 | DEMILITARIZATION IS NEEDED to repair the strained relations between Moldova and Pridnestrovie. A look back at history shows how lasting peace can become a reality. [more] |  | | |  | NEVER A NATION, the Moldavian SSR was always just an administrative entity within the Soviet Union. Today, it has effectively broken in two. [more] |
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Re-affirming independence, Tiraspol celebrates its liberation from Romania
63 years ago, Romanian and Nazi troops were defeated in Tiraspol. The day was remembered with a triple rifle volley, fireworks and the hoisting of Pridnestrovie's national flag. Survivors and veterans re-affirmed the territory's commitment to never again fall under Romanian domination.
Pridnestrovie's red and green flag is hoisted in front of Tiraspol's City Hall. To the left, the municipal flag of TiraspolTIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - On 12 April, Tiraspol celebrated the 63rd anniversary of its liberation from Nazi and Romanian occupation. 63 years ago to this day, Red Army troops broke through the Nazi lines and retook Tiraspol, today the capital of Pridnestrovie but traditionally a Russian city which was founded in 1792 by Russian field marshal Alexander Suvorov on Catherine the Great's request.
The ceremonies to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of liberation from Nazi occupation took place in three cities of Pridnestrovie.
The commemorative ceremony started in Tiraspol at 9.00 with the hoisting a flag of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic and the city of Tiraspol. Then the marchers went to the Memorial of Glory. Among the marchers were school children, students, civil society activists and World War II veterans.
Addressing the meeting, Vice-Speaker of Parliament Anatoly Kaminsky said, “Thousands of our fellow citizens gave their lives for justice and freedom. If we, who live now, do not do not pass on the memory of this day to the next generations – we can’t build bright and good future”.
A minute of silence was observed to pray for those who had died in the fighting. The moment of silence was followed by a triple rifle volley salute and wreaths were laid at the war memorial.
Veterans of the liberation were on hand, supporting today's resistance of Pridnestrovie to be incorporated into the ethnically Romanian Moldova. Ivan Kovchenko, who was one of those who liberated the city, told news agency Lenta PMR: “This day is a very good day, as it used to be in 1944. I feel very nice and I believe in independence of our Republic.”
- Never part of Moldova
Before 1940, Pridnestrovie was a separate, autonomous republic within the Soviet Union; known as the MASSR. Its capital was Tiraspol. It did not include any part of Moldova.
Moldova, before 1940, was part of Romania. The border between the two was the Dniester River, just as today - and indeed, just as it has always been throughout most of history. The territory which todays makes up Pridnestrovie has never been part of Romania or of any independent Moldovan state at any time in the past.
By 1940, with the advent of World War II, this changed. Stalin took Moldova from Romania, and created the Moldavian SSR by forcefully joining Moldova and Pridnestrovie. This was a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between two of history's worst dictators; Hitler and Stalin. But in 1941, with Romania fighting on Nazi Germany's side against the United States and the Soviets, this changed and Romania was able to take control of Pridnestrovie for a very brief time and for the first time ever in history.
In 1941, after Axis forces invaded Bessarabia in the course of the Second World War, they advanced over the Dniester River. Romania controlled the entire region between Dniester and Southern Bug rivers and gave it the name Transnistria (meaning "Beyond the Dniester River"). This meant that Pridnestrovie / Transdniestria, during World War II, was an occupied region of the USSR, under control of Romania during the maximum eastward expansion of the Axis Powers 1941-1944. It included present-day Pridnestrovie (also known as Transdniester or Transdnestr) and territories further east, including the Black Sea port of Odessa, which became the capital of this WWII Transnistria.
In World War II, when Romania, aided by Nazi Germany, for the first time in history took control of Transnistria, there was never any attempt to formally annex the occupied territory beyond the Dniester River: it was generally considered merely a temporary buffer zone between Greater Romania and the Soviet front line.
Transnistria had never been considered a part of Romania or even Moldova for that matter. Two preeminent political figures of the day, Iuliu Maniu and Constantin Brătianu declared that "the Romanian people will never consent to the continuation of the struggle beyond our national borders."
Not being Romanian territory, Transnistria was used as a killing field for the extermination of Jews.
Jews and other "subhumans", as the Romanians called them, were deported to Transnistria from Bessarabia and Bukovina. In the total time period 1941–1944, 200,000 to 300,000 Roma and Jews - depending on differing estimates - were victims of the Romanian occupation of Transnistria.
- Committed to independent statehood
Romania's lack of interest in Transnistria was shown by the way it dealt with the deportees there. Survivors say that in comparison with the Holocaust of Nazi Germany, where deportations were carefully planned, the Romanian government did not prepare to house thousands of people in Transnistria, where the deportees stayed. The people were instead placed in crude barracks without running water, electricity or latrines. Those who could not walk were simply left to die.
On March 1944, Soviet forces fighting on the side of the United States and Britain began their attempt to liberate Pridnestrovie. Half the territory of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR) had been liberated by the mid April of that year, with Tiraspol being freed on 12 April.
More than 40,000 people died in bloody fighting to retake the territory of Pridnestrovie from the Romanians and the Nazis, only to see it become part of another dictatorship: Stalin's tyranny, forcing Pridnestrovie to become an unnatural part of the Soviet-ruled Moldavian SSR.
Remembering history, the people of Pridnestrovie are pledged to never again repeat the past. The word "Transnistria" is not spoken locally, and few - not even the ethnic Moldovans - are interested in joining with Moldova or Romania. The strongly independent minded people voted overwhelmingly in favor of sovereignty and independent statehood in an independence referendum in September 2006, with more than 94% rejecting a joint union state with Moldova.
In the evening, a fireworks display lit up the sky. The fireworks were organized by the Tiraspol city administration to celebrate the city's liberation. (With information from vspmr.org, Wikipedia)
See also:
» Transnistria, the artificial name for "the Romanian Auschwitz"
» The shared - and not so shared - history of Pridnestrovie and Moldova
On the web:
» History of Pridnestrovie
The Tiraspol City Hall, shown here, was the scene of a flag raising ceremony
An honor guard from PMR prepares for a rifle volley in honor of freedom
Youth from Pridnestrovie brought spring flowers to place on the graves
Citizens laid flowers in remembrance of those who gave their lives for liberation
Tiraspol's Marching Band paraded through the streets of the capital
(Photos: PMR News / Lenta PMR)
A conference held at the European Parliament in Brussels concluded that unrecognized states like Pridnestrovie need a way to be heard by the world. "It is necessary to create and sustain permanent mechanisms of involvement and consultation of unrecognized state entities in the international community". This will benefit everyone, says the event's official statement. . . 
