79 years ago, after a note from the Soviet government, Romania withdrew its troops from Bessarabia, which it occupied in 1918. The region was annexed to the Moldavian Autonomous SSR, created in 1924 on the territory of modern Pridnestrovie. As a result, the Moldavian SSR, which had existed for only 50 years, was formed from two different historical-geographical regions. In June 1990, the Moldovan parliament declared the creation of the MSSR an illegal act and thus, at the legal level, actually designated its way out of a common state together with Pridnestrovie. Thus, in the process of the Soviet Union collapse, two states emerged on the territory of the MSSR - the Republic of Moldova and the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic.
Artificial Union Republic
June 26, 1940, USSR Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov presented a note of the Soviet government to the Romanian Envoy G. Davidesku.
“In 1918, Romania, taking advantage of Russia's military weakness, forcibly rejected a part of its territory - Bessarabia from the Soviet Union (Russia) ... The Soviet Union never put up with the fact of Bessarabia’s violent rejection, which the USSR government repeatedly and openly declared to the whole world. Now that the USSR’s military weakness is in the past, the current international situation requires early resolution of ... unresolved issues,” the document said.
The Soviet government offered Romania to return Bessarabia to the Soviet Union. Bucharest withdrew its troops from the region, after which on June 28, 1940, Red Army units entered Bessarabia. The region was joined to the MASSR with its capital in Tiraspol. However, a month later - on August 2, 1940 - by the decision of the Soviet government a new federal republic was created - Moldavian Soviet Socialist. The capital was moved from Tiraspol to Chisinau. At the same time, significant territories of Bessarabia and MASSR were transferred to the Ukrainian SSR.
Regions Had Never Found Common Ground
However, the co-existence of parts of Bessarabia and Pridnestrovie for 50 years as part of one federal republic (MSSR) and a large country (USSR) has not brought it together, nor has united the two banks of the Dniester. The difference between Pridnestrovie and Bessarabia in the ethnic structure of the population, political and cultural orientation, worldview, mentality did not allow the Moldavian SSR to become a single entity during the years of Soviet power.
This manifested itself immediately with the beginning of the process of the Soviet Union collapse. The red button, which led to the dismantling of the federal republic, was hit by Chisinau. In 1989, under the influence of pro-Romanian organizations, the Supreme Council of the MSSR adopted laws on language, putting numerous nationalities in an unequal position in relation to the titular nation. In Pridnestrovie, where national parity was part of popular culture, there were protests.
However, instead of the policy of national reconciliation, Chisinau chose the path of separatism. On June 23, 1990, the Supreme Council of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Moldova adopted the Declaration of Sovereignty, which proclaimed the supremacy of the laws of Moldova over the laws of the Soviet Union. On the same day, a resolution was passed declaring the creation of the MSSR in 1940 illegal.
"... The unlawful proclamation of the Moldavian SSR on August 2, 1940 was an act of dismembering Bessarabia and Bukovina," the document said.
Moldavian Separatism
By that document, Moldova, in fact, officially abandoned the common state with Pridnestrovie, rolling back the political picture of the region to the state on August 1, 1940 - when the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic existed with Tiraspol as its capital. By its own decision, the Moldovan parliament legally divided Bessarabia and Pridnestrovie.
“The situation legally returned to the state of 1940, excluding from the composition of Moldova its state-forming part in the form of the territory of modern Pridnestrovie. By this decision, the Moldovan parliament actually abandoned Pridnestrovie. Using the principle of the right of peoples to self-determination, present-day Moldova seceded from the MSSR, and this happened a year before the collapse of the Soviet Union,” Pridnestrovian President Vadim Krasnoselski said, speaking in the Oxford Union in 2017.
“So who they really are, “separatists?” the head of Pridnestrovie asks a rhetorical question.
On July 31, 1990, the Presidium of the Tiraspol City Council proclaimed that if the Moldavian SSR was created illegally, the left bank of the Dniester was also illegally included, and if so, the Presidium “did not consider itself bound by any obligations to the leadership of the SSR of Moldova." By this time, referendums were held in most of the settlements of Pridnestrovie, in which their residents spoke in favor of creating the Pridnestrovian SSR. Which was done on September 2, 1990.
“We had all legitimate reasons to declare our statehood. I am convinced that if we collect all the facts, then we can defend our independence in any international court, if it is impartial,” Vadim Krasnoselski stressed.
In the Russian Lawyers Guild`s conclusion it is noted that international recognition of Pridnestrovie met all legal and historical conditions.
The document states that the statehood of the PMR is proclaimed in full compliance with the fundamental documents of international law. At the same time, Moldova does not have historical, as well as political and legal grounds for claims to the territory of Pridnestrovie. Legal scholars cite the decision of the Moldovan parliament of 1990 as one of the arguments, according to which Moldova abandoned the territory of the PMR independently. In turn, experts emphasize that Pridnestrovie has realized its legal right to self-determination. Therefore, international recognition of the PMR "will contribute to ensuring stability and security in the relevant part of south-eastern Europe," representatives of the Russian Lawyers Guild summarized.
It is important to note that by the time of the formation of the MSSR, the statehood of Pridnestrovie had already been being developed for 16 years (1924 - the creation of the MASSR). It was Bessarabia that was annexed to Pridnestrovie, and not vice versa. Its territories, in which the independence of Moldova was proclaimed in 1991, were separated from Pridnestrovie according to a decision of the parliament on June 23, 1990. The main symbols of the Republic of Moldova are the Romanian language, the history of the Romanians, the Romanian tricolor - it is not by chance that it is called “another Romanian State”. In turn, the PMR was created on the basis of the statehood of the MASSR, which will sooner or later be taken into account by the international community.
Irina Iordanova
