History of Transnistria
Encyclopedia
This is the history
of Transnistria
.
See also the history of Europe
.
and Scythian tribes. Pliny the Elder
names the Tyragetae
, a Getae
tribe living on an island of the Dniester
(ancient name "Tyras"), the Axiacae living along the Tiligul River (ancient "Axiaces") and the Crobyzi, a Thracian tribe living beyond the Dniester.
At the mouth of the river, the Ancient Greeks
of Miletus
founded around 600 BC a colony named Tyras
, which was located outside present-day Transnistria. It fell under the dominion of native kings whose names appear on its coins, and it was destroyed by the Dacians
about 50 BC.
In 56 AD Tyras had been restored by the Romans
and henceforth formed part of the province of Lower Moesia, which also included Dobruja
(part of Romania) and northeastern Bulgaria
. Romans settled colonists in Tyras and maintained some legionaries in the area (even in Olbia
) until the fourth century.
Historian Theodore Mommsen wrote that "Moldavia and the south half of Bessarabia as well as the whole of Wallachia were incorporated in the Roman Empire".
All these facts confirm the creation of defensive earth dykes (called Trajan Walls ) from the Prut river to the Tyras area, in order to defend these new territories of the Roman Empire
. Furthermore, Mommsen wrote, "Bessarabia is intersected by a double barrier-line which, running from the Pruth to the Dniester, ends at Tyra and appears to proceeds from the Romans".
In the Late Roman period, the extent of control and military occupation over territory north of the Danube in actual Bessarabia remains controversial. One Roman fort (Pietroasa de Jos
), well beyond the Danubian Limes and near actual Moldovia, would seem to have been occupied in the 4th century A.D., as were bridge-head forts (Sucidava
, Barboşi, and the unlocated Constantiniana Daphne) along the left bank of the river. In this Roman fort, built by Constantine I
, researchers have found even a thermae
building in the 1980s.
In the fourth century the Goths conquered Tyras and Olbia on the coast, but the final destruction of those merchant cities happened with the Attila invasions one century later.
, who, in the 4th century century, were divided into the "Tervingi" and "Greuthungi" tribes, (traditionally identified with the Visigoths and Ostrogoths), the border between them being on the Dniester river.
Transnistria was an early crossroads of people and cultures, including the South Slavs
, who reached it in the 6th century. Some East Slavic tribes (Ulichs
and Tivertsy) may have lived in it, but they were pushed further north by Turkic
nomads such as Pechenegs and the Cumans
. In the 10th century, the "Volohove" (Vlachs
, i.e. Romanians) are mentioned in the area in the Primary Chronicle
. Indeed, some academics believe that on the coast between the Dniester and Danube rivers there was a romance speaking community until 1050 AD, that was destroyed by the Pechenegs
Transnistria was inhabited mainly by the Cumans
and wars against them may have brought the territory under the control of the Kievan Rus'
at times around the 11th century. It became a formal part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
in the 15th century.
On the coast the Byzantines built a fortress in the area of the destroyed Tyras and named it Asprocastron ("White Castle" - a meaning kept in several languages, like in actual ukrainian Bilhorod). In the 14th century the city was controlled and renovated by the Republic of Genoa
, that established there a call and a counter trade until the Ottoman conquest. A small part of the population of this city escaped the turkish invasion founding up north a small village that later become the actual city of Tyraspol, now capital of Transnistria.
Meanwhile the territory was divided after the Crimean Khanate
conquered the southern part (South of the Iagorlîc/Jagorlyk river), which was included in 1504 in the region of Yedisan
and was under the control of the Ottoman Empire
until 1792. The northern part (North of the Iagorlîc river) remained under the control of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, as part of the historical region of Podolia
(which became later part of the Polish Kingdom until 1793). The border between the two states was set on a brook known in Moldavian chronicles as Iahurlîc and in Polish source as Jahorlik or Jahorłyk (today Iagorlîc, in Transnistria).
Moldavia
started from its nucleus in Bukovina
and soon reached Prut and by the end of the 14th century the Dnister, which was set as their easternmost border.
While there were some Moldavian military incursions beyond the Dniester in the 15th century, the earliest written evidence of Moldavian settlement beyond the Dnister dates from the 16th century: a 1541 letter written by Suleiman the Magnificent
to Polish Sigismund II Augustus
says that some of his Moldavian subjects plundered Tighina
and Akkerman and then retreated and settled in the Polish territory.
mentions that in 1584, some Moldavian villages from beyond the Dnister in the Polish territory were attacked and plundered by Cossacks. Many Moldovans were members of Cossacks units, two of them, Ioan Potcoavă
and Dănilă Apostol
, were hetman
s of Ukraine.
Along with a nomadic Nogai Tatar population, the area was populated by Romanians
, Ukrainians
, and Russians
. In 1927, Columbia University Professor Charles Upson Clark
, wrote that the lower Dniester was "an almost purely Romanian stream" since 1792.
to the Russian Empire whereas northern part (north of the Iagorlîc River) was annexed in 1793 in Second Partition of Poland
. At that time, the population was sparse and the Russian Empire encouraged large migrations into the region, including people of Ukrainian, Romanian, Russian
and German
ethnicity.
Russia began attempting to lure Romanian settlers (mostly from Moldavia, but also from Transylvania
, Bukovina
and Muntenia
) to settle in its territory in 1775, after it gained the largely uninhabited territory between the Dnieper and the Bug. But the colonization was to be in a larger scale after 1792/3, to Transnistria and beyond, when the Russian government declared that the region of steppes without population between the Dniester and the Southern Bug was to become a new principality named "New Moldavia", under Russian suzeranity.
Indeed, the colonization had reached -in the centuries before- the Kiev
area and in 1712 even the Don river
, with the Dimitrie Cantemir
leadership
Plots of tax-exempt land were distributed amongst Moldavian peasants, while 56 Moldavian boyars (belonging to famous families like Rosetti
, Cantacuzino, Catargiu
and Sturdza) received large estates which they helped colonize. Dozens of new villages were founded during this colonization stage, which lasted until 1812, when Russia annexed Bessarabia and Transnistria ceased to be a borderland.
In the 1890s there were the following fully Moldovan villages in the Bug river area: Iasca, Gradinita, Sevartaica, Belcauca (in the direction of Ovideopol), Malaiesti, Floarea, Tei, Cosarca, Buturul, Perperita, Goiana, Siclia, Corotna, Cioburceni, Speia, Caragaciu, Taslic, Dorotcaia, Voznisevsca (on the Bug), Moldovca si Cantacuzinovca. Indeed in 1893 according to official data there were 532,416 Romanians in Kherson
and Podolia
, 11,813 - in Ecaterinoslav, and 4,015 in Tauridia (Crimea
). But the real data were estimated up to more than one million.
, representatives of the Romanian speakers beyond the Dniester (who numbered 173,982 in the 1897 census) participated in the Bessarabian national movement
in 1917/1918, asking for the incorporation of their territory in Greater Romania
. Nevertheless, Romania ignored their request, as it would have required a large-scale military intervention.
At the end of World War I
in 1918, the Directory of Ukraine proclaimed the sovereignty of the Ukrainian People's Republic
over the left bank of the Dniester. After the Russian Civil War
in 1922, the Ukrainian SSR
was created.
Transnistrian region was born in 1924, when Bessarabian military leader Grigore Kotovski
proposed the founding under the auspices of Moscow of the Moldavian Autonomous Oblast
that months later became the Moldavian ASSR
of Ukrainian SSR.
In 1927 there was a massive uprising of peasants and factory workers in Tiraspol and other cities (Mohyliv-Podilskyi
, Kamianets-Podilskyi
) of southern Ukrainian S.S.R. against Soviet authorities. Troops from Moscow were sent to the region and suppressed the unrest, causing around 4,000 deaths, according to US correspondents sent to report about the insurrection, which was at the time completely denied by the Kremlin official press.
During the 1920s and 1930s, thousands of Romanian Transnistrians fled to Romania, the government of which set up a special Fund for their housing and education. A 1935 estimate puts the number of refugees to 20,000.
MASSR had a mixed Ukrainian
(46%) and Moldovan
(32%) population, which was estimated at 545,500. Its area was 8,677 km² and included 11 raion
s on the left bank of Dniester.
According to the 1926 Soviet census, the Republic had a population of 572,339, of which:
While the creation of ethnic-based autonomous polities was a general policy of the Soviets at that time, with the creation of the Moldavian ASSR, the Soviet Union also hoped also to bolster its claim to Bessarabia. Soviet authorities declared the "temporarily occupied city of Kishinev" as de jure capital of the ASSR
. The concept of "Moldavian ethnicity theory" was also born there, including the Moldovan language created through the cyrillization
of the Romanian language
spoken by approximately one third of the autonomous republic's population.
At that time, the population of Moldavian ASSR was 48% Ukrainian, 30% Romanian/Moldavian, 9% Russian, and 8.5% Jewish. In 1940, 6 of the 14 districts of MASSR were included in the new created Moldavian SSR
, together with a part of Bessarabia
.
According to the Soviet census of 1926, in the districts of Camenca, Rîbniţa, Dubăsari, Grigoriopol, Tiraspol and Slobozia, a territory roughly similar with today's Transnistria, there were 44,11% Moldavians (Romanians), 27,18% Ukrainians, 13,69% Russians, 8,21% Jews, 3,01% Germans etc.
The Moldavian SSR, which was set up by a decision of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on 2 August 1940, was formed from a part of Bessarabia
taken from Romania on June 28, following the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact
, where the majority of the population were Romanian speakers, and a strip of land on the left bank of the Dniester in the Ukrainian SSR, which was transferred to it in 1940 (the strip being roughly equivalent to the territory of today's Transnistria).
In 1941, after Axis forces
invaded Bessarabia in the course of the Second World War
, they advanced over the Dniester river. Romania controlled the entire region between Dniester and Southern Bug
rivers, including the city of Odessa
, as Transnistria.
The territory -called Governatorate of Transnistria- with an area of 44.000 km2 and a population of 1,2 mln inhabitants was divided into 13 counties: Ananiev, Balta, Berzovca, Dubasari, Golta, Jugastru, Movilau, Oceacov, Odessa, Ovidiopol, Ribnita, Tiraspol and Tulcin. There were in this enlarged Transnistria nearly 200,000 rumenian/moldovian-speaking residents.
The Romanian administration of "Transnistria" attempted to stabilise the situation in the area under Romanian control. It was implemented a process of Romanianization
. To this end, it opened all churches, previously closed down by the Soviets. In 1942-1943, 2,200 primary schools were organized in the region, including 1,677 Ukrainian, 311 Romanian, 150 Russian, 70 German and 6 Bulgarian. 117 middle and high schools were opened, including 65 middle schools, 29 technical high schools, and 23 academic high schools. Theaters were opened in Odessa and Tiraspol, as well as several museums, libraries, and cinemas throughout the region. On 7 December 1941, the "University of Odessa" was reopened with 6 faculties - medicine, polytechnical, law, sciences, languages and agricultural engineering.
The Romanians/Moldavians in Ukraine east of the Bug river were calculated by a German census to be nearly 800.000 (probably an excessive number), and were made plans to move them to Transnistria in 1942/43: but nothing was done.
Probably there were only about 100,000 Romanians/Moldavians in the German occupied Ukraine -called Reichskommissariat Ukraine
- and nearly all of them "disappeared" (because killed, escaped to Romania or deported to Siberia/Caucasus by Stalin), when the Soviets reconquered the area in early 1944.
Furthermore, by March 1943 a total of 185,000 Jews had been murdered under the Romanian and German occupation. This figure includes Romanian and Ukrainian Jews deported from Romania and Bessarabia, but also local Jews who were hunted down by the Einsatzgruppen
killing squads.
The Soviet Union regained the area in spring 1944, when the Soviet Army
advanced into the territory driving out the Axis forces. Many thousands of Romanians/Vlachs of Transnistria were killed in those months and deported to gulags in the following years
. Cyrillic was made the official script for Moldavian
. It had an official status in the republic, together with Russian, which was the language of "interethnic communication".
Most industry that was built in the Moldavian SSR was concentrated in Transnistria, while the rest of Moldavia had a predominantly agricultural economy. In 1990, Transnistria accounted for 40% of Moldavia's GDP and 90% of its electricity production.
The 14th Soviet army had been based there since 1956 and was kept there after the fall of the Soviet Union
to safeguard what is probably the biggest weapons stockpile and ammunition depot in Europe, which was set up in Soviet times for possible operations on the Southeastern Theater in the event of World War III
. Russia was negotiating with the Republic of Moldova, Transnistria and Ukraine for transit rights to be able to evacuate the military materiel back to Russia. In 1994, the 14th Army headquarters were moved from Moldovan capital Chişinău
to Tiraspol.
's policy of perestroika
in the Soviet Union
allowed the political liberalisation at the regional level in 1980s. The incomplete democratisation was preliminary for the exclusivist nationalism to become the most dynamic political force. Some national minorities opposed these changes in the Moldavian political class of the republic, since during Soviet times, local politics had often been dominated by non-Romanians, particularly by those of Russian origin. The language laws — introducing the Latin
alphabet for written Moldavian and requiring proficiency in the Moldavian language
(essentially—some would say exactly—the Romanian language
) for public servants— presented a particularly volatile issue as a great proportion of the non-Romanian population of the Moldavian SSR did not speak Moldavian. The problem of official languages in the Republic of Moldova has become a Gordian knot
, being exaggerated and, perhaps, intentionally politicized. This displeasure with the new policies was manifested in a more visible way in Transnistria, where urban centers such as Tiraspol, had a Slavic majority. The scenes of protests against the central government of the republic were more acute here.
According to the census in 1989, the population in Transnistria was 39.9% Moldavian, 28.3% Ukrainian, 25.4% Russian, 1.9% Bulgarian.
On 2 September 1990, the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic was unilaterally proclaimed as a Soviet Republic separate from Moldova by the "Second Congress of the Peoples' Representatives of Pridnestrovie". However on 22 December, the Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
signed a decree "regarding the measures that would bring the situation back to normal in the Moldavian SSR". The decision stated that the proclamation of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian SSR was null and void. On 25 August 1991, the Supreme Council
of the PMSSR adopted the declaration of independence of the republic. On 27 August 1991, the Moldovan Parliament adopted the Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Moldova, whose territory included Transnistria. The Moldovan Parliament asked the Government of the Soviet Union "to begin negotiations with the Moldovan Government in order to put an end to the illegal occupation of the Republic of Moldova and withdraw Soviet troops from Moldovan territory".
After Moldova became a member of the United Nations
on 2 March 1992, Moldovan President Mircea Snegur
(president from 1990 to 1996) authorized concerted military action against PMR forces which had been attacking police outposts loyal to the Moldovan government on the left bank of the river Dniester
(Nistru), and on a smaller section of the right bank around the southern city of Tighina
(Bender/Bendery). The PMR forces, aided by contingents of Russian Cossacks and the Russian 14th Army, consolidated their control over most of the disputed area.
Forces of the 14th Army (which had owed allegiance to the Soviet Union, Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS) and the Russian Federation in turn) stationed in Transnistria, had fought with and on behalf of the PMR side. PMR units were able to arm themselves with weapons taken from the stores of the former 14th Army. The Russian 14th Army's role in the area was crucial to the outcome of the war. The Moldovan army was in a position of inferiority which prevented it from regaining control of Transnistria. A cease-fire agreement was signed on 21 July 1992.
, the commander of the Russian Operational Group (the former Russian 14th Army) since June 1992, who acted as a Transnistrian politician, said many times that his army was able to reach Bucharest
in two hours. In the security zone controlled by the Russian peacekeeping forces, the Transnistrian government continued to deploy its troops and to manufacture and sell weapons in breach of the agreement of 21 July 1992. In February 2003, the USA
and the European Union
imposed visa restrictions against the Transnistrian leadership.
Although only 2,600 troops of the Russian 14th Army remain in the operational group, their presence has been used by Russia as an instrument of influence over the region.
The agreement to withdraw all Russian forces was signed in 1994, but while the number of troops decreased, an immense stockpile of ammunition and equipment remained. The arsenal of the former 14th Army consists of 49,476 firearms, 805 artillery guns, 4,000 cars, and 655 units of various military equipment, which is enough to arm four rifle divisions.
The OSCE is trying to facilitate a negotiated settlement and has had an observer mission in place for several years. The Russian army was still stationed in Moldovan territory in breach of the undertakings to withdraw them completely given by Russia at the OSCE summits in 1999 and 2001.
and the Transniestrian President Igor Smirnov, have signed, in Moscow
, with the mediation of the Russian Federation, Ukraine and the OSCE Mission in Moldova, the "Memorandum on the principles of normalizations of the relations between the Republic of Moldova and Transdniestria" also known as "Primakov Memorandum" or "Moscow Memorandum".
In compliance with the final clause of the memorandum, the relations between the Republic of Moldova and Transdniestria shall be developed within the framework of a common state, within the borders of the Soviet Moldova. The Russian Federation and Ukraine stating their readiness to become guarantors of the Transdnestrian status observance, as well as of the Memorandum’s provisions. Chişinău and Tiraspol have decided to sustain the establishment of legal and state relations: the mutual decision coordination, inclusively regarding prerogatives delimitation and delegation, the safeguard of mutual security, the Transnistrian participation in the process of accomplishment of the foreign policy of the Republic of Moldova. In the same time, Transdniestria was recognized the right, subject to mutual agreement, to independently establish and maintain international connections in such fields as economy, science, technologies and culture. The Memorandum provisions had widely diverging legal and political interpretations in Chişinău and Tiraspol.
In mid-November 2003, Russia unexpectedly provided a much more detailed memorandum proposing a united asymmetric federal Moldavian state with an attached key proposal to locate a Russian military base on Moldavian soil for the next 20 years. First published in Russian on the website of Transnistria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the text was promoted by a Russian politician Dmitry Kozak
, known to be a close ally of President Vladimir Putin
and one of the key figures in his presidential team. The memorandum presented an end to the previous Moscow policy, which assumed that the region would have equal status in federation with the rest of the country.
It was proposed that the competences of government of the federal Moldova would be divided into three categories: those of the federation, those of individual subjects and those of joint competences. The plan presented several issues risking to cause blockage in policy-making. A lower house, elected by proportional representation, would pass legislation by simple majority. All laws would also need the assent of the senate, however, whose representation would be highly disproportionate with respect to population figures: 13 senators elected by the federal lower house, nine by Transnistria and four by Gagauzia
. According to the 1989 census, Transnistria had 14% and Gagauzia 3.5% of Moldova's total population. By this plan, Transnistria would be an outright blocking minority.
Large demonstrations against the Kozak memorandum took place in Chişinău in the days following the publication of the Russian proposal. Moldova's leadership declined to sign memorandum without the coordination with the European organizations. A visit by President Putin to Moldova was cancelled. Later in 2005, President Vladimir Voronin
made a statement rejecting the 2003 Kozak memorandum because of contradiction with the Moldovan constitution which defines Moldova as a neutral state and could not allow any foreign troops on its soil, while the country cannot join military alliances. Moldova and the Kozak memorandum was a key issue at the OSCE ministerial meeting in Maastricht
in December 2003, and disagreement between Russia on the one hand, and the EU and the US on the other on Moldova, was one of the principal reasons why a final joint declaration was not adopted after the meeting.
. It led to a breakdown in negotiations and economic retaliations by both sides. The issue was resolved by compromise: The PMR government gave the schools autonomy and the schools formalized their registration with the PMR Ministry of Education.
proposed a seven-point plan by which the separation of Transnistria and Moldova would be settled through a negotiated settlement and free elections. Under the plan, Transnistria would remain an autonomous region of Moldova. The United States, the EU and the PMR itself expressed some level of agreement with the project.
In July, Ukraine opened five new customs posts on the PMR-Ukraine border. The posts, staffed by both Moldovan and Ukrainian officials, are intended to reduce the hitherto high incidence of smuggling between the breakaway state and its neighbors.
But soon the talks proved to be a failure. Only in February 2011 in Vienna were held again those talks
In April 2011 Russia agreed theoretically to create an authonomous region of Transnistria inside the Republic of Moldova, but there were many other problems to be solved in the talks.
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
of Transnistria
Transnistria
Transnistria is a breakaway territory located mostly on a strip of land between the Dniester River and the eastern Moldovan border to Ukraine...
.
See also the history of Europe
History of Europe
History of Europe describes the history of humans inhabiting the European continent since it was first populated in prehistoric times to present, with the first human settlement between 45,000 and 25,000 BC.-Overview:...
.
Antiquity
In ancient times, the area was inhabited by ThracianThracians
The ancient Thracians were a group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting areas including Thrace in Southeastern Europe. They spoke the Thracian language – a scarcely attested branch of the Indo-European language family...
and Scythian tribes. Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
names the Tyragetae
Tyragetae
The Tyrageti, Tyragetae, or Tyrangitae , literally, the Getae of the Tyras, were a sub-tribe of the Getae Thracians, situated on the river Tyras . They were regarded as an immigrant tribe of European Sarmatia dwelling E...
, a Getae
Getae
The Getae was the name given by the Greeks to several Thracian tribes that occupied the regions south of the Lower Danube, in what is today northern Bulgaria, and north of the Lower Danube, in Romania...
tribe living on an island of the Dniester
Dniester
The Dniester is a river in Eastern Europe. It runs through Ukraine and Moldova and separates most of Moldova's territory from the breakaway de facto state of Transnistria.-Names:...
(ancient name "Tyras"), the Axiacae living along the Tiligul River (ancient "Axiaces") and the Crobyzi, a Thracian tribe living beyond the Dniester.
At the mouth of the river, the Ancient Greeks
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
of Miletus
Miletus
Miletus was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia , near the mouth of the Maeander River in ancient Caria...
founded around 600 BC a colony named Tyras
Tyras
Tyras , was an ancient Greek city founded as colony of Miletus, probably about 600 BC, situated some 10 m from the mouth of the Tyras River...
, which was located outside present-day Transnistria. It fell under the dominion of native kings whose names appear on its coins, and it was destroyed by the Dacians
Dacians
The Dacians were an Indo-European people, very close or part of the Thracians. Dacians were the ancient inhabitants of Dacia...
about 50 BC.
In 56 AD Tyras had been restored by the Romans
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
and henceforth formed part of the province of Lower Moesia, which also included Dobruja
Dobruja
Dobruja is a historical region shared by Bulgaria and Romania, located between the lower Danube river and the Black Sea, including the Danube Delta, Romanian coast and the northernmost part of the Bulgarian coast...
(part of Romania) and northeastern Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
. Romans settled colonists in Tyras and maintained some legionaries in the area (even in Olbia
Olbia, Ukraine
Pontic Olbia or Olvia is the site of a colony founded by the Milesians on the shores of the Southern Bug estuary , opposite Berezan Island...
) until the fourth century.
Historian Theodore Mommsen wrote that "Moldavia and the south half of Bessarabia as well as the whole of Wallachia were incorporated in the Roman Empire".
All these facts confirm the creation of defensive earth dykes (called Trajan Walls ) from the Prut river to the Tyras area, in order to defend these new territories of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
. Furthermore, Mommsen wrote, "Bessarabia is intersected by a double barrier-line which, running from the Pruth to the Dniester, ends at Tyra and appears to proceeds from the Romans".
In the Late Roman period, the extent of control and military occupation over territory north of the Danube in actual Bessarabia remains controversial. One Roman fort (Pietroasa de Jos
Pietroasele
Pietroasele is a commune in Buzău County, Romania, known for its vineyards. The name means "the rockies". The commune is composed of six villages: Câlţeşti, Clondiru de Sus, Dara, Pietroasa Mică, Pietroasele and Şarânga.-History:...
), well beyond the Danubian Limes and near actual Moldovia, would seem to have been occupied in the 4th century A.D., as were bridge-head forts (Sucidava
Sucidava
Sucidava is a Dacian and Daco-Roman historical site, situated in Corabia, Romania on the north bank of the Danube...
, Barboşi, and the unlocated Constantiniana Daphne) along the left bank of the river. In this Roman fort, built by Constantine I
Constantine I
Constantine the Great , also known as Constantine I or Saint Constantine, was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. Well known for being the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, Constantine and co-Emperor Licinius issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed religious tolerance of all...
, researchers have found even a thermae
Thermae
In ancient Rome, thermae and balnea were facilities for bathing...
building in the 1980s.
In the fourth century the Goths conquered Tyras and Olbia on the coast, but the final destruction of those merchant cities happened with the Attila invasions one century later.
Middle Ages
The area of Transnistria was under the rule of the GothsGoths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
, who, in the 4th century century, were divided into the "Tervingi" and "Greuthungi" tribes, (traditionally identified with the Visigoths and Ostrogoths), the border between them being on the Dniester river.
Transnistria was an early crossroads of people and cultures, including the South Slavs
South Slavs
The South Slavs are the southern branch of the Slavic peoples and speak South Slavic languages. Geographically, the South Slavs are native to the Balkan peninsula, the southern Pannonian Plain and the eastern Alps...
, who reached it in the 6th century. Some East Slavic tribes (Ulichs
Ulichs
The Ulichs were a tribe of Early East Slavs who between the eighth and the tenth century inhabited the territories along the Lower Dnieper, Bug River and the Black Sea littoral....
and Tivertsy) may have lived in it, but they were pushed further north by Turkic
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
nomads such as Pechenegs and the Cumans
Cumans
The Cumans were Turkic nomadic people comprising the western branch of the Cuman-Kipchak confederation. After Mongol invasion , they decided to seek asylum in Hungary, and subsequently to Bulgaria...
. In the 10th century, the "Volohove" (Vlachs
Vlachs
Vlach is a blanket term covering several modern Latin peoples descending from the Latinised population in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. English variations on the name include: Walla, Wlachs, Wallachs, Vlahs, Olahs or Ulahs...
, i.e. Romanians) are mentioned in the area in the Primary Chronicle
Primary Chronicle
The Primary Chronicle , Ruthenian Primary Chronicle or Russian Primary Chronicle, is a history of Kievan Rus' from about 850 to 1110, originally compiled in Kiev about 1113.- Three editions :...
. Indeed, some academics believe that on the coast between the Dniester and Danube rivers there was a romance speaking community until 1050 AD, that was destroyed by the Pechenegs
Transnistria was inhabited mainly by the Cumans
Cumans
The Cumans were Turkic nomadic people comprising the western branch of the Cuman-Kipchak confederation. After Mongol invasion , they decided to seek asylum in Hungary, and subsequently to Bulgaria...
and wars against them may have brought the territory under the control of the Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus was a medieval polity in Eastern Europe, from the late 9th to the mid 13th century, when it disintegrated under the pressure of the Mongol invasion of 1237–1240....
at times around the 11th century. It became a formal part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state from the 12th /13th century until 1569 and then as a constituent part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1791 when Constitution of May 3, 1791 abolished it in favor of unitary state. It was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the polytheistic...
in the 15th century.
On the coast the Byzantines built a fortress in the area of the destroyed Tyras and named it Asprocastron ("White Castle" - a meaning kept in several languages, like in actual ukrainian Bilhorod). In the 14th century the city was controlled and renovated by the Republic of Genoa
Republic of Genoa
The Most Serene Republic of Genoa |Ligurian]]: Repúbrica de Zêna) was an independent state from 1005 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast, as well as Corsica from 1347 to 1768, and numerous other territories throughout the Mediterranean....
, that established there a call and a counter trade until the Ottoman conquest. A small part of the population of this city escaped the turkish invasion founding up north a small village that later become the actual city of Tyraspol, now capital of Transnistria.
Meanwhile the territory was divided after the Crimean Khanate
Crimean Khanate
Crimean Khanate, or Khanate of Crimea , was a state ruled by Crimean Tatars from 1441 to 1783. Its native name was . Its khans were the patrilineal descendants of Toqa Temür, the thirteenth son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan...
conquered the southern part (South of the Iagorlîc/Jagorlyk river), which was included in 1504 in the region of Yedisan
Yedisan
Yedisan is a historical region in modern southwestern Ukraine and southeastern Moldova . The region lies to the north of the Black Sea between the Dniester and Dnieper rivers...
and was under the control of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
until 1792. The northern part (North of the Iagorlîc river) remained under the control of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, as part of the historical region of Podolia
Podolia
The region of Podolia is an historical region in the west-central and south-west portions of present-day Ukraine, corresponding to Khmelnytskyi Oblast and Vinnytsia Oblast. Northern Transnistria, in Moldova, is also a part of Podolia...
(which became later part of the Polish Kingdom until 1793). The border between the two states was set on a brook known in Moldavian chronicles as Iahurlîc and in Polish source as Jahorlik or Jahorłyk (today Iagorlîc, in Transnistria).
Moldavia
Moldavia
Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...
started from its nucleus in Bukovina
Bukovina
Bukovina is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains.-Name:The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became...
and soon reached Prut and by the end of the 14th century the Dnister, which was set as their easternmost border.
While there were some Moldavian military incursions beyond the Dniester in the 15th century, the earliest written evidence of Moldavian settlement beyond the Dnister dates from the 16th century: a 1541 letter written by Suleiman the Magnificent
Suleiman the Magnificent
Suleiman I was the tenth and longest-reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1520 to his death in 1566. He is known in the West as Suleiman the Magnificent and in the East, as "The Lawgiver" , for his complete reconstruction of the Ottoman legal system...
to Polish Sigismund II Augustus
Sigismund II Augustus
Sigismund II Augustus I was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, the only son of Sigismund I the Old, whom Sigismund II succeeded in 1548...
says that some of his Moldavian subjects plundered Tighina
Tighina
Bender or Bendery, also known as Tighina is a city within the internationally recognized borders of Moldova under de facto control of the unrecognized Transnistria Republic since 1992...
and Akkerman and then retreated and settled in the Polish territory.
Modern Era
While the territory beyond the Dniester was never politically part of Moldavia, some areas of today's Transnistria were owned by Moldavian boyars, being given by the Moldavian rulers. The earliest surviving deeds referring to lands beyond the Dnister date from the 16th century. Moldavian chronicle Grigore UrecheGrigore Ureche
Grigore Ureche was a Moldavian chronicler who wrote on Moldavian history in his Letopiseţul Ţării Moldovei , covering the period from 1359 to 1594....
mentions that in 1584, some Moldavian villages from beyond the Dnister in the Polish territory were attacked and plundered by Cossacks. Many Moldovans were members of Cossacks units, two of them, Ioan Potcoavă
Ioan Potcoava
Ioan al IV-lea Potcoavă was a Hetman of Ukrainian Cossacks , and Voivode of Moldavia...
and Dănilă Apostol
Danylo Apostol
Danylo Apostol , was a Hetman of the Left-bank Ukraine and Ukrainian Cossack starshina.Born in a noble Cossack family of Moldavian boyar origin, Danylo Apostol was a prominent military leader, polkovnyk of the Myrhorod Regiment, and a participant in the Russian campaigns against the Ottoman...
, were hetman
Hetman
Hetman was the title of the second-highest military commander in 15th- to 18th-century Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which together, from 1569 to 1795, comprised the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, or Rzeczpospolita....
s of Ukraine.
Along with a nomadic Nogai Tatar population, the area was populated by Romanians
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
, Ukrainians
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
, and Russians
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
. In 1927, Columbia University Professor Charles Upson Clark
Charles Upson Clark
Charles Upson Clark was a professor of history at Columbia University. He discovered the Barberini Codex, the earliest Aztec writings on herbal medicines extant.-Biography:...
, wrote that the lower Dniester was "an almost purely Romanian stream" since 1792.
Russian Empire
In 1792, the southern part of Transnistria was ceded by Ottoman EmpireOttoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
to the Russian Empire whereas northern part (north of the Iagorlîc River) was annexed in 1793 in Second Partition of Poland
Second Partition of Poland
The 1793 Second Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was the second of three partitions that ended the existence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The second partition occurred in the aftermath of the War in Defense of the Constitution and the Targowica Confederation of 1792...
. At that time, the population was sparse and the Russian Empire encouraged large migrations into the region, including people of Ukrainian, Romanian, Russian
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
and German
Ethnic German
Ethnic Germans historically also ), also collectively referred to as the German diaspora, refers to people who are of German ethnicity. Many are not born in Europe or in the modern-day state of Germany or hold German citizenship...
ethnicity.
Russia began attempting to lure Romanian settlers (mostly from Moldavia, but also from Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
, Bukovina
Bukovina
Bukovina is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains.-Name:The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became...
and Muntenia
Muntenia
Muntenia is a historical province of Romania, usually considered Wallachia-proper . It is situated between the Danube , the Carpathian Mountains and Moldavia , and the Olt River to the west...
) to settle in its territory in 1775, after it gained the largely uninhabited territory between the Dnieper and the Bug. But the colonization was to be in a larger scale after 1792/3, to Transnistria and beyond, when the Russian government declared that the region of steppes without population between the Dniester and the Southern Bug was to become a new principality named "New Moldavia", under Russian suzeranity.
Indeed, the colonization had reached -in the centuries before- the Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
area and in 1712 even the Don river
Don River
- Australia :* Don River , a tributary of the Fitzroy River * Don River in North Queensland* Don River - United Kingdom :* River Don, South Yorkshire, England...
, with the Dimitrie Cantemir
Dimitrie Cantemir
Dimitrie Cantemir was twice Prince of Moldavia . He was also a prolific man of letters – philosopher, historian, composer, musicologist, linguist, ethnographer, and geographer....
leadership
Plots of tax-exempt land were distributed amongst Moldavian peasants, while 56 Moldavian boyars (belonging to famous families like Rosetti
Rosetti
Rosetti may refer to:* Antonio Rosetti , a classical era composer* C. A. Rosetti * Maria Rosetti , an English-born Wallachian and Romanian political activist* Roberto Rosetti , an Italian football referee...
, Cantacuzino, Catargiu
Catargiu
Catargiu is a Romanian surname and also a Moldavian family of the Tupilaţi region.-People:* Barbu Catargiu , a conservative Romanian journalist and politician* Lascăr Catargiu , a Romanian conservative statesman from Moldavia...
and Sturdza) received large estates which they helped colonize. Dozens of new villages were founded during this colonization stage, which lasted until 1812, when Russia annexed Bessarabia and Transnistria ceased to be a borderland.
In the 1890s there were the following fully Moldovan villages in the Bug river area: Iasca, Gradinita, Sevartaica, Belcauca (in the direction of Ovideopol), Malaiesti, Floarea, Tei, Cosarca, Buturul, Perperita, Goiana, Siclia, Corotna, Cioburceni, Speia, Caragaciu, Taslic, Dorotcaia, Voznisevsca (on the Bug), Moldovca si Cantacuzinovca. Indeed in 1893 according to official data there were 532,416 Romanians in Kherson
Kherson Governorate
The Kherson Governorate or Government of Kherson was a guberniya, or administrative territorial unit, in the Southern Ukrainian region, between the Dnieper and Dniester Rivers, of the Russian Empire. It was one of three governorates created in 1802 when the Novorossiya guberniya was abolished...
and Podolia
Podolia
The region of Podolia is an historical region in the west-central and south-west portions of present-day Ukraine, corresponding to Khmelnytskyi Oblast and Vinnytsia Oblast. Northern Transnistria, in Moldova, is also a part of Podolia...
, 11,813 - in Ecaterinoslav, and 4,015 in Tauridia (Crimea
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
). But the real data were estimated up to more than one million.
1917-1924
During World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, representatives of the Romanian speakers beyond the Dniester (who numbered 173,982 in the 1897 census) participated in the Bessarabian national movement
Bessarabia Governorate
Bessarabia was an oblast and later a guberniya in the Russian Empire. It was the eastern part of the Principality of Moldavia annexed by Russia by the Treaty of Bucharest following the Russo-Turkish War, 1806-1812...
in 1917/1918, asking for the incorporation of their territory in Greater Romania
Greater Romania
The Greater Romania generally refers to the territory of Romania in the years between the First World War and the Second World War, the largest geographical extent of Romania up to that time and its largest peacetime extent ever ; more precisely, it refers to the territory of the Kingdom of...
. Nevertheless, Romania ignored their request, as it would have required a large-scale military intervention.
At the end of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in 1918, the Directory of Ukraine proclaimed the sovereignty of the Ukrainian People's Republic
Ukrainian People's Republic
The Ukrainian People's Republic or Ukrainian National Republic was a republic that was declared in part of the territory of modern Ukraine after the Russian Revolution, eventually headed by Symon Petliura.-Revolutionary Wave:...
over the left bank of the Dniester. After the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
in 1922, the Ukrainian SSR
Ukrainian SSR
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic or in short, the Ukrainian SSR was a sovereign Soviet Socialist state and one of the fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union lasting from its inception in 1922 to the breakup in 1991...
was created.
Moldavian Autonomous Republic in Soviet Ukraine
The geopolitical concept of an autonomous CommunistCommunism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
Transnistrian region was born in 1924, when Bessarabian military leader Grigore Kotovski
Grigore Kotovski
Grigory Ivanovich Kotovsky was a Soviet military leader and Communist activist.Kotovsky was born in Bessarabia, the son of a mechanical engineer. His father was of Polish ethnicity and his mother was an ethnic Russian. Kotovskt attended agricultural college and worked as an estate manager....
proposed the founding under the auspices of Moscow of the Moldavian Autonomous Oblast
Moldavian Autonomous Oblast
Moldavian Autonomous Oblast was created on March 7, 1924 within the Ukrainian SSR.The new oblast had four districts, all of them having a Moldovan majority:* Rîbniţa with 48,748 inhabitants, of which 25,387 Moldovans...
that months later became the Moldavian ASSR
Moldavian ASSR
The Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic , shortened to Moldavian ASSR or, less frequently, Moldovan ASSR, was an autonomous republic of the Ukrainian SSR between 12 October 1924 and 2 August 1940, encompassing modern Transnistria The Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic...
of Ukrainian SSR.
In 1927 there was a massive uprising of peasants and factory workers in Tiraspol and other cities (Mohyliv-Podilskyi
Mohyliv-Podilskyi
Mohyliv-Podilskyi is a city in the Mohyliv-Podilskyi Raion of the Vinnytsia Oblast , Ukraine. It is located at , on the border with Bessarabia, Moldova.-History:The first mention of the town dates from 1595...
, Kamianets-Podilskyi
Kamianets-Podilskyi
Kamyanets-Podilsky or Kamienets-Podolsky is a city located on the Smotrych River in western Ukraine, to the north-east of Chernivtsi...
) of southern Ukrainian S.S.R. against Soviet authorities. Troops from Moscow were sent to the region and suppressed the unrest, causing around 4,000 deaths, according to US correspondents sent to report about the insurrection, which was at the time completely denied by the Kremlin official press.
MASSR had a mixed Ukrainian
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
(46%) and Moldovan
Moldovans
Moldovans or Moldavians are the largest population group of Moldova...
(32%) population, which was estimated at 545,500. Its area was 8,677 km² and included 11 raion
Raion
A raion is a type of administrative unit of several post-Soviet countries. The term, which is from French rayon 'honeycomb, department,' describes both a type of a subnational entity and a division of a city, and is commonly translated in English as "district"...
s on the left bank of Dniester.
According to the 1926 Soviet census, the Republic had a population of 572,339, of which:
| Ethnic group |
census 1926 | 1936 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | % | Number | % | |
| Ukrainians Ukrainians Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens... |
277,515 | 48.5% | 265,193 | 45.5% |
| Moldovans Moldovans Moldovans or Moldavians are the largest population group of Moldova... |
172,419 | 30.1% | 184,046 | 31.6% |
| Russians Russians The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries.... |
48,868 | 8.5% | 56,592 | 9.7% |
| Jews Jews The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation... |
48,564 | 8.5% | 45,620 | 7.8% |
| Germans Germans The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages.... |
10,739 | 1.9% | 12,711 | 2.2% |
| Bulgarians Bulgarians The Bulgarians are a South Slavic nation and ethnic group native to Bulgaria and neighbouring regions. Emigration has resulted in immigrant communities in a number of other countries.-History and ethnogenesis:... |
6,026 | 1.1% | ||
| Poles Poles thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe... |
4,853 | 0.8% | ||
| Roma (Gypsies) | 918 | 0.2% | ||
| Romanians Romanians The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania.... |
137 | 0.0% | ||
| Other | 2,300 | 0.4% | 13,526 | 2.4% |
| Total | 572,339 | 582,138 | ||
While the creation of ethnic-based autonomous polities was a general policy of the Soviets at that time, with the creation of the Moldavian ASSR, the Soviet Union also hoped also to bolster its claim to Bessarabia. Soviet authorities declared the "temporarily occupied city of Kishinev" as de jure capital of the ASSR
ASSR
ASSR may refer to:* Autonomous republics of the Soviet Union* Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, now Armenia * Auditory steady-state response, a steady-state evoked potential...
. The concept of "Moldavian ethnicity theory" was also born there, including the Moldovan language created through the cyrillization
Cyrillic alphabet
The Cyrillic script or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School...
of the Romanian language
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
spoken by approximately one third of the autonomous republic's population.
At that time, the population of Moldavian ASSR was 48% Ukrainian, 30% Romanian/Moldavian, 9% Russian, and 8.5% Jewish. In 1940, 6 of the 14 districts of MASSR were included in the new created Moldavian SSR
Moldavian SSR
The Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic , commonly abbreviated to Moldavian SSR or MSSR, was one of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union...
, together with a part of Bessarabia
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
.
According to the Soviet census of 1926, in the districts of Camenca, Rîbniţa, Dubăsari, Grigoriopol, Tiraspol and Slobozia, a territory roughly similar with today's Transnistria, there were 44,11% Moldavians (Romanians), 27,18% Ukrainians, 13,69% Russians, 8,21% Jews, 3,01% Germans etc.
World War II
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
taken from Romania on June 28, following the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union and signed in Moscow in the late hours of 23 August 1939...
, where the majority of the population were Romanian speakers, and a strip of land on the left bank of the Dniester in the Ukrainian SSR, which was transferred to it in 1940 (the strip being roughly equivalent to the territory of today's Transnistria).
In 1941, after Axis forces
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
invaded Bessarabia in the course of the Second World War
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
, they advanced over the Dniester river. Romania controlled the entire region between Dniester and Southern Bug
Southern Bug
The Southern Bug, also called Southern Buh), is a river located in Ukraine. The source of the river is in the west of Ukraine, in the Volyn-Podillia Upland, about 145 km from the Polish border, and flows southeasterly into the Bug Estuary through the southern steppes...
rivers, including the city of Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
, as Transnistria.
The territory -called Governatorate of Transnistria- with an area of 44.000 km2 and a population of 1,2 mln inhabitants was divided into 13 counties: Ananiev, Balta, Berzovca, Dubasari, Golta, Jugastru, Movilau, Oceacov, Odessa, Ovidiopol, Ribnita, Tiraspol and Tulcin. There were in this enlarged Transnistria nearly 200,000 rumenian/moldovian-speaking residents.
The Romanian administration of "Transnistria" attempted to stabilise the situation in the area under Romanian control. It was implemented a process of Romanianization
Romanianization
Romanianization or Rumanization is the term used to describe a number of ethnic assimilation policies implemented by the Romanian authorities during the 20th century...
. To this end, it opened all churches, previously closed down by the Soviets. In 1942-1943, 2,200 primary schools were organized in the region, including 1,677 Ukrainian, 311 Romanian, 150 Russian, 70 German and 6 Bulgarian. 117 middle and high schools were opened, including 65 middle schools, 29 technical high schools, and 23 academic high schools. Theaters were opened in Odessa and Tiraspol, as well as several museums, libraries, and cinemas throughout the region. On 7 December 1941, the "University of Odessa" was reopened with 6 faculties - medicine, polytechnical, law, sciences, languages and agricultural engineering.
The Romanians/Moldavians in Ukraine east of the Bug river were calculated by a German census to be nearly 800.000 (probably an excessive number), and were made plans to move them to Transnistria in 1942/43: but nothing was done.
Probably there were only about 100,000 Romanians/Moldavians in the German occupied Ukraine -called Reichskommissariat Ukraine
Reichskommissariat Ukraine
Reichskommissariat Ukraine , literally "Reich Commissariat of Ukraine", was the civilian occupation regime of much of German-occupied Ukraine during World War II. Between September 1941 and March 1944, the Reichskommissariat was administered by Reichskommissar Erich Koch as a colony...
- and nearly all of them "disappeared" (because killed, escaped to Romania or deported to Siberia/Caucasus by Stalin), when the Soviets reconquered the area in early 1944.
Furthermore, by March 1943 a total of 185,000 Jews had been murdered under the Romanian and German occupation. This figure includes Romanian and Ukrainian Jews deported from Romania and Bessarabia, but also local Jews who were hunted down by the Einsatzgruppen
Einsatzgruppen
Einsatzgruppen were SS paramilitary death squads that were responsible for mass killings, typically by shooting, of Jews in particular, but also significant numbers of other population groups and political categories...
killing squads.
The Soviet Union regained the area in spring 1944, when the Soviet Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
advanced into the territory driving out the Axis forces. Many thousands of Romanians/Vlachs of Transnistria were killed in those months and deported to gulags in the following years
Moldavian SSR
The Moldavian SSR became the subject of a systematic policy of RussificationRussification
Russification is an adoption of the Russian language or some other Russian attributes by non-Russian communities...
. Cyrillic was made the official script for Moldavian
Moldovan language
Moldovan is one of the names of the Romanian language as spoken in the Republic of Moldova, where it is official. The spoken language of Moldova is closer to the dialects of Romanian spoken in northeastern Romania, and the two countries share the same literary standard...
. It had an official status in the republic, together with Russian, which was the language of "interethnic communication".
Most industry that was built in the Moldavian SSR was concentrated in Transnistria, while the rest of Moldavia had a predominantly agricultural economy. In 1990, Transnistria accounted for 40% of Moldavia's GDP and 90% of its electricity production.
The 14th Soviet army had been based there since 1956 and was kept there after the fall of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
to safeguard what is probably the biggest weapons stockpile and ammunition depot in Europe, which was set up in Soviet times for possible operations on the Southeastern Theater in the event of World War III
World War III
World War III denotes a successor to World War II that would be on a global scale, with common speculation that it would be likely nuclear and devastating in nature....
. Russia was negotiating with the Republic of Moldova, Transnistria and Ukraine for transit rights to be able to evacuate the military materiel back to Russia. In 1994, the 14th Army headquarters were moved from Moldovan capital Chişinău
Chisinau
Chișinău is the capital and largest municipality of Moldova. It is also its main industrial and commercial centre and is located in the middle of the country, on the river Bîc...
to Tiraspol.
War of Transnistria
Mikhail GorbachevMikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
's policy of perestroika
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
allowed the political liberalisation at the regional level in 1980s. The incomplete democratisation was preliminary for the exclusivist nationalism to become the most dynamic political force. Some national minorities opposed these changes in the Moldavian political class of the republic, since during Soviet times, local politics had often been dominated by non-Romanians, particularly by those of Russian origin. The language laws — introducing the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
alphabet for written Moldavian and requiring proficiency in the Moldavian language
Moldovan language
Moldovan is one of the names of the Romanian language as spoken in the Republic of Moldova, where it is official. The spoken language of Moldova is closer to the dialects of Romanian spoken in northeastern Romania, and the two countries share the same literary standard...
(essentially—some would say exactly—the Romanian language
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
) for public servants— presented a particularly volatile issue as a great proportion of the non-Romanian population of the Moldavian SSR did not speak Moldavian. The problem of official languages in the Republic of Moldova has become a Gordian knot
Gordian Knot
The Gordian Knot is a legend of Phrygian Gordium associated with Alexander the Great. It is often used as a metaphor for an intractable problem solved by a bold stroke :"Turn him to any cause of policy,...
, being exaggerated and, perhaps, intentionally politicized. This displeasure with the new policies was manifested in a more visible way in Transnistria, where urban centers such as Tiraspol, had a Slavic majority. The scenes of protests against the central government of the republic were more acute here.
According to the census in 1989, the population in Transnistria was 39.9% Moldavian, 28.3% Ukrainian, 25.4% Russian, 1.9% Bulgarian.
On 2 September 1990, the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic was unilaterally proclaimed as a Soviet Republic separate from Moldova by the "Second Congress of the Peoples' Representatives of Pridnestrovie". However on 22 December, the Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
signed a decree "regarding the measures that would bring the situation back to normal in the Moldavian SSR". The decision stated that the proclamation of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian SSR was null and void. On 25 August 1991, the Supreme Council
Supreme Soviet
The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union was the Supreme Soviet in the Soviet Union and the only one with the power to pass constitutional amendments...
of the PMSSR adopted the declaration of independence of the republic. On 27 August 1991, the Moldovan Parliament adopted the Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Moldova, whose territory included Transnistria. The Moldovan Parliament asked the Government of the Soviet Union "to begin negotiations with the Moldovan Government in order to put an end to the illegal occupation of the Republic of Moldova and withdraw Soviet troops from Moldovan territory".
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
on 2 March 1992, Moldovan President Mircea Snegur
Mircea Snegur
Mircea Ion Snegur was the first President of Moldova 1990-1996. Before that he was Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet 1989-1990 and Chairman of the Supreme Soviet from 27 April to 3 September 1990...
(president from 1990 to 1996) authorized concerted military action against PMR forces which had been attacking police outposts loyal to the Moldovan government on the left bank of the river Dniester
Dniester
The Dniester is a river in Eastern Europe. It runs through Ukraine and Moldova and separates most of Moldova's territory from the breakaway de facto state of Transnistria.-Names:...
(Nistru), and on a smaller section of the right bank around the southern city of Tighina
Tighina
Bender or Bendery, also known as Tighina is a city within the internationally recognized borders of Moldova under de facto control of the unrecognized Transnistria Republic since 1992...
(Bender/Bendery). The PMR forces, aided by contingents of Russian Cossacks and the Russian 14th Army, consolidated their control over most of the disputed area.
Forces of the 14th Army (which had owed allegiance to the Soviet Union, Commonwealth of Independent States
Commonwealth of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States is a regional organization whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics, formed during the breakup of the Soviet Union....
(CIS) and the Russian Federation in turn) stationed in Transnistria, had fought with and on behalf of the PMR side. PMR units were able to arm themselves with weapons taken from the stores of the former 14th Army. The Russian 14th Army's role in the area was crucial to the outcome of the war. The Moldovan army was in a position of inferiority which prevented it from regaining control of Transnistria. A cease-fire agreement was signed on 21 July 1992.
Aftermath of the war
Despite the ceasefire agreement, Russia had continued to provide military, political and economic support to the PMR, thus enabling it not only to survive but to strengthen itself and acquire a certain amount of autonomy from Moldova. General Aleksandr LebedAleksandr Lebed
Alexander Ivanovich Lebed was a Russian lieutenant-general and politician. He placed third in the 1996 Russian presidential election, with 14.5% of the vote nationwide. He later served as Russia's Secretary of the Security Council and as governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia's second largest region...
, the commander of the Russian Operational Group (the former Russian 14th Army) since June 1992, who acted as a Transnistrian politician, said many times that his army was able to reach Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
in two hours. In the security zone controlled by the Russian peacekeeping forces, the Transnistrian government continued to deploy its troops and to manufacture and sell weapons in breach of the agreement of 21 July 1992. In February 2003, the USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
imposed visa restrictions against the Transnistrian leadership.
Although only 2,600 troops of the Russian 14th Army remain in the operational group, their presence has been used by Russia as an instrument of influence over the region.
The agreement to withdraw all Russian forces was signed in 1994, but while the number of troops decreased, an immense stockpile of ammunition and equipment remained. The arsenal of the former 14th Army consists of 49,476 firearms, 805 artillery guns, 4,000 cars, and 655 units of various military equipment, which is enough to arm four rifle divisions.
The OSCE is trying to facilitate a negotiated settlement and has had an observer mission in place for several years. The Russian army was still stationed in Moldovan territory in breach of the undertakings to withdraw them completely given by Russia at the OSCE summits in 1999 and 2001.
Primakov Memorandum on the "common state"
On 8 May 1997, the Moldovan President Petru LucinschiPetru Lucinschi
Petru Chiril Lucinschi was Moldova's second President .- Biography :Petru Chiril Lucinschi was born on January 27, 1940 in Rădulenii Vechi village, Soroca County, Romania...
and the Transniestrian President Igor Smirnov, have signed, in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, with the mediation of the Russian Federation, Ukraine and the OSCE Mission in Moldova, the "Memorandum on the principles of normalizations of the relations between the Republic of Moldova and Transdniestria" also known as "Primakov Memorandum" or "Moscow Memorandum".
In compliance with the final clause of the memorandum, the relations between the Republic of Moldova and Transdniestria shall be developed within the framework of a common state, within the borders of the Soviet Moldova. The Russian Federation and Ukraine stating their readiness to become guarantors of the Transdnestrian status observance, as well as of the Memorandum’s provisions. Chişinău and Tiraspol have decided to sustain the establishment of legal and state relations: the mutual decision coordination, inclusively regarding prerogatives delimitation and delegation, the safeguard of mutual security, the Transnistrian participation in the process of accomplishment of the foreign policy of the Republic of Moldova. In the same time, Transdniestria was recognized the right, subject to mutual agreement, to independently establish and maintain international connections in such fields as economy, science, technologies and culture. The Memorandum provisions had widely diverging legal and political interpretations in Chişinău and Tiraspol.
The Kozak Memorandum
In July 2002, OSCE, Russian, and Ukrainian mediators approved a document setting forth a blueprint for reuniting Moldova under a federal system. However, the fundamental disagreements over the division of powers remained, which rendered the settlement elusive.In mid-November 2003, Russia unexpectedly provided a much more detailed memorandum proposing a united asymmetric federal Moldavian state with an attached key proposal to locate a Russian military base on Moldavian soil for the next 20 years. First published in Russian on the website of Transnistria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the text was promoted by a Russian politician Dmitry Kozak
Dmitry Kozak
Dmitry Nikolayevich Kozak , is a Russian politician, serving since October 2008 as deputy Prime minister of the Russian Federation....
, known to be a close ally of President Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
and one of the key figures in his presidential team. The memorandum presented an end to the previous Moscow policy, which assumed that the region would have equal status in federation with the rest of the country.
It was proposed that the competences of government of the federal Moldova would be divided into three categories: those of the federation, those of individual subjects and those of joint competences. The plan presented several issues risking to cause blockage in policy-making. A lower house, elected by proportional representation, would pass legislation by simple majority. All laws would also need the assent of the senate, however, whose representation would be highly disproportionate with respect to population figures: 13 senators elected by the federal lower house, nine by Transnistria and four by Gagauzia
Gagauzia
Gagauzia , formally known as the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Găgăuzia , is an autonomous region of...
. According to the 1989 census, Transnistria had 14% and Gagauzia 3.5% of Moldova's total population. By this plan, Transnistria would be an outright blocking minority.
Large demonstrations against the Kozak memorandum took place in Chişinău in the days following the publication of the Russian proposal. Moldova's leadership declined to sign memorandum without the coordination with the European organizations. A visit by President Putin to Moldova was cancelled. Later in 2005, President Vladimir Voronin
Vladimir Voronin
Vladimir Nicolaevici Voronin is a Moldovan politician. He was the third President of Moldova from 2001 until 2009 and has been the First Secretary of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova since 1994...
made a statement rejecting the 2003 Kozak memorandum because of contradiction with the Moldovan constitution which defines Moldova as a neutral state and could not allow any foreign troops on its soil, while the country cannot join military alliances. Moldova and the Kozak memorandum was a key issue at the OSCE ministerial meeting in Maastricht
Maastricht
Maastricht is situated on both sides of the Meuse river in the south-eastern part of the Netherlands, on the Belgian border and near the German border...
in December 2003, and disagreement between Russia on the one hand, and the EU and the US on the other on Moldova, was one of the principal reasons why a final joint declaration was not adopted after the meeting.
2004 crisis
In the summer of 2004, a crisis erupted over the issue of Moldavian schools in TransnistriaMoldovan schools in Transnistria
The Moldovan schools in Transnistria became an issue of contention in 2004 in the context of the disputed status of Transnistria, a breakaway region of since 1990/1992.- History :...
. It led to a breakdown in negotiations and economic retaliations by both sides. The issue was resolved by compromise: The PMR government gave the schools autonomy and the schools formalized their registration with the PMR Ministry of Education.
Ukraine-sponsored talks
In May 2005, the Ukrainian government of Viktor YushchenkoViktor Yushchenko
Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko is a former President of Ukraine. He took office on January 23, 2005, following a period of popular unrest known as the Orange Revolution...
proposed a seven-point plan by which the separation of Transnistria and Moldova would be settled through a negotiated settlement and free elections. Under the plan, Transnistria would remain an autonomous region of Moldova. The United States, the EU and the PMR itself expressed some level of agreement with the project.
In July, Ukraine opened five new customs posts on the PMR-Ukraine border. The posts, staffed by both Moldovan and Ukrainian officials, are intended to reduce the hitherto high incidence of smuggling between the breakaway state and its neighbors.
The 5 + 2 Talks
Since 2006 there has been talks to solve the Transnistria problem. They were called 5 + 2 because done by Moldova, Transnistria, Ukraine, OSCE and Russia, with the EU and the USA as external observers.But soon the talks proved to be a failure. Only in February 2011 in Vienna were held again those talks
In April 2011 Russia agreed theoretically to create an authonomous region of Transnistria inside the Republic of Moldova, but there were many other problems to be solved in the talks.
See also
- War of TransnistriaWar of TransnistriaThe War of Transnistria was a limited conflict that broke out in November 1990 at Dubăsari between pro-Transnistria forces, including the Transnistrian Republican Guard, militia and Cossack units, and supported by elements of the Russian 14th army, and pro-Moldovan forces, including Moldovan...
- Disputed status of TransnistriaDisputed status of TransnistriaThe political status of Transnistria, an unrecognized state on the internationally recognized territory of the Republic of Moldova, has been disputed since the Transnistrian declaration of independence on September 2, 1990. This declaration established a Soviet Socialist Republic separate from...
- Transnistrian border customs issues
- Crime in TransnistriaCrime in TransnistriaCrime in Transnistria covers criminality-related incidents in the breakaway Republic of Transnistria, still nominally part of Moldova.-EUBAM border controls and smuggling issues:Transnistria has a reputation of being a haven for smuggling...
- International recognition of TransnistriaInternational recognition of TransnistriaInternational recognition of Transnistria, or Pridnestrovie, is a subject of controversy because it is a disputed region in Eastern Europe between Moldova and Ukraine. Although it declared independence in 1990, the vast majority of other countries do not recognise its sovereignty...
- Republic of Moldova
External links
- Viorel Dolha - All about Transnistria 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
- Pridnestrovie.net history section (Official Transnistrian site)
- History of creation and development of the Parliament of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR)
- Video of Transnistria