Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
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Moldavian ASSR or Moldovan ASSR (Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic; Romanian: Republica Autonomă Socialistă Sovietică Moldovenească) was an autonomous region of the Ukrainian SSR between 12 October 1924 and 2 August 1940, encompassing Transnistria (now in Moldova) and parts which are now in Ukraine.
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[edit] Creation
The creation of the republic was initiated by the letter signed by Grigore Kotovski, Al. Bădulescu, P. Tkacenko, S. Tinkelman (Timov), A. Nicolau, A. Zalic, I. Dic, T. Diamandescu, T. Chioran and V. Popovici, all signatories being bolshevic activists (many of them from Bessarabia). This idea became a matter of dispute. Chicherin held that its establishment would be premature and would lead to the "expansion of Romanian chauvinism". On the other hand, Kotovsky held that a new republic would spread communist ideas into neighboring Bessarabia, with a chance that Romania and the entire Balkan region would be revolutionized. Initially, on March 7, 1924, it was cautiously decided to create the Moldavian Autonomous Oblast within the Ukrainian SSR.
The new oblast initially had four districts, all of them having a Moldovan majority: [1]
- Rîbniţa - 48,748 inhabitants, of which 25,387 Moldovans - 52%
- Dubăsari - 57,371 inhabitants, of which 33,600 Moldovans- 58%
- Tiraspol - entirely Moldovan
- Ananiv - 45,545 inhabitants, of which 24,249 Moldovans- 53%
On 8 October 1924 the oblast was elevated to the status of autonomous republic and included many other regions, including some with little Moldavian population, such as the Balta district (where the capital was located), which had only 2.52% Moldavians.
The ASSR had a mixed Ukrainian (46%) and Romanian (32%) population which was estimated to be 545,500. Its area was 8,677 km² and included 11 raions by the left bank of Dniester.
According to the 1926 Soviet census, the Republic had a population of 572,339[2], of which:
- Ukrainians: 48.5% (277,000)
- Moldovans: 30.1% (172,000)
- Russians: 8.5% (48,000)
- Jews: 8.5% (48,000)
- Germans, Bulgarians, Poles, Gypsies, etc: 4.4%
The official capital was at the "temporarily occupied city of Kishinev", and there was an executive capital until 1929 at Balta, and starting in 1929 until its disbanding in 1940 at Tiraspol.
While the creation of ethnic-based autonomous polities was a general policy of the Soviets at that time, with the creation of the Moldavian ASSR, the Soviet Union also hoped to bolster its claim to Bessarabia. However, the Romanian Communist Party never became popular in Bessarabia or in the whole of Romania.
This purpose is explained in an article of Odessa Izvestia in 1924, in which a Russian politician, Vadeev says that all the 'oppressed Moldavians' from Bessarabia "look at the future Republic like at a lighthouse, which spreads the light of freedom and human dignity".[3]
[edit] History
The area was quickly industrialized, and because of the lack of a qualified workforce and engineering and pedagogical cadres, a significant migration from other Soviet republics occurred, predominantly Ukrainians and Russians. In particular, in 1928, of 14,300 industrial workers only about 600 were Moldovans.
Collectivization in MASSR was even more fast-paced than in Ukraine and was reported to be complete by summer 1931. This was accompanied by the deportation of about 2,000 families to Kazakhstan.
In 1925 MASSR survived a famine, followed by the great famine of 1932-1933 (known as the Holodomor in Ukraine), with tens of thousands of Ukrainians and Romanians dying of starvation.
During the famine thousands of inhabitants tried to escape over Dniester, despite the threat of being shot. On February 23, 1932, the most notable such incident happened near the village Olăneşti, when 40 persons were shot. This was reported in European newspapers by survivors. The Soviet side reported this as an escape of "kulak elements subdued by Romanian propaganda".
[edit] Rise of the Moldavian ethnicity theory
- Main article: Moldovenism
The "Moldavian language theory" began to be developed here. This theory claimed that the Moldavians were a different nation from the Romanians, and that they were allegedly "oppressed by the imperialist Romanians". After World War II, this would be part of the official ideology of the Communist Party in Soviet Moldova.
In order to differentiate the "Moldavian Socialist culture" from the "Romanian bourgeois culture" and to keep Soviet Moldovans far from Romanian influences, Cyrillic script was used in Moldavian schools (instead of Latin script which was used in Romania). The linguist Leonid Madan was assigned the task of creating this new language, based on the Moldovan dialects of Transnistria and Bessarabia and new words taken from the Russian language or invented by him.
In 1932, when in the entire Soviet Union there was a trend to move all languages to the Latin script, the Moldovan ethnicity theory was dropped and the Latin script and literary Romanian language introduced into Moldavian schools. Leonid Madan's books were taken away from libraries and destroyed.
In the second half of the 1930s a new trend of moving languages to the Cyrillic script started in the Soviet Union. In 1937 Stalin ordered massive repressions, which for the Romanian intellectuals of the Moldavian ASSR meant accusations as "Romanian spies". Nearly all of them were removed from their positions and repressed, and many of them were executed. In 1938 the Cyrillic script was again declared official for the "Moldavian language" and the Latin script was banned. However, the literary language did not return to Madan's creation and remained closer to Romanian.
[edit] Disbanding
In 1940, the Soviet Union occupied Bessarabia, then part of Romania, and created the Moldavian SSR, which included most of Bessarabia and the western part of the Moldavian ASSR. The eastern part, which included the city of Balta, was merged with the Ukrainian SSR, stripping the autonomy and language rights for the Romanians living there.
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- (Romanian) Elena Negru - Politica etnoculturală în RASS Moldovenească(Ethnocultural policy in Moldavian ASSR), Prut International publishing house, Chişinău 2003
- (Romanian) Ion Nistor, Vechimea aşezărilor româneşti dincolo de Nistru, Bucureşti: Monitorul Oficial şi Imprimeriile Statului, Imprimeria Naţională, 1939
