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Pridnestrovie has been a "de facto" independent country for more than 17 years. And in the past it was an autonomous republic

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - A group of historians from Pridnestrovie's State University in Tiraspol launched a new detailed study of the republic's 20th century history on the eve of Tiraspol's 215th birthday, on 14 October 2007.

Pridnestrovie, they point out, has never been part of Moldova at any time in history.

From 1924 to 1940, Pridnestrovie existed as an autonomous republic within the Soviet Union. The republic, which was ("unfortunately", they say in their report) known as the Moldavian ASSR, had Tiraspol as its capital for most of the time. Its border was the Dniester river, and confusingly it had nothing to do with Moldova, despite the unhappy choice of name. It did not include any Moldovan land, just as Moldova at the time also did not include any part of the autonomous republic. Moldova, on the other side of the Dniester, was part of Romania prior to 1940.

Having been part of Romania until 1940, nearly 4 out 5 citizens in Moldova proper are of Romanian descent. The rest, approximately 20%, are mainly Slavs. In Pridnestrovie, which has never been part of Romania or Moldova, the opposite is true: Its population has always been majority Slavic. Currently it is more than two-thirds, and made up of mostly Russians and Ukrainians.

Pact was illegal, Moldova says

When Stalin and Hitler agreed to split Europe between them and signed a pact to that effect, the Soviet Union took Moldova from Romania, added it to already-Soviet Pridnestrovie and changed the name of the previously existing autonomous republic. Instead of the MASSR, it now became the MSSR and its capital was moved to Chisinau (then: Kishinev).

Some fifty years later, when Moldova wanted to leave the Soviet Union, the Moldovans denounced the Hitler-Stalin Pact as illegal. When Moldova self-proclaimed its independence in 1991, it specifically did so on the basis of the claimed illegality of the Pact, and the fact that Stalin took Moldova by force. Because of this, says Moldova, this move was "null and void ab initio" and Moldova was free to leave the Soviet Union.

A basic principle of international law is the nonacquisition of territory by force.

Legal historians point out that there is precedent for voiding the results of war-time acts, including border changes. International law operates with the principle of "status quo ante bellum", meaning "the way things were before the acts of war." This relatively recent principle exists to deter wars and aggression, since it means that an invader can not lay permanent claim to territory which is occupied and acquired through war.

Can't have cake and eat it, too

A Moldovan in Pridnestrovie, former Speaker of Parliament Grigore Maracutsa, says that Pridnestrovie agrees with Moldova, and that "they are right: The Pact was illegal. Pridnestrovie and Moldova shouldn't have been joined in the first place."

Maracutsa points out that since Moldova denounced the Pact, and officially in its own independence declaration rendered all of the consequences of this Pact "null and void", then it logically follows that Moldova "explicitly renounced its claim to Pridnestrovie, since the most significant consequence of the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact was to bring Moldova into the Soviet Union, and bring it together with Pridnestrovie."

" - We didn't mind the fact that they wanted to leave," he says. "We only objected when they tried to take us with them, without so much as a referendum to ask our opinion. We are not part of Moldova, and we never were. That is a proven historical fact: This has never been Moldovan land. So they can declare independence, or whatever they want. Just as long as they know that their land never included us. You can't have your cake and eat it too, my friend."

See also:
» The shared - and not so shared - history of Pridnestrovie and Moldova [1]
» Slavic Pridnestrovie is birthplace of ancient Ukraine [2]

On the web:
» Moldova's Declaration of Independence [3]