L’identité des moldaves. Limites scientifiques et politiques
Scientific and political limits regarding the identity of Moldavians

Summary/Abstract: The issue of the origin of the Eastern Romance population has always been subject to demystifications. Along with the incorporation, following a Russo-Turkish peace treaty, of the territories between Prut and Dniester, Tsarist Russia showed a particular interest in studying the specificity of the local population. The reasons behind this research were to understand local realities so as to be able to shape an image of the “liberation of Christians” from the Turkish domination. With this new image, Tsarist Russia would mask its new territorial seizures and the imperialist interest in the Black Sea Straits. After the incorporation of the Prut-Dniester area within USSR, the century-old friendship of the Russo-Ukrainian and Moldavian peoples became one of the main pillars of the state policy. The Soviet historiography came as a perverted form of the Bible: “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32). The Soviets first brought liberation to Bessarabia; then they started to bring in truth as well.

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