Capital | Chişinău | ||||
| Chairman of the Supreme Council | Mircea Ion Snegur (at independence) | ||||
| Established In the USSR: - Since - Until | October 12 1924 October 12 1924 August 27 1991 | ||||
| Area – Total – % water | Ranked 14th in former Soviet Union 33,843 km² — | ||||
| Population – Total – Density | Ranked 9th in former Soviet Union 4,337,600 (1989) 128.2/km² | ||||
| Currency | Ruble (рублэ) | ||||
| Time zone | UTC +3 | ||||
| Anthem | Anthem of Moldavian SSR | ||||
History
- Main article: History of the MSSR
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Soviet Union and Hitler's Reich brought the teritories of Romania situated east of Prut into the Soviet Union in the summer of 1940, and a new Moldavian SSR was reorganised between Dniester and Prut rivers, the old Moldavian ASSR being dismantled, save the area of Transnistria which was assigned to the new Moldavian SSR. The date of the transformation of Moldavian ASSR into Moldavian SSR and its split from the Ukrainian SSR to become a separate republic of the USSR was August 2 1940.
Romania joined Hitler's Reich in the summer of 1941 and took part in the Nazi occupation of the Soviet Union. By the end of World War II the Soviet Union recovered Eastern Moldavia and reorganised it again as Moldavian SSR.
The republic's name was changed to the Republic of Moldova on May 23 1991, and it declared independence after the attempted coup in the Soviet Union, exiting from the USSR on August 27 1991. After an initial desire to unify with Romania, a civil war began in Transnistria in 1992 and since, the Moldovan government has no control of this region.
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 in order to get a public 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 Moldavian 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.
| Armenian SSR | Azerbaijan SSR | Byelorussian SSR | Estonian SSR | Georgian SSR | Kazakh SSR | Kirghiz SSR | Latvian SSR | Lithuanian SSR | Moldavian SSR | Russian SFSR | Tajik SSR | Turkmen SSR | Ukrainian SSR | Uzbek SSR Short-lived Soviet republics: Karelo-Finnish SSR (1940-1956) | Transcaucasian SFSR (1922-1936) |
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