Moldova: a Borderland's Fluid History

15/16 (2014) Moldova: A Borderland‘s Fluid History Guest Editors Diana Dumitru and Petru Negura Chișinău The Soviet occupation of Bessarabia in June 1940 resulted in a flood of refugees, some of whom left the region by train. Online Journal of the Center for Governance and Culture in Europe University of St. Gallen URL: www.gce.unisg.ch, www.euxeinos.ch ISSN 2296-0708 Center for Governance and Last Update 10 December 2014 LAndis & GYR Culture in Europe STIFTung University of St.Gallen Table of Contents Moldova: A Borderland‘s Fluid History Editorial by Diana Dumitru and Petru Negura 3 1812 and the Emergence of the Bessarabian Region: Province-Building under Russian Imperial Rule by Victor Taki, King’s University College, Edmonton 9 1878, Before and After: Romanian Nation-Building, Russian Imperial Poli- cies, and Visions of Otherness in Southern Bessarabia by Andrei Cuşco, Moldova State University, Chișinău 20 Between the Empire and the Nation-State: Metamorphoses of the Bessarabi- an Elite (1918) by Svetlana Suveică, Moldova State University, Chișinău 34 From a ‘Liberation’ to Another. The Bessarabian Writers During the First Year of Soviet Power (1940-1941): Integration Strategies and Forms of Exclusion by Petru Negură, “Ion Creangă” State Pedagogical University, Chișinău 46 How the Bessarabians Were Perceived by the Romanian Civilian-Military Administration in 1941 by Diana Dumitru, “Ion Creangă” State Pedagogical University, Chișinău 65 ”The Quiet Revolution”: Revisiting the National Identity Issue in Soviet Moldavia at the height of Khrushchev’s Thaw (1956) by Igor Cașu, State University of Moldova, Chișinău 77 1991: A Chronology of Moldova’s Independence by Sergiu Musteaţă, ”Ion Creangă” State Pedagogical University, Chișinău 92 Justifying Separatism: The Year 1924, the Establishment of the Moldovan ASSR and History Politics in the Transnistrian Moldovan Republic by Alexandr Voronovichi, “Ion Creangă” State Pedagogical University, Chișinău 104 Publishing Information/Contact 118 Euxeinos 15/16 (2014) 2 Moldova: A Borderland‘s Fluid History his special issue of Euxeinos focuses on issues consuming the local society over time. Tthe historical transformation that occurred While clearly differing in terms of timing and in a territory where various political and cul- categories of interest, the selected topics of the tural influences met and mingled, and which case studies do not have a spasmodic charac- today is known as the Republic of Moldova. ter. All articles are deeply anchored in the in- Strongly influenced by the competing expan- vestigation of this region’s transition from one sionist ambitions and “civilizing” missions of polity to another and in their ensemble aim to Editorial the powerful political entities that historically provide the reader with a panoramic view of controlled this part of the world, the indig- Moldovan history and a proper grasp of the enous population was subjected to multiple transformations at the grass-root level dur- cultural fractures and overlaying stratifica- ing the cardinal political changes. The authors tions under Ottoman, Tsarist, Romanian, and stress various processes and models of mod- Soviet dominance. Nine articles explore the ernization put into motion during the 19th history of this region through a selection of and 20th centuries in this region. They take events, which arguably form a crucial timeline note of the actions promoted by the incumbent for the destiny of the populace inhabiting this empire, nation-state, or federal formation, land. When read in their entirety, these stud- and examine the incongruous involvement in ies will assist the reader in scrutinizing the these actions both of the regional elites (politi- dense and curious history of this borderland cal and intellectual), as agents of reformation zone and contemplating the metamorphoses or mediators, and the masses – “the people”– of the locals’ identity. either as a target public, or as a legitimating The current volume is structured around the discourse. most decisive years of the history of Bessara- As mentioned earlier, the territory investigat- bia and Transnistria, with an exclusive fo- ed by these studies has the idiosyncrasy of a cus on the 19th and the 20th centuries. Each borderland. As many historians will be forced of the included studies explores a particular to agree, until the 20th century Bessarabia (and year which brought a major political change in particular Transnistria) could not be de- – usually a transfer from one polity to another scribed as a realm of cultural and intellectual – to this land, and which had significant cul- buoyancy. When integrated into various state tural, social, and economical effects for local formations, the perceived core mission of this residents. Specifically, the authors chose to peripheral area was predominantly a strategic weave their accounts around the years 1812, one, either of a defensive or of an expansionist 1878, 1918, 1924, 1940, 1941, 1956, and 1991. character. It is revealing in this sense that the While the authors focused on somewhat obvi- majority of illustrious personalities selected ous historical milestones in their selection of by historians as “Romanian Bessarabians” or years, they took a more offbeat path in their as “Moldovans” were educated and estab- choice of explored subjects. The editors of this lished themselves outside Bessarabia until the volume hope that this felicitous combination beginning of the 20th century: in Constantino- of structure and content will allow the reader ple, in Russia’s capital, or in the western part to familiarize him or herself with the high- of the Principality of Moldova. The economic lights of Moldovan history and, at the same and cultural development of Bessarabia and time, gain a deeper understanding of the key Transnistria sped up during the 20th century, Euxeinos 15/16 (2014) 3 Editorial when some of the modernizing and “high- ties were compelled to adjust their strategies modernist” models of social engineering and of governance towards the local population, national construction started to be tested in either attempting to find a modus vivendi order to integrate the population of this terri- with the institutions, laws, and indigenous tory into rivaling states / political regimes (cor- customs, or through their radical transforma- respondingly Romania and the USSR). In all tion, sometimes by using repressive means. these cases the models of political governance The studies by Victor Taki and Andrei Cuşco and identification imposed on the population highlight these careful acts of balancing these of this region were imported from the outside opposite principles of power after the incorpo- and were not an “autochthonous” production ration of the territory between Prut and Dni- of the indigenous elites. ester into the Russian Empire in 1812. The au- The peripheral status of the region during thors manage to detail the heterogeneous and the last two centuries and earlier profoundly frequently contradictory attempts of the tsarist shaped not only the identity of its inhabit- bureaucrats to define the status and function- ants, but also demographic, economic, and ing of this new gubernia, while contemplating cultural processes as well as the practices of what would be the appropriate model for gov- governing political regimes, and the survival ernance of this region. In doing so, they aim to strategies of the local population. The articles effectively fit together both the local traditions in this volume tend to suggest that one of the and the interests and ambitions of the empire. major concerns of various incumbent regimes The administrative and symbolic formation continued to be the unsettled sense of loyalty of this gubernia was, in the end, the point of of the population of this land. Accordingly, convergence and the fruit of compromise be- the authors’ attention gravitates towards the tween seemingly contradictory visions, but in interactions between the freshly established essence it projected together the expansion- authorities (be it 1812, 1918, 1940, or 1941) ist ambition of the Russian Empire and its and the indigenous population of this region, “civilizing mission.” After the second half of both elites and “masses.” As visible from these the 19th century, once the Romanian national studies, local elites and ordinary people were state was created, Bessarabia became a zone of cautiously embracing strategies of integration, interest of the Romanian national project. As accommodation and self-preservation, while Cușco demonstrates, the contested character facing the centralizing and homogenizing ef- of the region did not crystallize in the form of forts of new centers of political power and two coherent and continuous narratives that dealing with the new authorities and their im- spanned during the whole pre-World War planted elites. The painful transition from one I period. Yet some moments of heightened administration to another usually forced the discursive tension between the Russian and locals to make significant efforts to legitimize Romanian polities clearly indicated the “sym- themselves and adapt to the rules and crite- bolic competition” over Bessarabia among the ria imposed by new authorities. These efforts neighboring rivals. varied widely from integration into the new It was only after the end of the World War I, structures of the incumbent regime and to the under an international context favorable for refusal or inability to cooperate with the new Romania, that Bessarabia

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