17 years ago, the founding fathers of Pridnestrovie held their first meeting

Documents and flags used by Pridnestrovie's founding fathers at their first congress in Parkany 17 years ago are now in a museum

PARKANY (Tiraspol Times) - In the village of Parkany, between Bender and Tiraspol in southern PMR, 673 "founding fathers" of Pridnestrovie met for the very first time on 2 June 1990.

Their meeting was the First Congress of People's Deputies of Pridnestrovie at All Levels, called to discuss an emergency response to recent moves by Chisinau which at the time were expected to produce unification with neighboring Romania.

In Moldova proper, nearly 80% are linguistically and historically similar to the Romanians. All of the "natural" Moldova had belonged to Romania until 1940. The only exception was Pridnestrovie (also known as Transdniester, or Transnistria), which was never part of Moldova or Romania at any time, and whose only role was to serve as an excuse or springboard for the Stalin-created MSSR (Moldavian SSR).

During a series of referenda held throughout the length of Pridnestrovie in the first half of 1990, the locals on Pridnestrovie's side of the Dniester river overwhelmingly voted in favor of self-determination, the formation of an independent or autonomous ASSR or SSR, and a break with Chisinau which at the time was looking increasingly towards Romania.

Declaration of autonomy: 2 June 1990

On 2 June 1990, the First Congress of People's Deputies at All Levels created the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, initially meant to be an ASSR within the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (MSSR), a union republic of the Soviet Union. Three months later, the "autonomous" part was dropped and Pridnestrovie declared independence as the PMSSR, leaving Moldova (the MSSR) behind for good but still hoping to become accepted as an SSR within the Soviet Union.

The definitive split with Moldova took place on 2 September 1990, which Pridnestrovie consider its founding date. At the time, Pridnestrovie still hoped to remain within a reconfigured Soviet Union. It was only later - upon the disintegration of the Soviet Union - that Pridnestrovie decided to "go it alone" and seek international recognition as a new and sovereign country.

673 deputies participated in the founding congress, including 27 journalists and other local media representatives.

One of the decisions taken at the First Congress was a request, by telegram, to Moscow and the central authorities of the USSR to hold a referendum in the MSSR over the national flag, the official language and other issues which the ethnic Slavs considered discriminatory and a violation of their rights.

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact declared illegal and undone everywhere, except in Pridnestrovie

A minority in Moldova as a whole, Slavs were (and are) a majority in the historically non-Moldovan Pridnestrovie, a bit East of the Dniester which had been added by Stalin at the onset of World War II as the result of a secret pact with Hitler; the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

This same pact - which also enabled Stalin to grab Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia - was later denounced as illegal by everyone involved: The Baltic states, Moldova and even Gorbachev, as then-leader of the Soviet Union. It has largely been undone, with Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Moldova becoming independent states. But one result of the illegal pact between Stalin and Hitler has not yet been formally untangled: Moldova still lays claim to Pridnestrovie, disregarding the fact that it was only because of the illegal pact that Moldova and Pridnestrovie were joined together in the first place.

The outcome of the First Congress was the adoption of a declaration on economic and social development of Pridnestrovie and and the election of a coordination council, to function as a limited parallel local parliament to ensure autonomy in the region in these two fields (economic and social development).

The First Congress also sent a letter formally requesting the MSSR Parliament to amend the Romanian language law, in order to bring it into line with existing legislation for the Soviet Union at the time. But instead of getting an answer, the ethnic-nationalist Popular Front of Moldova stepped up its anti-Russian attacks, both verbally and physically.

Never part of Moldova

Starting in early 1989, leading politicians in Moldova had with increasing force called openly for the deportation of all "newcomers" to Moldova, stirring up anti-Slav and anti-semitic feelings. Never mind that Jews in Moldova had a five hundred year history, and could hardly be called newcomers. Likewise with the Slavs: In at least part of the MSSR, the part which had been added to Moldova by Josef Stalin in 1940, Slavs were the majority and had always been the majority.

East of the Dniester, the land had never been Moldovan. Although a third of the population was Moldovan, Pridnestrovie was old Russian land - originally a part of Kievan Rus a thousand years ago, and later part of Ukraine and Russia. Since its founding, Slavs had always been an absolute majority. Pridnestrovie had never at any time in over one thousand years of history belonged to an independent Moldovan or Romanian state.

In the MSSR, the Moldovan authorities at the time adopted a series of laws and regulations aimed at creating a national Moldovan state centered on the main ethnic group, Moldovans, which had the practical effect of making non-Moldovan minorities feel excluded. A number of measures were introduced to facilitate a break with the Soviet Union and incorporation into neighboring Romania. This, predictably, caused apprehension among minorities, both Slavs and Jews. Whereas the Jewish population looked to Israel, and many took steps to emigrate, Slavs were not prepared to move: They just wanted to safeguard their culture and way of life in the country where they were born and had been brought up.

1990-preparations for Moldova joining Romania

The MSSR declared Romanian its official language, and instead of the Cyrillic alphabet, Latin script was forcefully introduced even though most people in the country - Moldovans included - had grown up using only Cyrillic and had no experience writing in any other alphabet. At the same time, the Romanian tricolor became Moldova's national flag.

Every morning, the Romanian national anthem was played on state radio and TV throughout the Moldavian SSR despite the fact that, at the time, the MSSR was still legally a part of the not-yet-disbanded Soviet Union.

In Chisinau, numerous cases were reported of ethnic Russians being beaten. In two instances, the beatings were so severe that the victims went into coma and later died as a result of the anti-Russian ethnic violence. The Moldovan authorities refused to take any actions in these matters, and the perpetrators were not brought to justice.

The Pridnestrovian deputies to the MSSR Supreme Soviet in Chisinau were also subjected to insults, heckling and physical violence.

Many of them, including MP Igor Smirnov - who had been elected earlier that year - were beaten as they entered the legislature. As a sign of protest, East Bank deputies from Tiraspol and other traditionally non-Moldovan areas, left the Chisinau legislature and instead formed a separate, regional legislature composed of elected representatives from the nine main Pridnestrovian towns and districts.

To safeguard the minority human rights and civil liberties of the local non-Moldovan population, workers' councils were formed in the main factories throughout Pridnestrovie. They quickly agreed that it would be necessary to unite the towns and cities throughout the length of Pridnestrovie.

At the same time, many of the representatives came to the conclusion that all attempts to reach a compromise with Chisinau to resolve the conflict had failed.

It was becoming increasingly clear that Chisinau was not interested in protecting ethnic minorities, and that anti-Russian and anti-Ukrainian rhetoric was being used to create support for Moldovan independence.

Divorce and independence declaration

On 23 June 1990, the MSSR parliament passed a declaration of Moldovan sovereignty. Although this was not an independence declaration, it stated that from now on, Moldovan laws would take preference over USSR laws, and it renounced the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact which in 1940 led to the union between Pridnestrovie and Moldova.

According to Chisinau, the decree which in 1940 created the MSSR out of Pridnestrovie and Moldova was illegal. From that premise, it followed that any inclusion of Tiraspol, Kamenka, Rybnitsa, Dubossary, Grigoriopol and Slobodzya within the MSSR itself would, naturally, also be illegal.

In response, exactly three months later, on 2 September 1990, the Second Extraordinary Congress of People's Deputies of all Levels of Pridnestrovie met in Tiraspol. The bit about "all levels" means village councilors, town councilmen, local and regional deputies, and all other sorts of elected officials. This second congress led to the formation of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, which declared its independence on 2 September 1990. At that meeting, a provisional parliament was elected consisting of fifty members.

Igor Smirnov became its chairman. Among the main decisions of the provisional parliament was the law on elections of deputies to the PMSSR and the subsequent renaming to the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR).

See also:
» Grassroots organizers want increased independence
» The former Moldavian SSR: A non-country which broke in two
» The shared - and not so shared - history of Pridnestrovie and Moldova

On the web:
» History of creation and development of the Parliament of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR)