Slavic Pridnestrovie is birthplace of ancient Ukraine

Old Ukraine was born between the Dnieper and the Dniester rivers. The Dniester area is today Pridnestrovie

KIEV (Tiraspol Times) - Historians looking to the origin of Ukraine and the Ukrainians are looking south and finding answers: On the southern border of Ukraine, right before the Dniester river, lies the origin of ancient Ukrainians.

The territory is today home to the unrecognized country of Pridnestrovie, formally the Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica, to use its official name (PMR for short). This land was never part of Romania or of any independent Moldovan state at any time in history. Its population has always been majority Slavic. In the past, it was part of Kievan Rus - old Russia - and before that, it was the original location of the earliest Ukrainians.

In ancient times present-day Pridnestrovie was inhabited by the Scythians, who were later displaced by the Sarmatians. Early in the Christian era, a series of invaders (Goths, Huns, Avars) overran the Ukrainian steppes, stopping at the Dniester river - the southernmost border of old Slavic land.

In the 7th century, the Khazars included much of Ukraine in their empire. As historians in Kiev now confirm, the Ukrainians themselves can be traced to Neolithic agricultural tribes in the Dnieper and Dniester valleys.

The Antes tribal federation (4th–7th cent.) represented the first definitely Slavic community in the area. Further north, in the 9th century, a Varangian dynasty from Scandinavia established itself at Kiev. Having freed the Slavs in the Dniester region from Khazar domination, the Varangians united them in the powerful Kievan Rus. The land and people of Ukraine formed the core of Kievan Rus, forerunner to what is today Russia.

Cradle of pre-Russian civilization

" - It may sound far fetched, but in some ways, it makes sense to argue that Russian civilization, or at least part of it, began when the old Slavic people of the Dniester river valley joined to form the Kievan Rus," says Alex Holt who has researched the issue in depth and written on the history of Pridnestrovie for The Tiraspol Times.

" - The evidence is there. Look at the historical record," says Holt. "This explains the sense of identity that Tiraspol feels when it looks to Russia today, and is perhaps the most important reason why it is absurd for outsiders to keep insisting that this place has a future inside a Moldovan state."

Following Yaroslav's reign (1019–54), which marked the zenith of Kiev's power, Kievan Rus split into principalities, including the western duchies of Halych and Volodymyr. These and the rest of the western region, which included Podolia, had separate histories after the conquest of Kievan Rus (13th century) by the Mongols of the Golden Horde.

In the mid-14th century Lithuania began to expand eastward and southward, supplanting the Tatars in Ukraine. The dynastic union between Poland and Lithuania in 1386 also opened Ukraine to Polish expansion. Most of what is today Pridnestrovie became part of Lithuania and then later Poland.

Majority Slav and a key part of the original Ukraine

This part of old Ukraine flourished under Lithuanian rule, and its language became that of the state; but after the organic union of Poland and Lithuania in 1569, Ukraine came under Polish rule. The formerly free Ukrainian peasants - many from Pridnestrovie - were made serfs, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church suffered persecution. In 1596 the Ukrainian Orthodox bishops clashed with the power of Polish Catholicism, which led to the establishment of the Uniate, or Greek Catholic, faith, which recognized papal authority but retained the Orthodox rite. Meanwhile, the Black Sea shore, ruled by the khans of Crimea, was absorbed into the Ottoman Empire in 1478.

As a growing power, Russia soon found itself involved in war after war with the Ottoman Empire. This, too, was true for the area around Pridnestrovie, where the original inhabitants have always been Slavs.

In 1738, in the Russo–Turkish War of 1735-1739, the Dniester River was the front line. Russian forces failed to cross the Dniester that year, leaving Moldova in Ottoman hands.

The 1792 Treaty of Jassy recognized Russia's 1783 annexation of the Crimean Khanate and transferred Yedisan, then the ruler of southern Pridnestrovie, to Russia. This made the Dniester the Russo-Turkish frontier in Europe.

It was also the first time in history that Russia formally established its boundary along the Dniester in the immediate vicinity of Moldova. At that time, Moldova had been in existence for almost five hundred years and her eastern boundary had been the Dniester for all this time.

Later, Moldova became part of Romania, while Pridnestrovie remained in Russia. The border between the two was the Dniester River, just like it had been throughout most of history.

From 1924: Separate republic with Tiraspol as its capital

In 1924, Pridnestrovie became a separate autonomous republic within the newly created USSR. The republic, MASSR, had Tiraspol as its capital for most of its existence. It never included any part of Moldova, on the other side of the Dniester river.

This changed with the outbreak of World War II. Stalin, like Hitler, was seeking expansion and used the excuse of war to grab a piece of Romania. Soviet troops invaded today's Moldova and annexed it to the MASSR. The status was upgraded to Union Republic within the USSR and the capital was moved from Tiraspol to Chisinau.

Although the MSSR was never a separate, sovereign country, this was the first time in history that the two sides - Pridnestrovie and Moldova - were together in their own state-like entity.

After Stalin's death, many on both sides hoped that the forced and unnatural union would be undone. But it took until 1990 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union before the two sides could again go their separate ways. Pridnestrovie declared independence in 1990, and Moldova did the same one year later, in 1991. Although Pridnestrovie's independence declaration was never formally recognized by Moldova, an implicit nod was given to Pridnestrovie's right to freedom in the preamble to Moldova's own independence declaration.

In the text, from 1991, the brand new Republic of Moldova stated: "The Republic of Moldova is a sovereign, independent and democratic state [...] within its historical and ethnic area."

Pridnestrovie, old Slavic land and the birthplace of ancient Ukraine, was clearly never a part of Moldova's "historical and ethnic area." Throughout history, it was never part of Moldova. And just as importantly, throughout history its population has always been majority Slavic. This is true even today. According to the 2004 Census of Pridnestrovie, Slavs still make up two thirds of the population.

See also:
» The shared - and not so shared - history of Pridnestrovie and Moldova