«Révolution culturelle» et «ingénierie sociale» en République Soviétique Socialiste Moldave (1924-1940)
”Cultural Revolution” and ”Social Engineering” in the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic – 1924-1940

Summary/Abstract: The creation of the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (MASSR) can be integrated within the social and political context that prevailed in the USSR during the 1920s. This political entity was itself engaged in elaborating an appropriate form for the organization of its ”statehood” (gosudarstvennost’). Similarly to the other union or autonomous republics, the MASSR was far from being effectively autonomous, either in the economic or the political sphere. The fundamental fact that legitimized its emergence was the purported existence, on this territory, of a distinct ethno-national community: the Moldavians. Formed in 1924 according to an ad hoc decision of the central authorities for reasons of international politics (or, rather, international strategy), the MASSR became the object of a discontinuous national and cultural policy throughout its entire existence up to 1940. Several interest groups competed, first, for the administration of this territorial entity. Later, the focus of this competition shifted to the definition and creation of the fundamental components of the ”titular nationality’s” identity, expressed through national language, national culture, and national history. These interest conflicts resulted in a piecemeal and inefficient application of the projected measures aimed at social democratization and modernization and subsumed under the label of ”cultural revolution”. The process in question included simultaneous policies of ”indigenization” (korenizatsiia), literacy and educational campaigns. The repeated failures of this self-styled revolutionary project proved a major obstacle for the unitary national identification of the presumably autochthonous population, contrary to the designs of the MASSR’s authorities.

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