Tiraspol, December 5. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. The basis of Pridnestrovie's statehood is the MASSR, created in 1924, when the territory of present-day Moldova was still annexed by Romania. The first republic in Pridnestrovie, with its capital in Tiraspol, became the core of a new union republic - the Moldavian SSR, artificially created in 1940, when the Soviet Union returned control of the former Bessarabian province to the Russian Empire. Then, in 1940, the capital was moved to Chisinau. 50 years later, in 1990, nationalists held a resolution through the Supreme Council of the MSSR, which declared the creation of this union republic illegal. This meant a legal abandonment of Pridnestrovie. A fact from history was presented by the President of the PMR Vadim Krasnoselsky at an open lesson for schoolchildren and students.
“We did not withdraw from Moldova. We have never been Moldova. The Moldavian Parliament divided the unified republic of the Moldavian SSR into two entities - Moldova and Pridnestrovie. We are not separatists. The separatists are the ones who made the decision in Chisinau. This is a historical fact, and it’s hard to argue with it,” Vadim Krasnoselsky noted.
The President of the PMR emphasized that it was Bessarabia that was annexed to the first republic in Pridnestrovie - the MASSR, and not vice versa.
“It was not us who came there, but they, Bessarabia, were annexed to us, making the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic - MSSR,” the head of state said at an open history lesson with schoolchildren and students.
The territory of Pridnestrovie was not historically part of the Moldovan state. The Principality of Moldova arose in 1359 in the valley of the Siret, Suceava and Moldova rivers near the Carpathian Mountains. At the end of the 14th century, it extended its influence to the Prut-Dniester interfluve, which was previously part of the Golden Horde. The Dniester River became the eastern border of the Moldavian Principality. The territory of Pridnestrovie at that time was divided between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, whose population was 90% Russian, and the weakening Golden Horde. In the 16th century, the Principality of Moldova fell under the governance of the Ottoman Empire, which included the south of the Prut-Dniester Region, called Bessarabia, into its composition and built the Bendery fortress. As a result of the Russian-Turkish wars and the division of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the territories of Pridnestrovie (1792, 1793) and the Prut-Dniester interfluve (1812) became part of Russia. Administratively, Pridnestrovie was part of the Kherson and Podolsk provinces, while the Bessarabian region (later the province) was created on the territory of the Prut-Dniester interfluve. In 1862, the Principality of Moldova united with Wallachia, creating one state (from 1882 Romania), and ceased to exist. At the time of the collapse of the Russian Empire (1917-18), Romania sent troops into the Bessarabia province under the pretext of protecting infrastructure and, taking advantage of the Civil War in Russia, annexed the region. The Soviet Union, created in 1922, did not recognize the seizure of Bessarabia and initiated the formation of an autonomous republic in Pridnestrovie (MASSR) with the aim of political integration of Bessarabia and the spread of revolutionary ideas to the Balkans. Having concluded a non-aggression pact with Germany (1939), the USSR took up the Bessarabian issue and demanded that Romania return the former Russian province. Bessarabia was annexed to the MASSR (June 1940), but soon a new union republic, the Moldavian SSR, was created (August-October 1940). At the same time, territories where the majority of the population were not Moldovans were handed over to Ukraine.
