Moldavian SSR

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Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic
Република Советикэ
Сочиалистэ Молдовеняскэ

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1940 — 1991

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Flag	Coat of arms

State motto:
Moldovan: Пролетарь дин тоате цэриле, униць-вэ!
Translation: Workers of the world, unite!

Capital

Kishinev (today Chişinău)

Official language

Moldovan (Romanian) and Russian

Established
In the USSR:
- Since
- Until

October 12, 1924

August 2, 1940
August 27, 1991

Area
- Total
- Water (%)

Ranked 14th in the USSR
33,843 km²
negligible

Population
- Total
- Density

Ranked 9th in the USSR
4,337,600 (1989)
128.2/km²

Currency

rouble (рублэ)

Time zone

UTC + 3

Anthem

Anthem of Moldavian SSR

Medals

{{{medals}}}

The Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (Moldovan Cyrillic: Република Советикэ Сочиалистэ Молдовеняскэ, Romanian: Republica Sovietică Socialistă Moldovenească, Russian: Молда́вская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респу́блика) was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union from 1940 to 1941 and from 1945 to 1991.

1 History
2 Culture and ideology
3 Demographics
4 Economy
5 External links

[edit] History

Main article: History of the MSSR

Previously, on October 12, 1924 the Soviet Union set up an autonomous Moldavian ASSR as a part of the Ukrainian SSR between Dniester and Bug rivers. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Soviet Union and Hitler's Reich brought the territories of Romania situated east of Prut into the Soviet Union in the summer of 1940, and a new Moldavian SSR was reorganised between Dniester and Prut rivers, the old Moldavian ASSR being dismantled, save the area of Transnistria which was assigned to the new Moldavian SSR. The date of the transformation of Moldavian ASSR into Moldavian SSR and its split from the Ukrainian SSR to become a separate republic of the USSR was August 2, 1940.

Romania joined Hitler's Reich in the summer of 1941 and took part in the Nazi occupation of the Soviet Union. By the end of World War II the Soviet Union recovered Eastern Moldavia and reorganised it again as Moldavian SSR.

The MSSR's passage to independence from the USSR was marked by civil strife as industrial activists in the east worked to keep the MSSR within the Soviet Union. In 1990, when it became clear that Moldova was going to secede, pro-unionists in Transnistria created the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic with its capital in Tiraspol. This later became the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic.

The republic's name was changed to the Republic of Moldova on May 23, 1991, and it declared independence after the attempted coup in the Soviet Union, exiting from the USSR on August 27, 1991. After an initial desire to unify with Romania, a civil war began in Transnistria in 1992 and since, the Moldovan government has no control of this region.

[edit] Culture and ideology

Distribution of major ethnic groups in Moldavian SSR, 1989

Much of the pre-WWII elite of Moldova (the "intellectuals" and the "bourgeoisie"), as well as hundreds of thousands of ordinary people were killed or deported, especially to Siberia and to the Asian steppes such as those of Kazakhstan (in 1940 and then massively in 1949). (Even nowadays, there are tens of thousands of Romanians living there.) A large influx of Ukrainians and Russians after the second world war created a 13% Russian-speaking minority in Moldova.

Moldovans were encouraged to adopt the Russian language, which was required for any leadership job (Russian was supposed to be the language of international communication). Political and academic positions were given to members of non-Romanian ethnic groups (only 14% of the Moldavian SSR's political leaders were ethnic Moldovans in 1946), although this changed as time went on.

The USSR government encouraged the developing of a "Moldavian culture", said to be distinct from the Romanian one, as well as a Moldavian language, which was claimed to be different from Romanian (although even some Soviet linguists disagreed with this^{[citation needed]}). Literary critics stressed the Russian influence on Moldovan literature and ignored the parts shared with Romanian literature. In order to emphasize the alleged differences and to break ties with Romania, Moldovan language was written with the Cyrillic alphabet. Some towns and villages had their names changed to more Slavic-sounding or were renamed after various Communist leaders.

Soviet propaganda included the doctrine that the Romanians oppressed the Moldovan people before World War II and that they were liberated by the Soviets.

[edit] Demographics

Ethnicities (1989 est.):

Moldovans 64.5%
Ukrainians 13.8%
Russians 13%
Bulgarians 2%
Jews 1.5%
Gagauz and other 5.2%

[edit] Economy

Although it was the most densely populated republic of the USSR, the Moldavian SSR was meant to be specialized in agriculture^{[verification needed]}, notably fruit production. The only region ^{[verification needed]} of Moldova in which industry was built was Transnistria, which in 1990 accounted for 40% of Moldavian GDP and 90% of its electricity production.