THE “TRUE” MOLDOVANS OF TRANSNISTRIA: A CASE STUDY OF IDENTITY FABRICATION IN THE FIRST YEARS OF THE USSR (1924-1940)
THE “TRUE” MOLDOVANS OF TRANSNISTRIA: A CASE STUDY OF IDENTITY FABRICATION IN THE FIRST YEARS OF THE USSR (1924-1940)

Summary/Abstract: The frozen conflict in Transnistria ranks among a series of interethnic clashes which broke out at the periphery of the Soviet Union in light of its dismemberment. However, Transnistria`s case, compared to other frozen conflicts in the ex-Soviet space, stands out due to the absence of interethnic animosities prior to 1989. The systemic changes caused the eruption of the conflict, and the intergroup rivalry did not necessarily derive from ethnic belonging; it was the following war in March 1992 that yielded the idea of the “Transnistrian identity”. This article re-examines how identity was created and manipulated in the MASSR, Transnistria`s political ancestor. The creation of the MASSR in 1924, with the aim to regain Bessarabia from Romania, and to spread communism outside de Soviet borders, was accompanied by a series of policies that promoted a new, local identity. These policies had taken various forms and lasted until the Soviet Union reoccupied Bessarabia in 1940. Their reinvestigation serves as opportunity of reassessing the MASSR as the prototype for identity fabrication in Transnistria. In the context of the current frozen conflict, such approach on the MASSR as a historical precedent throws fresh light on the emergence of the new “Transnistrian identity”.

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