Romania at the Dniester: 17 years of Non-Recognition

On the left bank of the Dniester river was the Soviet Union, and on the right bank Romania. Recognition took 17 years

RYBNITSA (Tiraspol Times) - In the first 17 years of the Soviet Union's existence, its neighbor Romania did not recognize it.

At the time, Romania extended to the Dniester river. Today's Moldova, which was then known as Bessarabia, was part of Romania. Pridnestrovie was part of the Soviet Union, as an autonomous republic with Tiraspol as its capital. Then as now, the Dniester river was not just a river but a border as well.

It was a tightly controlled border between two nations that did not have formal diplomatic relations and which didn't recognize each other internationally. Soviet guards turned back anyone trying to get into Russia from Romania. To emphasize the wrath of the two nations at each other, the last connection between them, a railway bridge, was dynamited.

In mid-December, 1934, Romania decided to recognize the existence of the Soviet Union and establish diplomatic relations with its neighbor across the Dniester river. Bucharest sent a diplomatic envoy to cross the river with the good news, but the guards near Rybnitsa - on the Russian side - had not been told in advance.

The Soviet frontier guards glared at a pompous, obviously capitalistic person who came chugging across the frontier River Dniester, eager to land on Soviet soil. "You can't land," they told him. "Go back!"

As reported by Time Magazine in 1934, the pompous person drew himself up and sputtered in Romanian for some minutes. "He says that the Kingdom of Romania and the Soviet Union have recognized each other," explained an interpreter. "He says he is the Minister Plenipotentiary of King Carol and that this is his diplomatic passport."

Seeking recognition and better relations

The envoy was Minister Cuintu, and after the border guards telegraphed their superiors, Moscow sent an airplane to pick him up and bring him to the Soviet capital. Shortly thereafter, the new Soviet envoy to Romania, Mikhail Ostrovsky, arrived by plane to take up his new post at Bucharest.

In the interwar years, Romanian was spoken at one side of the river and Russian was spoken on the other side. Today, little has changed: The Dniester river is again a border. On one side of the river lies the mainly Russian-speaking Pridnestrovie. On the other side, the mainly Romanian-speaking Moldova. Historically, Pridnestrovie has been autonomous within Russia, Ukraine and the Soviet Union. It has never been part of Romania or Moldova.

History repeats itself with respect to international recognition as well. Just like the Romanian-speakers on the other side of the river didn't recognize the Soviet Union for the first 17 years of its existence, back then, today's Romanian-speakers also didn't recognize Pridnestrovie for the first 17 years of its existence either.

Fearing what they perceived as an excessively nationalist Moldovan government, in 1990 the leaders of the Slavic communities of ethnic Russians and ethnic Ukrainians proclaimed the secession of Pridnestrovie - on the east bank of the Dniester river - from what was then the Moldavian SSR. Many pro-independence Moldovans living in Pridnestrovie supported the declaration of independence. Pridnestrovie's first Vice President was a Moldovan, as was the first Speaker of parliament.

Seeking better relations, Pridnestrovie didn't dynamite any bridges. Railroad traffic was stopped last year by Moldova in an attempt to isolate the unrecognized country. Now, however, Tiraspol is hoping for a repeat of Cuintu's boat ride: Reaching out to the other side of the Dniester with the good news of statehood recognition after a long and arduous 17 year wait. (With information from Time)

See also:
» The shared - and not so shared - history of Pridnestrovie and Moldova
» Bridging the Dniester will require tolerance and mutual respect