An international conference is taking place in Tiraspol. The topic is: “Russian language as the basis of interethnic world”. The event was organized at the site of the Pridnestrovian State University named after Shevchenko within the framework of the Year of the Russian Language held in the CIS (2023) with the direct participation of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia and the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, Rossotrudnichestvo and the International Association of Russian Language Teachers. The grand opening of the conference took place today. The PMR President Vadim Krasnoselsky, who is also the founder of PSU, was among the guests of honor.
The conference will last three days. Teachers of Russian language and literature are participating at all levels of education in the PMR. Foreign guests are invited. The purpose of communication is to expand scientific and pedagogical cooperation in the field of teaching, research and popularization of the Russian language and literature, strengthening general cultural ties, and intensifying scientific-practical dialogue. An excursion program around Pridnestrovie has been developed for participants arriving from abroad. Some interlocutors participated in the thematic discussion remotely. Most of them initially planned to attend the university conference hall, but encountered difficulties at the Chisinau airport. Five representatives of Armenia and the Kyrgyz Republic reached the Pridnestrovian capital. Another 18 foreign participants from Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Belarus were unable to cross the Moldovan border. By the opening of the event some of them were still at the Chisinau airport. The Head of the Pridnestrovian State addressed them with words of support and gratitude in his welcoming speech:
“Any language has a huge impact on the formation of an individual, a people, a state, and is even capable of changing its borders, of course. I want to show the role of the Russian language in the formation of the community “Pridnestrovian people” using the example of Pridnestrovie. The Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic is 33 years old, but the territory of Pridnestrovie is many millennia old. One civilization replaced another. This land has seen the Scythians, the Celts, the ancient Magyars, and various empires. Of course, the peoples who lived here spoke different languages. This is understandable. Catherine the Great began to develop what were essentially empty lands at that time as a result of victorious campaigns in the Russian-Turkish wars from the mid-18th century. The task was to populate these lands. Unprecedented decision was made - people of different nationalities with the opportunity to work freely, having land and paying tithes then. People of different nationalities ended up here on our territory as a result: Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Germans, Poles, Jews, Gagauzians, Bulgarians, and many others. They formed the Pridnestrovian people, the multinational Pridnestrovian people. People of 72 nationalities and nationalities live in Pridnestrovie today. We have 3 official languages: Russian, Moldavian and Ukrainian. Each nation develops its own customs, its own culture, its own traditions at the same time. We, Pridnestrovians, are witnesses to the formation of a linguistic culture in Pridnestrovie, which is the basis for the development of the Pridnestrovian people as a whole. It is linguistic culture that excludes nationalism. It is a fact. It is linguistic culture that forms the cultural code of the people and raises its standards, thanks to which we have the right to the future, the opportunity to remember the past and live in the present.
We are going through difficult times, of course. The collapse of the Soviet Union is a tragedy. Our Motherland was stolen from us, as I have said many times. Do you understand? We woke up, but there was no Motherland. It was tragedy. We are in the epicenter of a geopolitical squall today, not even a storm, but a squall. If you carefully look at the history of Pridnestrovie, our land, taking at least the last 250 years, then everyone will understand that the borders have changed over the course of these centuries as a result of certain geopolitical disasters.
There is one important element here. Pridnestrovian people. Epochs have changed, borders have changed, but the Pridnestrovian people lived, live and will live here - on the basis of the unifying Russian language. Please, don't forget. It doesn’t matter where we are (geopolitics is a serious thing, it captivates and ends sooner or later), what matters is who we are. We are the Pridnestrovian people with the Russian language, which by and large does not interfere with the development of other languages, traditions, customs, which are the basis of the linguistic culture of our people.
We have about seventy-two nationalities and nationalities, eighty thousand citizens of Ukraine, two hundred and twenty thousand citizens of Russia, about one hundred and fifty to one hundred and seventy thousand citizens of Moldova, as I said earlier. The nuance is that we live in the peace. We have no national hatred. We currently have more than one hundred and thirty thousand refugees from Ukraine living in our country. There was not a single conflict. Why is that? The answer is very simple actually. The answer is that we have never encroached on the language of communication of the people living here on the territory of Pridnestrovie, never. This is the basis for the absence of nationalism as such.
Naturally, this would be impossible to imagine without a Russian language base. Today's and yesterday's events in Chisinau once again prove one simple truth: the Moldovan authorities, in my opinion, react to Russian language as a danger, as a kind of weapon of mass destruction and try in every possible way to fight it. They close Russian schools or do not allow people to attend this conference, trying to disrupt it, for example. This will not be possible thanks to twenty-first century technology. You can't fight the language. This is a deadlock that will have irreversible negative consequences for those who conceived it. I don’t want to explain the actions of the Moldovan authorities, I simply don’t understand them. I am very sorry for the people who are at the airport waiting for their flight home now. You can imagine what it looks like today.
I would like to thank the guests, the organizers of this site, including those who did not reach us unfortunately, who had such a desire, but did not have the opportunity. I wish everyone an interesting discussion about the Russian language,” noted Vadim Krasnoselsky, addressing the initiators, organizers and participants of the conference.
The President of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic expressed confidence that getting to know Pridnestrovie will be pleasant, the stay in the republic will be interesting, and communication will be useful.
