After freedom and reform, Pridnestrovie says it is no longer Communist

Out of order and broken beyond repair: The red star of communism, with its hammer and sickle, has gone to the dustbin of history

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - On the surface, the old USSR is still alive and well in Pridnestrovie: The country's national coat of arms still includes the traditional hammer and sickle and the occasional Lenin statue hasn't yet been pulled down.

But that is one of those quirks of history in a place where the Communist party only got 8% of the vote in the last election, and where real communism has long ago been replaced with free market reform.

Starting in 2001, reformers in Pridnestrovie embarked on a sweeping transition to a European-style market economy. The privatization of industrial companies has been a success in Pridnestrovie, which has some of Europe's most open and liberalized investment laws and even has a small stock market based in Tiraspol.

So what's with the two Lenin statues in Tiraspol? And the Soviet-looking uniforms that the border guards are wearing? Or, for that matter, the creepy-looking hammer and sickle in the state insignia?

The official explanation is that although heavy in Communist symbology, the coat of arms merely represents Pridnestrovie's historical legacy. It shouldn't be misinterpreted as adherence to communism or to the extinct Soviet system. At any rate, says a commentator, the proof is in the pudding: Don't look at a symbol but at the actual policies of the government and then decide whether or not there is anything "communist" or "marxist" about the way that Pridnestrovie conducts its affairs.

Business

The Communist Soviet system was characterized by state ownership of all industries, mines, factories, plants, etc. Nobody was allowed to accumulate wealth by buying something cheap and selling it at a profit.

This has all changed. Pridnestrovie has privatized most of its industry, and hundreds of medium-sized and large factories are now in private hands. A fast-paced program of privatization continues. 100% foreign ownership is allowed and foreign direct investment is welcomed. A number of large companies are even owned by private American, Italian, and German investors.

Private profit-taking is not only allowed by actively encouraged by a government which has a low tax system in place to generate increased wealth for the unrecognized country.

Under communism, no "exploitation" of labor was permitted for private profit. Today, freedom of contract in Pridnestrovie means that anyone is free to hire anyone else for whatever wage the employer and the employee can agree upon. This would have been unthinkable under a communist system.

The new system in Pridnestrovie is about unbridled capitalism and freedom of choice provided by the free market system.

" - On a bright Sunday afternoon, people packed a main street pizza parlor, 7th Day, and streamed in and out of Mickey's, which advertises 16 types of hamburger toppings," wrote Mara D. Bellaby, a journalist for the Associated Press, who visited Pridnestrovie in September 2006. She also concluded that "it's not correct to say that life here is bleak."

Private property

Pridnestrovie's Constitution protects private property and its Supreme Court has consistently reinforced and protected private property as well as freedom of contract.

Under communism, private property of any "means of production" was strictly taboo. For instance, no one could own a plant which produced goods. Today, Pridnestrovie has a market economy. There is no central planning where the entire economy is run by political bosses, as in Soviet times. Instead, ownership is dispersed and business function on the basis of the invisible hand of the free market. The private sector in Pridnestrovie today is much larger than the public sector; more so than in many other European countries.

Private home ownership is also widespread: In Tiraspol, as of Q1 2007, 74% of all residents owned their own homes. This percentage figure is higher than in many other parts of Europe.

Journalist Shaun Walker, writing for the British government-funded Russia Profile, visited Pridnestrovie in late 2005 and reported that the Moldova's hate rhetoric is "absurd", that the monthly salaries in Pridnestrovie are higher than in Moldova, that the average standard of living "seems to be visibly higher" than in Moldova, and that "life is fairly normal".

Banking

Communism also didn't have institutions such as the stock market or other markets for speculation of private financial dealings. Today, Tiraspol has a small stock exchange. And in addition to its own currency and a Central Bank, Pridnestrovie also has eight different private banks with branches throughout the length of the country. Private banks have freedom to open accounts in any currency: The PMR Ruble is freely exchangeable, with no currency controls, and it is legal to keep accounts in dollars, euros and other currencies as well.

Some banks trade gold and offer gold investments to small investors as an alternative means of saving and keeping a stable store of value. Owning and trading gold in the free market is legal, in stark contrast to Soviet times when the trade in precious metals and "valuta" either brought stiff prison sentences or execution by firing squad.

Pridnestrovie's private banking sector offers mortgages, small business loans, credit and debit cards, car financing and a number of other financial products. Thanks to bank loans, many small entrepreneurs have started private businesses such as independent cafes and restaurants.

" - Moldovans had warned me hungry armed men roam the streets, but although the border is tense, the leafy lanes of Tiraspol were full of cafes and restaurants," said BBC's Simon Reeve after he visited in 2005.

Media

In the Soviet Union, publishing was exclusively the responsibility of the state. This resulted in a massive slew of party propaganda. Today, anyone who wants to do so can freely start a newspaper. There is no censorship of any kind, and any publication can be freely sold - or imported from abroad, for that matter.

Moldovan and Ukrainian newspapers are also available in Pridnestrovie. State publishing has declined, and the majority of local newspapers are privately owned and published. Two leading opposition politicians both own private opposition newspapers which publish harsh criticism of the government. In the last presidential election, two of the four candidates were opposition newspaper editors. Political parties also publish newspapers completely without censorship of any kind whatsoever.

Private ownership and freedom of speech is present on the airwaves as well. Today, in Pridnestrovie, the most widely-watched local TV station - TVS, or "Television of Free Choice" as it is called - is privately owned. Radio stations are also, for the most part, under private ownership. There is no censorship bureau. Under communism, the idea of a truly free press was simply beyond most people's imaginations. Today, reality has exceeded their imaginations.

" - Boys and girls plaster their walls not with portraits of the president, but pictures of Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, and the theaters show the latest Western films. The large number of cars with Transdnestrian plates on the streets of Odessa is testament to the fact that people are able to come and go freely. The independence celebrations featured singing, dancing and general good humour across several generations," wrote journalist Shaun Walker for the magazine Russia Profile.

Religion

The Orthodox Church was disestablished in 1918, soon after the Soviet government took power, and all Church property - which was immensely valuable - was nationalized. The Soviet government was an atheist government by official definition.

Today, Pridnestrovie's constitution guarantees freedom of religious worship. 114 religious beliefs and congregations are officially registered. Most followers are Orthodox Christians and the government has supported a state-sponsored program of restoration and new construction of churches. The Tiraspol Diocese participates in all important official events and government celebrations.

Even so, religion does not play a pervasive role in everyone's personal life. Individuals are free to worship, and many people do. But others prefer computer games and that is fine, too.

British newspaper The Guardian visited Pridnestrovie in 2005 to report on the country's recent progress. What they found was a very European country not unlike many others. As the newspaper reported, Pridnestrovie today has "its own flag, crest, anthem, president, parliament, uniformed border guards, security service, police, courts, schools, university, constitution" and that "the kids are playing western computer games: Tomb Raider, Tank Racer. The shops on 25 October Street include Adidas and a fast-food restaurant decorated with giant, blown-up photos of American skyscrapers. Up the road, there is a vast new sports complex built by the biggest local company, which is called Sheriff, a tribute to the wild west frontier marshals of the United States. At the Hotel Timoty, the receptionist, Tania, is dressed in a stretchy white tracksuit, emblazoned Dolce e Gabbana."

Politics

In the Soviet Union, you could get any color you wanted as long as it was red. Although sham elections existed, in reality they were not free at all since all candidates were nominated by the local Communist party. Any opposition, once the nominations had been made, was unknown.

Compare this with Pridnestrovie today where nine registered political parties compete for votes. The largest opposition party, Renewal, is the dominant party in parliament and in several local town and city councils. It is in opposition to parties which support the president and the cabinet of ministers. Other opposition parties include two small Communist parties and a Social Democratic party. Alone among the nine parties, the Social Democrats prefer a joint union state with Moldova instead of independence for Pridnestrovie.

In the last presidential election, three challengers competed against the incumbent: One was a Communist female candidate. Another was an opposition newspaper editor in favor of unification with Moldova. A third was a private entrepreneur from a small ethnic minority.

Almost all of the voters support independent statehood. It is rare to find anyone who wants to join with Moldova in a common state. One recent visitor, journalist Colin Freeman from London's Sunday Telegraph, came to Tiraspol in May 2007. During his visit he found independent-minded residents like Simeon Antonov, dancing to the latest techno music at the Plasma nightclub while staunchly refusing any talk of a possible unification with Moldova.

Anti-Communism in Pridnestrovie

Pridnestrovie's President, Igor Smirnov, has fought against Communism ever since he was a child. As a boy, his father was imprisoned by Stalin as a political prisoner for anti-Soviet activities and sentenced to fifteen years of hard labor and another five in exile.

Later, as an adult, Igor Smirnov organized some of the first strikes in the Soviet Union. In 1989, Igor Smirnov's strike movement - known as the OSTK - brought over 200 factories and other state-run enterprises to a halt. Over 100,000 workers participated in the strike in opposition to the Soviet Socialist Republic's leadership and its Communist authorities.

This was Igor Smirnov's first entry into the world of politics. The next year, as a result of Glasnost, he stood as one of the first legal opposition candidates in a local election for the Tiraspol city council. Never having been a political candidate before, he entered politics for the first time and was up against the Communist Party. In this free election, the anti-Communist Igor Smirnov beat his official challenger, the First Secretary of the city’s Central Party Committee, Leonid Tsurkan, by a 2-to-1 margin.

It is a fact that none of the leaders in Pridnestrovie's original independence movement were communist functionaries or party apparatchiki. No one - starting with Igor Smirnov - ever held any kind of high office or government position related to the Soviet government or the Soviet Union's Communist Party.

Hidden communism in Moldova

Although neighboring Moldova has quickly hidden its communist symbols, it is more of a communist state than Pridnestrovie.

Its current president, Vladimir Voronin, is head of the country's official Communist Party which is a direct succesor to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. As a former party 'aparatchik', in Soviet times Vladimir Voronin was an influential Communist general who was in charge of the dreaded Interior Ministry police force of the MSSR.

Since Moldova declared independence in 1991 - one year after Pridnestrovie had already left the MSSR - every single president of Moldova has had a background as a former high-ranking Communist Party official in Soviet times. Not a single Moldovan president has been drawn from among anti-Communist or dissident forces, or even amateurs or technocrats with no political background. Although appearing under different party affiliates, every single Moldovan president held a Communist Party membership and a high party rank as a Soviet official in the USSR.

As American investment manager Kevin Stillmock says, "the true Communists today don't openly advertise it." Stillmock, a frequent visitor to Pridnestrovie, says that the real Communists have moved beyond the symbology, with the most canny operators hiding behind a different set of colors these days.

Back to the U.S.S.R....?

Support for Communism in Pridnestrovie is today low. Few among the population pine for a return to the USSR. The unrecognized country has two legally registered Communist parties, but both of them are tiny and receive almost no voter support. Neither of them is represented with a single member in parliament. In the last presidential election, the Communist candidate - supported jointly by both parties - received just 8% of the vote.

On the surface, Pridnestrovie today may still retain the look of a Communist state or, at one foreign journalist said, "the last remaining Stalinist dictatorship in Europe." But looks can deceive. And in the case of Pridnestrovie it is today free, market-oriented, increasingly democratic, and absolutely European.

Pridnestrovie, which is also known as Transdniester or Transnistria, declared independence in 1990 in the breakup of the Soviet Union. Although not recognized as an independent country, it meets the requirements for statehood under international law. It has a population equivalent in size to the population of Montenegro, U.N.'s latest member. It has a territory approximately twice the size of Luxembourg, and a government with its own flag, national anthem, passports, stamps, car plates, a Supreme Court, a democratically elected parliament, a Central Bank, and its own freely convertible currency, the PMR Ruble.

After 17 years on its own, there is no going back now for Pridnestrovie - and certainly not to a past which was dominated by Communism. The Soviet Union, and all of the repression that came with it, is dead and buried. There is also no going back to the union that Josef Stalin, one of history's worst dictators, created in 1940 by forcing Moldova and Pridnestrovie into an unnatural marriage.

" - The artificial Stalin-created Moldavian SSR has been effectively dissolved," says Rybnitsa resident Alexandru Voda, "and we are not going back to that sort of a Frankenstein republic ever again. We have tasted freedom and independence, and this is the only future for us now."

See also:
» The Legacy of Lenin
» Igor Smirnov, Pridnestrovie's "Khozyain" President
» The man who wouldn't be king