Freely-Elected Communist Moldova Struggles to Overcome its Past
The people of Moldova like to say that if a stick was planted in the rich Moldovan soil, a bountiful fruit tree would grow.
But to walk on Moldovan soil is to walk on a land that has been mired in struggle since its earliest existence. The land is rich, but the people are poor, having been threatened, fought over, and occupied for nearly its entire existence.
About the size of the state of Maryland, this small country is sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania, and wedged between East and West.
Formerly part of the Soviet Union, Moldova has the only freely-elected Communist government in the world.
An estimated 25 percent of the population (four million) have fled to the West in search of jobs, and the money sent back home from workers abroad is one of the few reliable cash flows into the economy.
Culturally and historically, it is rooted with Romania; both having been conquered by the Romans, both still speaking the same language, both sharing the same customs and traditions.
The Russians annexed Moldova during the Bolshevik Revolution, but the Romanians acquired it shortly thereafter, and held onto it until World War II, when the Russians seized it again.
As Stalin did with all lands umbrella’ed under the USSR, he sent scores of Russian workers to Moldova to help industrialize the nation, as well as to force the Russian culture on the region–a form of colonization. Nearly overnight, the Romanian language was replaced with the Russian language, the two bearing no similarity to each other whatsoever.
Moldova gained independence when the Soviet Union crumbled in 1991, having its first taste of freedom.
Its first move was to change the official language back to Romanian, but recast it as “Moldovan,” so as not to alarm the Russian and Ukrainian ethnic groups into thinking that Moldova would again unite with Romania.
But many worried about just that, including the largely Russian enclave in the region of Transnistria, which chose to break away from Moldova.
Backed by Russian troops, Transnistria waged a short civil war in 1992, in which 300 Moldovans were killed before a peace treaty was signed after only two months.
But the issue is unresolved. There are an estimated 1,500 Russian soldiers still in Transnistria, guarding massive stockpiles of aging armaments, over which the Russians seek to maintain control.
Services into the rest of Moldova are restricted. Mobile phone connections are interrupted, internet sites are blocked, and television reception for Moldovan channels cannot be received. No newspapers from the rest of Moldova can be purchased in Transnistria.
The cities there are like an urban desert, and remind many Moldovans of the days when the Soviets ruled—no cafes, no modern cars, no billboards–none of the hallmarks of a capitalist city.
Crossing the so-called border into the region is like crossing into a lawless no-man’s land. Since the “Republic of Transnistria” is not officially recognized by any other nation in the world, passports are not permitted to be stamped. Thus, a guard tears off a small bit of notepad paper, stamps it, and places it inside the passport. It costs 30 cents.
The region is primarily run by a consortium called Sheriff, which is overseen by the powerful Smirnov family. All major enterprises–gas stations, supermarkets, cigarettes brands–are all owned and operated by Sheriff.
The Smirnovs also control customs at the border, a troubling situation for Moldovan authorities, who are struggling to stop the flow of weapons trafficking and human trafficking (people being sold for sex and/or slavery) from their country.
