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Minister of Education Mary Pashchenko surprised delegates from Ukraine by giving her speech in their native language, Ukrainian

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - At no time in the past was Pridnestrovie ever part of Romania or part of any independent Moldovan state. But for hundreds of years, Pridnestrovie was part of Ukraine. So it should come as no surprise that many of its residents speak Ukrainian.

Nevertheless, a government delegation from Ukraine was taken aback when they went went to the opening ceremony of Pridnestrovie's Ukrainian Cultural Center on Friday and heard local administration officials give their speeches in Ukrainian. Ukrainian is one of the three official state languages in Pridnestrovie, the other two being Russian and Moldovan (a language virtually indistinguishable from Romanian). But in the day-to-day business of government and business, Russian is by far the most widely used language, and is historically considered the "language of inter-ethnic communication." Most people in Pridnestrovie never hear their government officials speak anything but Russian, but schools have to teach two out of the three official languages to everyone, and many public employees are fluent in all three.

On Friday, the opening ceremony of the new Center of Ukrainian Culture took place at the Pridnestrovian State University in Tiraspol, with local PMR government officials present as well as an official delegation from neighboring Ukraine.

Smirnov struts his stuff in Ukrainian, too

President Igor Smirnov, Minister of Education Mary Pashchenko, and the rector of the university Stepan Beryl, represented each of the three main ethnic communities in Pridnestrovie: Smirnov is an ethnic Russian, Pashchenko a Ukrainian and Beryl is an ethnic Moldovan.

All three took their Ukrainian guests by surprise when they gave their speeches not in Russian, but in fluent Ukrainian.

" - But this shouldn't surprise anyone," said one of the visitors to the event. "It is completely logical because after all, it was the Ukrainian Cultural Center that was being opened. And secondly, Ukrainian is an official language in Pridnestrovie. Therefore, the leaders of the republic shouldn't just try to speak it. They are under the obligation to know Ukrainian, as well as Moldovan and Russian, too."

PMR President Smirnov spent most of his childhood in southern Ukraine, just a few miles from Pridnestrovie's border, so he speaks the language fluently. Paschenko, a native-born ethnic Ukrainian, grew up with Ukrainian at home. University President Beryl, although a Moldovan, speaks five languages fluently; including the three official languages of the new and emerging country.

Online news agency tiras.ru, which had a reporter present at the event, wrote that "as a whole, the demonstration of their knowledge of the Ukrainian language produced a most positive impression on the Ukrainian delegation."

Approximately one-third of Pridnestrovie's population of 550,000 people are ethnic Ukrainians.

See also:
» Ukraine MP in Transnistria: "This is just like home!" [1]
» Slavic Pridnestrovie is birthplace of ancient Ukraine [2]