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Home , Emilian Bucov, Khrushchev Thaw, Western Moldavia

”The Quiet Revolution”: Revisiting the National Identity Issue in Soviet at the Height of Khrushchev’s Thaw (1956) by Igor Cașu, State University of , Chișinău

Abstract The article highlights the impact of Khrushchev’s Thaw on the question of national identity in Soviet Moldavia in the framework of the internal Soviet debates unleashed by the ‘Secret Speech’ and the subsequent Hungarian Revolution. The question of national identity was expressed by two groups, one representing the former returnees and the other the intellectuals or students socialized in the Soviet milieu. The position of the former was more radical and anti-Soviet, while the latter was milder and respected the status-quo, i.e. the Soviet regime, and only questioned some previously established traditions on what it meant to be Moldavian. Incidentally or not, the former position proved to be more long-lasting and in some way prepared and anticipated the national agenda during , in the late 1980s. The question of national identity emerged once again with a comparable fervour in 1968 subsequent to the Prague Spring and Ceaușescu’s refusal to support the Soviet invasion in . In 1956 and 1968, the former Western borderlands – the former , Western and the Baltic States – witnessed what one could call a ‘revenge of his- tory’. More exactly, in periods of crisis the links between these territories and the interwar political entities and their traditions were stronger than any time before or afterwards. The specificity of the Moldavian case is that it succeeded in 1955-1957 to resume if only partially the Romanianization process witnessed by the interwar Bessarabia and partially by MASSR. This article is based mainly on archival documents disclosed in the recent years from Chișinău- based depositories. The first set of documents comprises reports from all districts of MSSR sent to Chișinău in the months following the ‘Secret Speech’ and Hungarian Revolution. They are located in the former Archive of the Institute of Party History within the Central Committee of Moldavia, reorganized in 1991 in The Archive of the Social-Political Organizations of the Republic of Moldova. The other set of documents consists of reports of the KGB of MSSR from 1956 and 1957, especially those concerning the attitudes labelled as nationalistic, and are located in the Archive of the Service for Information and Security of the Republic of Moldova, the former KGB of MSSR.

he year 1956 stands out as a turning point there were others of local importance, for Tthat marked the post-WWII era both at example the domino effects of Khrushchev’ the European and global levels. Just to name ‘Secret Speech’ (at the 20th CPSU Congress) the most important events with global conse- as well as the events in Poland, , quences: this was the year when Khrushchev Ukraine (mass protests) and the USSR on the condemned Stalin’s crimes (February), the whole. In Soviet Moldavia, for instance, the Hungarian Revolution broke out and the So- year 1956 represents one of the main turning viet Union invaded Budapest subsequently points of its post-war history: it was the year (late October-early November), and it was the when it seemed, at least to some groups of ci- year when the tripartite Israeli-British-French vilian population, that Soviet rule was vanish- armies invaded the Suez Canal controlled by ing, people were listening en masse to foreign Egypt (late October)1. Beyond these events radio stations and expressing publicly their

1 For a more global view of 1956, see for dissatisfaction with – unlike in instance Martin Gilbert, A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume 3: 1952-1999, New York: Peren- nial/HarperCollins Publishers, 1999, p. 103-143.

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other years of the Soviet regime till Perestroi- witnessed by interwar Bessarabia and par- ka. It was a year when the Moldavian KGB tially by MASSR (between 1933 and 1937/38 it did not but registered the anti-Soviet attitudes adopted the Latin alphabet and modern stan- because it was fearful of not being associated dard Romanian). with Stalinist practices that the Supreme So- viet leader just condemned. Among the topics Two parts within Soviet Moldavia: that resurfaced in the general atmosphere of a an older one, from 1924, and a newer one, sentiment of freedom brought about by 1956 from 1940 was the national identity issue of Moldavians, The Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic was a subject that is still sensitive and has great comprised of two distinct parts. The first older mobilization potential in the present day Re- part belonged to Ukraine in the interwar. It public of Moldova (unlike socio-economic is- was officially created in 1924 as a Moldavian sues for example). This is not to say that the Autonomous Republic to give local Moldavi- ‘Secret Speech’ or Hungarian Revolution did ans their right to self-determination and serve not influence the national identity debate else- as a Piedmont for the neighbouring Bessara- where in Central and Eastern Europe. On the bia, a part of Romania after 1918. It was terri- contrary, especially in Poland and Hungary, torially large than the present-day breakaway and to a lesser extent in Baltic States and West- Transnistrian Moldavian Republic where eth- ern Ukraine, the mass revolts against the estab- nic Moldavians/ constituted only lishment were fuelled or animated by a redis- about 30 % of the total population. It experi- covered sense of national dignity2. The same enced the whole process of Sovietization just phenomenon of resuscitating the memory of like the other Soviet regions after the October the interwar years in the Soviet Western bor- Revolution: the , the NEP in derlands re-emerged on an alarming scale for the 1920s, mass collectivization and industri- during and after the Prague Spring alization as well as famine in the early 1930s, (1968)3. The specificity of the Moldavian case and in 1937-19384. is that it succeeded in 1955-1957 to resume if The second constituent part of Soviet Molda- only partially the Romanianization process via was Bessarabia, the territory stretching 2 for an overview of various responses to from the Prut River in the West to the Dniester the ‘Secret Speech’ and Hungarian revolution in River in the East, bordering the Black Sea in the 1956, see Elena Zubkova, after the War. Hopes, 5 Illusions, and Disappointments, 1945-1957, Armonk, South and in the North . Bessarabia NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1998, pp. 178-202; Dan Cătănuș, 4 The best account on the national identity Vasile Buga, eds., Lagărul comunist sub impactul desta- debate in the interwar MASSR, see Charles King, linizării – 1956, Bucharest: Institutul Național pen- The . Cultural Policy between Romania and tru Studiul Totalitarismului, 2006; Robert V. Dani- Russia, Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 2001. On els, ed., A Documentary History of Communism and the repressions in the interwar MASSR, see Igor the World. From Revolution to Collapse, Hanover and Cașu, Dușmanul de clasă. Represiuni politice, violență London: University of Vermont & University Press și rezistență în R(A)SS Moldovenească, 1924-1956 of New England, Third Edition, 1994, pp. 160-186. [Class enemy. Poltical Repressions, Violence and Resis- 3 for a theoretical approach to the subject, tance in Moldavian (A)SSR], Chișinău: Cartier, 2014, presenting the 1968 and partially 1956 in a longue chapters 1-3. durée perspective, see Amir Weiner, “Déjà vu All 5 The Southern part of Bessarabia – and a Over Again: Prague Spring, Romanian Summer half of the Northern County of Khotin in the North and Soviet Autumn on the Soviet Western Fron- went to Ukraine in 1940, even though there was no tier”, in Contemporary European History, 15, 2 (2006), unanimity in this regard among the local Commu- pp. 159-194. nist elites. For more on this issue, see Igor Cașu and

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was historically a part of the Medieval Princi- davia and equalled to a “quiet revolution”. pality of Moldavia, a former Tsarist territory between 1812 and 1918, and was a part of Ro- 1956: Intertwining of national, Soviet mania in the interwar period. It experienced, and international events in the history if only for a short period of time, the modern of the Moldavian SSR nation-building and nation-creation process. The year 1956 has a significant place in the his- Even though 22 years was not enough to fin- tory of post-war Bessarabia and Transnistria, ish the process, it had long-lasting lasting con- i.e. the present day Republic of Moldova. This sequences on the post-WWII Soviet policy in year heralded an increased recrudescence of the MSSR, especially in terms of the national critical and inimical opinions and attitudes to- identity issue. ward the Communist party and Soviet state, In late June 1940, Bessarabia was occupied by which were previously strongly deterred by the according to the previous year the Stalinist regime. At the 20th congress of Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of August CPSU, condemned Stalin’s 23rd 1939 and its secret protocol that divided personality cult and the political repressions the spheres of influences in Eastern Europe. In perpetrated by him while head the C (b) P of the first year of Soviet occupation (1940-1941) . In the context of the , and in the aftermath of WWII (1944-1953), this event had profound consequences not the Moscow policy in the newly created fed- only for the international communist move- eral republic of Moldavia was reminiscent ment, but also for the internal situation of the of the interwar policy pursued in the Mol- Soviet satellite states of Eastern Europe. It davian Autonomous Republic, i.e. to build a triggered various new ethno-nation linguistically different from popular move- the Romanian one, with a different history, ments, the most heroes and literature and classical writers, notorious among among other things. The Thaw years – with them being the 1956 as its apogee – changed this policy dra- Polish upheaval matically, at least in content, if not in form. and the Hungar- Moscow continued to insist on the creation of ian revolution. the new and distinct national identity called The secret speech Moldavian, but meanwhile the modern Ro- of the Soviet manian literature and language patrimony leader in Febru- was tacitly accepted as belonging to the Mol- ary 1956 and the davian nation as well. That is why the Thaw unleashing of and de-Stalinization had a tremendous impact turmoil in Hungary in October-November of on the national identity issue in Soviet Mol- the same year had a great echo in the Molda- Virgil Pâslariuc, “Moldavian SSR’s Border Revi- vian RSS, in particular due to the more or less sion Question: From The Project of „Greater Mol- widespread listening to foreign radio stations davia” to The Project of “Greater Bessarabia” and The Causes of their Failure (December 1943 – June such as the Voice of America, BBC, and Free Eu- 1946)”, in Archiva Moldaviae, Vol. II, 2010, pp. 275- rope. Despite the mass repressions during the 370, introduction in Romanian, documents in Rus- sian and Romanian, with an extensive English abs- Stalinist period that left a deep wound in the tract. memory of the civilian population in Bessara-

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bia and Transnistria, critical or inimical opin- of CPSU History, the communist Z. S. Sep- ions and attitudes toward the Communist Par- anaru [Săpunaru] called for a backlash against ty and government reached an extraordinary the intensification of anti-Soviet propaganda frequency and amplitude in 1956. Those who triggered by foreign imperialist forces. The expressed attitudes which usually were quali- latter were supposedly using a whole variety fied by the regime as “unhealthy” or “anti- of methods – such as songs, radio broadcasts, Soviet” were rank-and-file citizens, peasants books, movies, jokes – in order to encour- and workers, religious groups, members of the age anti-Soviet elements within the USSR. Communist Party, Komsomol members and The poet George Meniuc was invited to this others6. This article will pay particular atten- party meeting as representative of the party tion to the attitudes expressed by intellectuals committee of the district named after “Red as they are seen as classical careers of national Army” in Chișinău. He was asked, among identity and nationalism. other things, about the recent publishing pol- icy of the journal “October”, an organ of the “Unhealthy” attitudes of Moldavian in- Moldavian Writers’ Union. Objections were tellectuals after the ‘Secret Speech’ and raised regarding the printing of some texts in the context of the Hungarian revolu- which did not fit the party’s moral standards. tion A. A. Rusu, a communist from party organiza- There were numerous attitudes among the in- tion of the Institute of CPSU History noticed telligentsia of the Moldavian SSR in the after- that after the condemnation of the “cult of math of the ‘Secret Speech’ and the Hungarian personality” the people commenced to freely Revolution in 1956, which the regime defined express their opinions. At the same time, he as “unhealthy”, “anti-Soviet” or “national- was alarmed that the ideological work is not ist”. However, the majority of them could be very “high.” Rusu also stressed the fact that hardly called anti-Soviet or dissident,7 in the until recently there almost no books were sense of questioning the whole or just a part of published on Moldavian classics or on the his- the Soviet system. For instance, at the meeting tory of Moldavia, which was a “big mistake.” of the party organization held at the Institute The same communist mentioned that even though enormous economic progress was 6 For more on this issue, see Igor Cașu, recorded in the post-war period, there were “Starea de spirit a populației RSSM în contextul destalinizării și revoluției maghiare (1956),” in practically no publications elucidating these Pontes. Review of South East European Studies, aspects and exploiting this kind of success vol. 5, 2009, pp. 195-220; Igor Cașu, Mark Sandle, for ideological purposes.8 The same opinion “Discontent and Uncertainty in the Borderlands: Soviet Moldavia and the Secret Spech, 1956-57,” in was expressed by CPSU member Sergueyev, Europe-Asia Studies, vol. 66, no. 4, 2014, pp. 614- an employee of the museum of local histo- 644, esp. 623-635. On the overall assessment of the de-Stalinization process, see Polly Jones, ed., The ry, who said that indeed no books had been Dilemmas of De-Stalinization: Negotiating Cul- printed on the achievements of Soviet Molda- tural and Social Change in the Khrushchev Era, London: Routledge, 2006. 7 On the distinction between dissidence and 8 archive of Social-Political Organizations dissent, see my „Political Repressions in the Mol- of the Republic of Moldova, the former archive of davian SSR after 1956: toward a typology based on the Central Committee of the Communist Party of KGB files”, in Dystopia. Journal of Totalitarian Ideolo- Moldova, hereafter AOSPRM, Fond 51, inventar 17, gies and Regimes, vol. I, no. 1-2, 2012, pp. 94-95. dosar 141, fila 79.

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via in the fields of economics, science and art.9 were backed by district officials for some time. Other attitudes were expressed among the in- One example is Grinman, an inspector at the telligentsia in the aftermath of the 20th Con- district department of education who gave gress of CPSU and particularly intensified indications to the director of Visoka village during the events in Hungary among students not to follow the orders of the district party and professors. Although the percentage of organisation. He claimed that the communists intellectuals is small in comparison with oth- do not have the right to do so, because they er social strata – peasants and workers, for were illiterate in his view.12 instance – their impact in society should not There were other alarming signs for the Soviet be underestimated due to the role of this so- authorities coming from the intelligentsia in cial category in shaping the public opinion. It other districts. Professors Lipovetskaia and should be mentioned also that while the criti- Dzhaconia from the boarding school in the cism and dissatisfaction expressed by peasants south, in Comrat, “systematically” expressed and workers were related mainly to economic their dissatisfaction with party policy, by criti- issues, the targets of the intellectuals’ criticism cizing almost every decision of the CPSU and were the communist principles as such or the Soviet government. They were also critical way they were applied in practice. In the north regarding the resolution of the CC of CPSU of the Moldavian SSR, for instance within the Plenum from December 1956 on the fighting party organization of Commerce College in So- against inimical and anti-Soviet manifesta- roca, the communists Nesterovskaya and Du- tions13. The village teacher Mironiuc from brovski reported that there are students that Scumpia, district of Făleşti, spread licentious did not properly understand the essence of the jokes about the party leadership and Soviet cult of Stalin. The student Sinitsyn said that af- rule as a whole. It was more alarming that the ter the death of Stalin one can notice the rise party organization and teaching body of the of another cult, that of Lenin. The same pro- school tolerated this situation. The ideological fessors from Soroca College mentioned some thaw of 1956 also triggered an intensification ethnic conflicts between students, especially of anti-Semitic manifestations. An anti-Semitic between “Moldavians and Russians.”10 Other inscription was reported in the Russian school students’ behaviour made the local party lead- of district centre Făleşti. This case was ex- ers feel uncomfortable, to say the least. At the plained as rooted in the insufficient education same college during the party meeting with- of pupils and unhealthy influences outside in the trade union organisation, the student school.14 Yeftodiev protested against the current prac- In Tiraspol district on the Left bank of Dni- tice whereby the party controlled trade unions ester, the teacher Neburchilova from the vil- and prompted his colleagues not to accept the lage of Sucleea was caught listening to for- leadership of local primary party organisa- eign radio stations in Russian and discussing tion, district party committee or even admin- such information with her work colleagues istration or professors’ council of the college.11 afterwards.15 The state of mind of teachers There were cases when such rebel positions 12 AOSPRM, F. 51, inv. 17, d.141, f. 132. 9 AOSPRM, F. 51, inv. 17, d.141, f. 79. 13 AOSPRM, F. 51, inv. 17, d.141, f. 65. 10 AOSPRM, F. 51, inv. 17, d.141, f. 130. 14 AOSPRM, F. 51, inv. 17, d.141, f. 162. 11 AOSPRM, F. 51, inv. 17, d.141, f. 131. 15 AOSPRM, F. 51, inv. 17, d.141, f. 152.

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was discussed at the meeting and the district kovski, a doctor working at the emergency education department of Tiraspol. One of the hospital in Tiraspol, was reported to hum re- issues addressed referred to the subscription ligious songs while at work. When somebody of newspapers and magazines by the teach- criticized him, he replied: “I am not a party ing body. It was found that 21 teachers from member and I sing whatever I want and I the district did not subscribe to any newspa- can.” The case of Draikovski was all the more per. This was seen as problematic as it had outrageous in the perception of the party or- an impact on the education of young genera- gans, because he was a member of society who tions: how could one manage to explain cor- spread political and scientific knowledge, and rectly what is happening in the country and he even used to deliver public lectures.19 abroad without being properly informed? The problem was considered more serious when National Identity and the Moldavian the teacher Martiniuk, although having sub- Intelligentsia Given the seriousness of the scribed to Soviet newspapers, recognised that revolt in Hungary and its anti-Russian tones, he does not know how to inspire feelings of the local Soviet Moldavian authorities were Soviet patriotism in children. In this sense the concerned about its impact on the local debate condemnation of Stalin in was over national identity. The regime’s fear was perceived as a critique of the communist re- justified in this regard, but only to a certain gime as a whole, unlike Khrushchev and his extent. In neighbouring Ukraine or Romania – followers in the CC of CPSU wanted to sug- and not to mention Poland and Hungary –na- gest.16 For this reason, there were previously tionalist and democratic mobilization evolved almost unimaginable cases, when pioneers into open mass protests, especially among did not want to enter the Komsomol ranks students.20 This was not the case in Soviet Mol- and some pupils leading open anti-Komsomol davia. At the same time, the legacy of 1956 propaganda. as the culmination of the Khrushchev Thaw Several representatives of the creative intelli- had lasting and unintended consequences for gentsia expressed their opinions openly too. decades, especially in what concerns the na- Mihai Grecu, a famous Moldavian painter, tional identity of Soviet Moldavians. More ex- said that for him it is not important which re- actly, it referred mainly to the language issue gime reigns.17 Another serious issue was that (whether it was Moldavian or Romanian) and propaganda lessons were held usually in Rus- to a lesser extent to national history and Soviet sian, even for the mainly Moldavian audience nationality policy in Soviet Moldavia. which understood it poorly (for instance in the Nationalist attitudes became evident in district of Edinets).18 The freedom of expres- 1956 and 1957 among the intelligentsia of the sion increased during 1956 and extended to MSSR. This was partly due to the Gulag return- more or less banal cases. For example Drai- ees, who included not just dekulakised peas- 19 AOSPRM, F. 51, inv. 17, d.141, f. 149-150. 16 A. Artizov, Ju. Sigachev, I. Shevchuk, V. 20 See Johanna Granville, ”Forewarned is Fo- Khlopov, eds., Reabilitatsiia. Kak eto bylo. Dokumenty rearmed: How the Hungarian Crisis of 1956 Helped Prezidiuma TsK KPSS i drugie materialy, mart 1953- the Romanian Leadership,” in Europe-Asia Studies, 1956, Moscow: Mezhdunarodnyi Fond Demokrati- Vol. 62, No. 4 (June 2010), pp. 615-645; Yuri Danili- ia, 2000, p. 349-351. uk, Oleg Bazhan, Opozitsiia v Ukraïni (druga polo- 17 AOSPRM, F. 51, inv. 17, d.141, f. 154. vina 50-h – 80-ti rr. XX st.), Kiev: Ridnii krai, 2000, 18 AOSPRM, F. 51, inv. 17, d.141, f. 43-44. esp. p. 115, 118-119, 139-150.

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ants21, but also family of Moldovans (which means he was an members of the ethnic Romanian).24 Doncev was accused of Romanian edu- writing and spreading anti-Soviet leaflets in cated interwar May 1955, in which he explicitly asked for the intelligentsia. In liquidation of Soviet rule in Moldavia.25 Lat- September 1956 er on, after being questioned by the KGB, on the chairman of 20 December 1956, one more accusation was the republican brought against Doncev, the one of nation- KGB reported alism.26 One of the leaflets was written in the to the CC of Latin-script ‘Moldovan’ language (Romanian) CPM that in the and another three were written in Russian. first 8 months of The following was the Romanian text: the year no less than 29 leaflets containing threats addressed ...as you can see, the Communists are getting them- to party and state activists were identified, selves into a catastrophe. In a year, we all will be liberated. The time is ripe for each of us to take many of them having a nationalistic flavour. pitchforks and scythes in order to show that we In the same month another former political love our beloved Romania. The time has come for detainee condemned for 25 years, Ciocârlan, us to live better and more easily. Each of us must ex-head of the “nationalist and anti-Soviet” show his love for our former fatherland. This is the Bessarabian regional section of the Romanian only way for us to win our freedom...27 organisation National Renaissance Front,22 re- turned back home and started to re-establish The content of the leaflet in the Russian lan- his network. The KGB intercepted his letters guage was different. It was more explicit and in which he baldly criticised the Soviet regime more incisive than the one in Romanian: and backed the ‘counterrevolutionary’ actions in Hungary and Poland.23 A good example of Dear friends, very soon the whole Moldovan peo- ‘nationalist’ agitation is that of Zaharia Don- ple will stand up for the interests that it had before the war. Communism is failing everywhere. Now cev. He was arrested by the Chișinău KGB on they are going to learn how poorly the Moldovan 11 December 1956 and accused of anti- live. We have all become beggars, we have agitation pursuant to Article 54, paragraph no bread, clothes or land. The time is ripe for us to 10. Doncev was born in 1928 in Chișinău in a rise and tell the Communists: it is enough for you to get rich as flunkeys. The time is ripe for us to take 21 For the definiton of kulak, see Moshe revenge for this life of slaves. Each of us must do Lewin, ‘Who was the Soviet kulak?’ in Soviet Stud- something to set us free from the Communists...28 ies, vol. 18. no. 2 (October 1966), pp. 189-212. For , methods and goals, see Lynne Vi- 24 Arhive of the Service for Information and ola, The Unknown Gulag. The Lost World of Stalin’s Security of the Republic of Moldova, former KGB Special Settlements, Oxford and New York: Oxford (hereafter – ASISRM-KGB) personal file 020293, f. University Press, 2007, pp. 13-53. On MSSR specifi- 4-5. cally, see my Class enemy, chapter 6. 25 ASISRM-KGB, personal file 020293, f. 57- 22 National Renaissance Front was the only 58. legal party in Romania between 1938-1940, dur- 26 ASISRM-KGB, personal file 020293, f. 90. ing the dictatorship of the King Carol II. See Vlad 27 ASISRM-KGB, personal file 020293, f. Georgescu, Romanians: A History, London: I. B. Tau- 182. ris, 1991, pp. 207-209. 28 ASISRM-KGB, personal file 020293, f. 23 Pasat, Trudnye stranitsy, p. 726. 175.

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As a consequence, on 30 December 1956, the mentioning that the Chișinău-based political KGB requested that a psychiatric assessment bodies were keen to learn his family’s past. be carried out to decide on the health condi- The fact that he had two brothers in Romania tion of Zaharia Doncev, proceeding from the and that his mother applied for evacuation to presumption that every citizen questioning Romania in 1944 were weighty arguments for Communism and its alleged progressive na- the authorities to accuse him not only of anti- ture had mental problems29. Yet the result was Soviet agitation and propaganda, but also of negative, as the commission of experts decided nationalism. Punishing such citizens as Don- that Doncev was in good health. Its report said cev was therefore very important for the So- that the defendant was intelligent, sociable, viet authorities, especially when their messag- very attentive to everything that was happen- es were distributed to the public via leaflets. ing around him, and liked reading and games. Political criticism brought against the regime During the KGB questioning, Zaharia Doncev was not as grave for the regime as the ethnic admitted that he had two brothers residing in and national dimension of this message. In the Romanian city-port Constanța.30 He also other words, it was especially important that admitted that he used to listen to foreign radio it doubted the “liberating” nature of the USSR stations, but said he had nothing against the and stated that Moscow had conquered the Soviet authorities. On the contrary, he said he Moldovans and turned them into slaves in loved his fatherland and that he lived a good their own country. The Soviet authorities did life. What do these details of Zaharia Doncev’s not tolerate the idea of the Bessarabians’ his- file tell us? torical, linguistic and cultural affiliation with He had a good standard of living, a high the Romanian nation. Doncev was accused of wage compared with other social categories, violating the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian his own residence, a wife and a child. Con- SSR, Article 54, paragraph 10, point 2 and was sequently, the regime was much more con- sentenced to 7 years in jail for nationalism in cerned about his actions because they had not line with the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian been prompted by daily problems, as was the SSR, Article 54, paragraph 10, item 2.31 case with others. It should be noted that Don- The impact of the 20th Congress and the cev wrote the four leaflets in May 1955, and Hungarian revolution on Soviet Moldavia is clearly hoped that he would not be punished comparable, in some respects, to the develop- for his stance as severely as he may have been ments in other Soviet western borderlands, prior to 1953. Although he talked with admira- especially Ukraine.32 Andrey Prokopenko, tion about ‘his former fatherland’, he did not the chief of KGB of MSSR reported that there explicitly call for unification with Romania. were attempts to recreate some nationalistic Thus, in a way he resigned himself to the ex- organizations, especially in Chişinău, Cahul isting situation, but he wanted the Moldovans/ 31 ASISRM-KGB, personal file 06696, f. 243 Romanians to regain their lost dignity and verso be masters in their home country. It is worth 32 for the early impact of Destalinization and the Hungarian Revolution on Ukraine, see for instance Yuri Daniliuk, Oleg Bazhan, Opozitsiia v 29 See the speech by Khrushchev to the 3rd Ukraïni, esp. p. 115, 118-119, 139-150; see also Yu. Congress of Soviet writers, May 22, 1959, in: Pravda, Vasil’ev, R. Podkur, H. Kuromiya, Yu. Shapoval, & May 24, 1959, p. 2. A. Weiner, (eds), Politicheskoe rukovodstvo Ukrainy, 30 ASISRM-KGB, personal file 06696, f. 236. Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2006, p. 201.

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rayon in the south and Sângerei rayon in the tioning that there was a vibrant nationalistic north.33 According to an internal report of mood among the returning deported priests. the MSSR KGB, in Târnova rayon alone there A decision was taken to pay special attention were already 510 former Gulag returnees in to about 40 itinerant priests who were travel- January 1957, among whom 151 persons were ing from village to village and spreading their convicted of counter-revolutionary attitudes ideas and inciting inimical attitudes toward and activities. Two of them were mentioned as the regime.38 About 100 former members of former members of the anti-Soviet organiza- Romanian nationalist organizations were re- tion “The Sword of Justice”34 and the poten- ported to be Chişinău in March 1957.39 tially dangerous – Vâşcu and Istrati,35 prob- Not only Romanian nationalists were deemed ably because this organization tried in 1950 to be a danger for the Soviet regime. Some to establish relations with the organization of Jews were also under surveillance on grounds Ukrainian nationalists in Western Ukraine.36 of being Zionist activists. In early 1957 trials There were also nationalists among recent were opened against Zionists. One such case Gulag returnees, who were employed at the was conducted against somebody named Ghindeşti and Drochia sugar factories. Nu- Shmois, who had been previously arrested for merous leaflets with nationalist content were “treason against the fatherland.” Coming back reported in July 1957 to have been spread in to Moldavia, he decided to resume his former several rayons, such as Rezina, Străşeni, Ni- activities and even planned to write a book sporeni, in Chişinău and other localities. The against the Soviet regime.40 local KGB decided to initiate a closer collabo- If a nationalist pro-Moldavian anti-Soviet ration with the Romanian Securitate in order movement were to emerge, the issue of rec- to combat local nationalists in the MSSR, since ognition of the Moldavian language as Ro- the Bessarabian émigrés from Romania were manian would be a crucial, as would be the active in supporting their brethren from the publication of the classics of Moldavian lit- Soviet territory.37 There were also reports men- erature. In 1956, the trend towards contesting 33 aOSPRM, F. 51, inv. 15, d. 276, p. 2. the attempts to forge a Moldavian language 34 ”The Sword of Justice” was an anti-Soviet different from Romanian continued. In the and pro-Romanian national organization active in the north of the MSSR, especially Bălţi area, in 1949 new post-Stalin context of the secret speech and 1950. See the memoirs of one of the leading it was now portrayed as part of the distortion members, Ion Moraru, Pustiirea. Treptele Infernului, Chişinău: Editura Flux, 2007. of Stalinist nationality policy. Moldavian lin- 35 ASISRM-KGB, F. 2, inv. 29, vol. 8, d. guists and writers called for a tacit rapproche- 9/1957, f. 3. ment of the standard vocabulary of Moldavian 36 Elena Postică, Rezistenţa antisovietică în Ba- sarabia, 1944-1950, Chişinău: Ştiinţa, 1996, p. 176. to the Romanian one, as well as the adoption 37 ASISRM-KGB, F. 2, inv. 29, vol. 8, d. 9/1957, of a common scheme of grammar. In 1956, at f. 109-110, 53. The collaboration between KGB and Securitate in identifying anti-Soviet and ‘nationalis- the International Congress of Linguists the tic’ elements in MSSR was to continue in the follow- ing decades. For instance, in 1972, a group called Istorică Centrală (ANIC) [National Archives of the National Patriotic Front, led by Alexandru Usa- Romania, Central Historical Archives, Bucharest], tiuc and Gheorghe Ghimpu, was arrested as a result unpublished manuscript of Constantin Tomescu. of this cooperation. See ASISRM-KGB, personal file 38 AOSPRM, F. 51, inv. 17, d. 286, f. 40. Usatiuc-Ghimpu, vol. 2, f. 102. Regarding the fact 39 Valeriu Pasat, Trudnye stranitsy…,p. 726- that Securitate spied on Bessarabian émigrés in Ro- 727. mania, see Arhivele Naționale ale României, Arhiva 40 AOSPRM, F. 51, inv. 17, d. 141, f. 162.

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Italian scholar Carlo Tagliavini stated that the WWII.43 The symbolic victory over language only difference between “Moldavian” and Ro- patrimony and the grammar issue had imme- manian was the Cyrillic alphabet employed diate and long run consequences for the MSSR by the former. In consequence, two renowned and its titular nation. The classics of Romanian Moscow- based linguists, R. A. Budagov and literature were published in Chişinău fol- S. B. Bernstein sent a closed letter to the CC lowing the Bucharest editions. The difference of CPM arguing that they supported the idea was the use of Cyrillic letters, as this way one expressed by Tagliavini, notably that the lan- could not be accused of bourgeois nationalism guage of the titular nationality in the MSSR by simply employing words from literary Ro- was an integral part of the Romanian one.41 manian as had previously been the case. The The public discussion on this subject which of the Romanian classics, recog- had begun in 195542 was broadened and in nized officially as Moldavian and Romanian consequence the new “Grammar of the Molda- (the poet Mihai Eminescu, first of all), was also vian Language” was officially adopted in 1957. possible because a great share of Romanian This also had consequences for cadre policy classic writers were born in historical Molda- too, as it meant renegotiating the relationship via, mainly in Western Moldavia. Moreover, between the Transdniestrian cultural elites, the main criterion for who was allowed to largely dominant until mid-1955 and attached enter into the “Pantheon” of Moldavian litera- to a Russified Moldavian idiom in which they ture was the territorial one, i.e. being born in were educated before 1940 in the MASSR, and historical Moldavia. Class criteria were very the Bessarabian elites. The latter were more important too and the selection of texts was attached to the Romanian literary standard, made in order to stress the social agenda of which was used in interwar Romania, when the authors. Bessarabia was a part of the Kingdom of Roma- This rehabilitation had its limits. It is impor- nia. The victory of the “Bessarabian camp” led tant to note that the name of the language re- by two interwar Bessarabian writers – writer mained officially Moldavian, as the Soviet re- Andrei Lupan and poet Emilian Bucov – was gime was embarrassed to acknowledge in this made possible partly because the leader of the context that it annexed a territory from the na- “Transdniestrian camp,” Ion Canna, fell from tional territory of a neighbouring Communist grace when he was accused of plagiarism, and state, Romania.44 Of course, some works of au- his son of collaboration with the enemy during thors like Eminescu or Alecsandri, who wrote 41 Michael Bruchis, One step back, two steps anti-Russian texts, were censored. In sum, one forward: on the language policy of the Communist Party of the most important consequences of the de- of the Soviet Union in the national republics (Moldavian: a look back, a survey and perspective,1924-1980), Boul- Stalinization campaign for the MSSR and its na- der Co., 1982, p. 126. tional issue was the fact that the local linguists 42 See for instance N. Corcinschi, L. Eşan, ”Cu privire la îmbunătăţirea ortografiei moldoveneşti”, and writers succeeded in pushing for the re- in Octombrie, no. 6, 1955, p. 81-85; R. Portnoi, habilitation of 19th century Romanian classics. ”Despre ortografia moldovenească”, in Octombrie, no. 2, 1955, pp. 83-87; V. Musteaţă, ”Cu privire la 43 Petru Negură, Nici eroi, nici trădători. Scri- ortografia moldovenească”, in Octombrie, no. 1, 1956, itorii moldoveni și puterea sovietică în epoca stalinistă, pp. 75-79; M. Ignat, ”Pentru un alfabet econom”, in Chișinău : Cartier , 2014, pp. 266-268. Învăţătorul sovietic, no. 9, 1956, pp. 48-53; I. Vasilen- 44 See more on that in Igor Caşu, ‘Politica co, “Să restabilim principiile ortografiei noastre cla- naţională’ în Moldova sovietică, 1944-1989, Chișinău: sice tradiţionale”, in Nistru, no. 2, 1957, pp. 125-134. Cartdidact, 2000, pp. 53-56.

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The language issue and the question of ethno- cow to be installed as the chair of the section national identity45 began to evoke changes in for Propaganda and Agitation in the CC of the governance of the republic too. The recog- CP(b). One explanation why he left Chişinău nition of Moldavian-Romanian identity would so late is that after the 20th Congress the situ- transfer more social prestige to the language of ation he describes deteriorated considerably. the Moldavians, i.e. the Russians would lose Spill-over protests in Moldavian universities their often invoked excuse – expressed at the after the events in Hungary appear to have unofficial level – that they are not supposed to been widespread.47 For instance, a KGB re- learn a ‘peasant’, ‘primitive’ and impure lan- port from late 1957 indicated that “some per- guage as Moldavian was perceived at the time. sons among pupils, students and youth write The Moldavian elite felt it could push for their anonymous anti-Soviet letters and express language to be employed by high party and unhealthy nationalistic attitudes due to the in- state officials or at least to ask for equal rep- fluence of inimical elements (…).” In February resentation in the party and state apparatus 1957 Nicolae Bătrînu, a student at the Faculty according to the official stipulation that Mol- of Philology of Chişinău State University, pre- davians are the titular nationality in the MSSR. sented a paper at the student scientific society This development can be seen in the career of on the topic “The image of Stephen the Great , the future Secretary in Moldavian oral works” in which he “admit- General of CC of CP (b) in 1984-1985. He had ted nationalistic interpretations and recited been serving as secretary for propaganda at anti-Russian fragments from the creation of the CC of PCM in Chişinău since 1948 and be- the writer M. Eminescu.” The same student came part of the Brezhnev circle in 1950-1952. said in the course on Moldavian literature After Beria sent his letters to national republics that he regretted living in Soviet Moldavia. on the “distortions of Leninist-Stalinist nation- The KGB was alerted about this statement as alities policy” (May 26 and June 12 1953), non- it was expressed on March 27, the anniversary Russians became bolder in their claims to be of the 1918 Union of Bessarabia with Roma- respected by Russians and Russian speakers. nia. On May 8, 1957 during a meeting between Thus, Chernenko started to ask his fellows in professors of the department of Moldavian Moscow, among them V.A. Golikov, a person language and literature Bătrînu quoted a 19th close to Brezhnev for years, to help him leave century bourgeois writer’s text fragment refer- Moldavia. He complained, “Please help me. ring to the fact that “before one becomes free, Moldavians are coming and saying that I have one should defend his nation…” and that “a been sitting here for 8 years and that I took person may be in chains, but he can never- their job. God endowed them with enough theless express his ideas.” Bătrînu was sup- arrogance. Help me to leave for some other ported by V.A. Badiu and other Moldavian place, no matter where, it is important to be students. Badiu also manifested his “hate for in Russia.”46 He left Moldavia in 1956 for Mos- the Russian people”, saying that “the Pushkin

45 The term ethno-nation is employed here 47 Johanna Granville, “Anticipating the Rip- in the sense defined by Walker Connor in his clas- ple Effects of Military Interventions: A Case Study sical work Ethnonationalism: A Quest for Understand- of the Reactions of Romania and Moldova to the ing, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1993. Soviet Invasion in Hungary in 1956.” Located at: 46 A.S. Barsenkov, A.I. Vdovin, Istoriia Rossii, http://www.irex.org/system/files/Granville.pdf Ac- 1938-2002, Moscow: Aspekt-Press, 2003, p. 214. cessed on 3 April 2012.

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theatre, which hosted Moldavian opera and Staryi underwent the full process of rehabili- ballet, should be renamed after Caragiale”48 tation and even became a hero who fought for and he was “preoccupied with the question of the establishment of Soviet power Transnistria independence of Moldavia.” Both Bătrînu and and Bessarabia after the mid-1960s. However, Badiu criticized Moldavian historians by call- he fell victim to the Stalinist machine of terror, ing them “daydreamers” whilst praising the according to the post 1956 Soviet official his- “Romanian bourgeois and reactionary histo- torical discourse. A street in Chișinău and the rian Iorga” who “correctly studied historical college of Transport among other things were events.” Another student name Druţă, who named after him. The reason he was the only was amember of Komsomol, commented that one chosen for this heroic role is probably that “the day of from the German-Ro- he was a Russian born in Bessarabia, in Bozi- manian occupiers was a day of the occupation eni railway station near Chișinău, in a fam- of Bessarabia,” while reading an article from ily of railway workers. Thus he differed from Ogonyok dedicated to the libera- the majority of leaders of the former MASSR tion of Moldavia on August 17, 1957.49 who usually were of non-Russian and non- Moldavian/Romanian origin. In this regard, The rehabilitation of victims of Staryi truly fitted into the paradigm of Soviet and its impact on the national nationality policy which defined the leading identity issue role of Russians (and Ukrainians as second The rehabilitation of party and state elites who to them after 1954) in the Soviet family of na- fell victims of the Great Terror in 1937-1938 tions.51 That was not a novelty since Stalin’s in the Moldavian ASSR (a part of interwar partial rehabilitation of Great Russian Chau- Ukraine, as mentioned above, while Bessara- vinism in the wake, but especially during and bia was a part of Romania) had an unintended after the “Great Patriotic War.” Besides this, impact on the national identity debate and na- Staryi had real merits to the Soviet regime: he tionalism in Soviet Moldavia. participated in the revolutionary movement The post mortem rehabilitation of the party, in the already Romanian Bessarabia in 1919 state and other categories of the Communism (the Bender rebellion), crossed the Dniester nomenklatura began in 1954. Overall, 557 in- shortly afterwards and was involved in the dividuals were rehabilitated in the subsequent Tiraspol revolutionary gubkom52. Moreover, he years, among them approx. 1/3 members of the was one of the founding fathers of the MASSR former elite. This also included Staryi-Borisov in October 1924. However, there were some Grigori Ivanovich, ex-chairman of the Council embarrassing details about the biography of of Commissars of the Moldavian ASSR in 1926- Staryi, but also hope that censorship would 1928 and 1932-1937; Nicolae Golub, ex-first keep these details away from the curiosity of secretary of Moldavian Regional Committee of ASISRM-KGB, Spisok sovetskikh grazhdan neobos- Ukrainian Communist (Bolshevik) Party et al.50 novanno repressirovannykh organami NKVD MASSR v 1937-1938 i reabilitirovannykh v 1956-1958 za otsut- 48 Ion Luca Caragiale (1852-1912), one of stviyem sostava pristupleniia, f. 1-27. the greatest Romanian playwrights and the great- 51 See more in L. R. Tillet, The Great Friend- est humorist writer in Romanian literature, born in ship. Soviet Historians on the Non-Russian Nationali- . ties, Chapel-Hill, N.C.: University of North Caro- 49 AOSPRM, F. 51, inv. 17, d. 297, p. 18-20. lina Press, 1969. 50 AOSPRM, F. 51, inv. 15, d. 276, f. 7-14; 52 Gubkom – Gubernial Committee.

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the public opinion: he was a Menshevik be- of the mid 1950s took the advantage of their fore the ; he was not very official rehabilitation of Stalinist terror in or- enthusiastic about the establishment of the der to push for the Soviet regime to give up MASSR in 1924, which gave a distinct regional its linguistic policies which aimed at making autonomy to Moldavian/Romanian speakers Moldavian a different language from Roma- on the left bank of Dniester River (even though nian. After 1937, to be against the Romanian- he changed his mind about that later); he was izers and Latin alphabet was equal to support one of the main leaders of the MASSR who for Stalin, which was no longer as prestigious promoted the ‘Latinization’ campaign in the after 1956, to say the least. On the contrary, it MASSR from 1932 to 1937, i.e. the introduction was a sign of being on the wrong side of his- of the Latin alphabet and the greatest possible tory. convergence of the local Moldavian language The rehabilitation of state and party nomen- to the Romanian modern literary standard. klatura leaders as well as intellectuals from In short, he was a ‘Romanianizer,’ as people the MASSR who were linked to the intro- would say at that time and which had no pe- duction of the Latin alphabet and brought jorative connotation before 1937-1938, but the local Moldavian language closer to the changed very shortly afterwards, including in Romanian literary language had a direct im- the MSSR after 1940 and again in 1944. More pact on nationality policy in Soviet Moldavia exactly, if the Soviets hesitated between build- during the Khrushchev Thaw. As a side effect ing a Moldavian separate ethno-nation and a of this change, it became possible to rehabili- Romanian one in the interwar period, after the tate the Romanian classics and publish them war it firmly embarked on making Moldavi- in Romanian in Chișinău, although in Cyrillic ans different from Romanians by forbidding and with some censorship. While the use of the Latin alphabet and introducing the Cyrillic modern literary Romanian vocabulary in the one and favoring the borrowing of words from MSSR was previously blamed as nationalistic Russian, rather than from French as the Roma- and anti-Soviet, it became a part of Moldavian nians were doing.53 literary heritage too after mid-1950s. In this Among the political elites persecuted dur- way, the greatest Romanian poet Mihai Emi- ing the Great Terror in the MASSR were also nescu was officially declared both a Romanian prominent figures like writers Nistor Cabac, and Moldavian classic and a monument in Dumitru Milev and others that used the Latin downtown Chișinău was erected in his hon- alphabet in the 1930s. The former writer be- or. The place became a traditional lieu of na- came a symbol of the persecuted intellectuals tional events that the Soviet regime tolerated and his works were introduced in the school reluctantly as is the case with the monument textbooks of modern Moldavian literature. of Taras Shevchenko in Kiev during the Soviet Cabac and others also participated in the Lati- period.54 nization and Romanianization process in the 1930s in the MASSR and the intellectual elites

53 See more on that in Charles King, “The 54 Igor Cașu, “Was the Soviet Union an Em- Ambivalence of Ethnicity or How the Moldovan pire? A View from Chișinău,” in Dystopia. Journal Language was made”, in Slavic Review, vol. 58, no. of Totalitarian Ideologies and Regimes, vol. I, no. 1-2, 1, Spring, 1999, p. 117-142. 2012, p. 287.

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Conclusion pressed in Soviet Moldavia in 1956-1957 by The year 1956 stands out as one of the most various categories of populations, most no- important turning points in the 20th century tably intellectuals, but also representatives of history of Bessarabia and Transnistria. It sym- workers and peasants especially among the bolized the height of the Khrushchev Thaw Gulag returnees. While the latter were moni- as well as the beginning of its decline. After tored by the KGB and MVD, the former were the Hungarian Revolution, the Soviet regime not considered as too dangerous as they were understood that the de-Stalinization process expressed by Sovietized intellectuals that had should be limited as much as possible, as it has a certain prestige and symbolic capital (to use the potential to put in danger the very exis- Pierre Bourdieu’s concept). Besides, intellec- tence of Communism and the Soviet Union tuals questioned the national identity of the as an ‘empire of nations.’ For the Moldavian previous period within the framework of cri- SSR which comprised the territories of histo- ticizing Stalinism, a process initiated by the rical Bessarabia and Transnistria and was dis- regime itself. Thus, it was seen as being legiti- puted between Romania and the Soviet Uni- mate and officially accepted. on, the Khrushchev Thaw can be equaled to As a result of the Thaw, Transnistrian cultural a ‘quiet cultural revolution’ due to its impact elites lost their hegemony in defining the nati- on the national identity debate. More exactly, onal identity of Soviet Moldavians. The Trans- the official paradigm of the Soviet nationality nistrians, however, continued to dominate the policy remained the same (the titular nationa- political scene and keep their key positions in lity was Moldavian, defined as different from the party, government, and in particular the the Romanian nation), but its contents became KGB and the Ministry of Interior. The changes more Romanian than ever (the Romanian lite- in this regard came in the late 1980s during the rary language and literary classical patrimony last years of Perestroika, which resumed the were declared as belonging to Soviet Molda- unfinished process of de-Stalinization from vians too). Among the general consequences the mid-1950s and thus provoked another cri- of the Thaw – whose culmination was sym- sis of Communism which it could not survive bolized by the secret speech – was the encou- this time. The ‘quiet cultural revolution’ of the ragement of free speech and the fact that the mid 1950s prepared and anticipated in some KGB and MVD were almost inactive for most respect namely this dénouement, subsequent of 1956. The people started to talk not only in to which pan-Romanian intellectuals led the private, but also in public about the crimes mass national movement. However, the deba- of Stalin, to question Stalinism as well as Le- te on the national identity of Moldavians did ninism, and thus the very foundations of the not end with the collapse of the USSR. There Soviet regime. As Stalin’s crimes had real or is extraordinary continuity after 1991 between perceived national characteristics, it was natu- the Soviet and post-Soviet experience in terms ral that the condemnation of the “personality of cultural and political elites participating in cult” fueled national grievances and enabled the debate over the national identity of Molda- the questioning of official discourse and even vians: as in the mid-1950s, late 1980s and the more so the policies toward Soviet nationali- years of independence, the clear-cut pan-Ro- ties on the whole and Moldavians in particular. manian elites remained limited to the intellec- National sentiment and nationalism were ex- tual scene, while the political elites, then and

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now, are dominated by pan-Moldavian elites, About the Author who more or less oppose the Romanian nati- onal identity and a union with Romania. This Igor Cașu is Associate Professor in History at is happening perhaps because the legacy of the State University of Moldova. He defen- Communism is very profound and at the same ded his Ph.D. in History at Jassy University time because the national identity issue was in March 2000 (dissertation on Nationality not settled in Bessarabia before the province Policy in Soviet Moldavia, 1944-1989). In the was occupied by the Soviets in 1940. fall semester 2000 he taught at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, North Carolina as a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence. He was an ex- pert for Tismăneanu Commission in Romania in 2006 and contributed a chapter on Political Repressions in Soviet Moldavia for the Final Report (Bucharest, Humanitas, 2007). From Ja- nuary to June 2010 he served as vice-chairman of the Presidential Commission for the Study and Evaluation of the Communist Totalitarian Regime in the Republic of Moldova. There he was responsible for the analysis of the political repressions after 1953 up to the late 1980s. Publications: Duşmanul de clasă. Represi- uni politice, violenţă şi rezistenţă în R(A)SS Moldovenească, 1924-1956 [Class Enemy. Po- litical Repressions, Violence and Resistance in the Moldavian (A)SSR, 1924-1956], Chişinău, Cartier, 2014; “Stalinist Terror in Soviet Mol- davia, 1940-1953,” in Kevin McDermott, Matthew Stibbe, eds., Stalinist Terror in Eas- tern Europe. Elite purges and mass repressi- on, Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2010, p. 39-56; „Political Repressions in the Moldavian SSR after 1956: Towards a Typology Based on KGB files,“ in Dystopia. Journal of Totalitarian Ideologies and Regimes, vol. 1-2, 2012, p. 89-127.

E-mail: [email protected]

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