Meanwhile in Moldova…
The unrecognized break-away republic of Transdnistria (or Trans-Dniester) looks as though it is preparing to bolster it’s independence from Moldova by increasing the number of Russian troops occupying Moldovan soil. Of course, Moldova is strongly protesting the presence of any Russian soldiers illegally in it’s territory. Russia seem pretty clear in it’s support of Transdnistria and has been for years. What isn’t clear is: what’s next?
Never heard of it? Here’s the roughly-accurate, birds-eye view: Moldavia is one of the three traditional kingdoms/areas of Romania, whether or not Romania was united at different points in history. So, lots of invasions and occupations during hundreds of years, right? Right. Okay, in 1945 the Soviet Union comes in and separates Romania into two nations (based on old pre-Soviet Russian distinctions, oddly enough). One is communist Romania. The other is communist Moldova (notice the etymology indicating it is part of Moldavia).
And then, fast forward a bit, 1989 Romania has a faux “revolution” and new communists take control from the old communists. Moldavia also has a bit of an “independence from Russia” streak but does not reunite with Romania because leaders in Moldavia like ruling their little fiefdom. Meanwhile in the southeast corner, the Soviets had left behind a bunch of Russians and Ukrainians living in the territory, so these people picked up some guns and said, “Um, hi. We’re going to be, like, independent, because we don’t care about the collapse of communism around us; we are highly motivated to remain slaves.”
Moldavia responds by sending in troops to maintain it’s control of the area. Russian sends in troops to help the commies. A little fighting and Moldavia realizes it can’t beat Russia. Transdnistria is born. They re-institute a form of Stalinism and love it. They take whatever Moldavian currency they can find, glue stamps on the faces, and hand-write the denomination values… literally making money by hand. Silly, eh? Certainly determined.
So, that’s the big picture. Moldavia is populated by Romanians and they speak the Romanian language. They just call themselves a different name because the communist leaders don’t want to merge. And the pocket of ethnic Russians are agitating for official recognition of their tiny region. Putin gets involved as part of his gamesmanship with the West, but otherwise probably couldn’t care less about what really happens there.
March 29th, 2006 at 7:00 pm
but wait! it’s not that a small part of the population is ethnic russian and this tiny group has somehow banded together in transdniestria. russian language and culture are suffused throughout the country. a LOT of people in moldova speak russian. do business in russian. watch tv in russian. for goodness sake, the best movie theater in chisinau shows movies in russian. they celebrate christmas and easter on the russian orthodox calendar. russia’s made its stamp on the entire country and for some reason, moldovans seem content to let that be. except when it comes to that tiny little piece of land called transdniestria. then it becomes an US (the ethnic romanians) against THEM (the ethnic russians) thing.
it seems that moldova is ethnic romanian when it serves the purposes at hand (like schools) and leans more toward russia when that serves (like natural gas).
March 30th, 2006 at 11:38 am
Interesting! That was new information for me to hear that so many speak Russian… in fact, I immediately doubted ;] and went checking over at Wikipedia (while not a perfect source, still a pretty good one). Sure enough, they say “a significant minority” speaks Russian. So, that could be 20…25…30%. More than I had expected!
I was under the impression that, until recently, Romania celebrated Christmas and Easter on the Orthodox calendar as well. Am I misinformed?
Since I’ve been here, things seems to be ticking along the Western clock, however.
Ah, well, it doesn’t really bother me either way because Christmas and Easter aren’t originally Christian holidays anyway. We all know the church borrowed pagan holidays in an attempt to make Christianity more palatable to larger populations. Shoot, that’s how the whole nonsense about the saints came up. People were used to paying to more than one god. Next thing you know, Christians were praying to patron saints as if they were demigods.
Hmmm, to get back on point, so the Russian influence sounds quite strong in Moldova.
I haven’t yet been across the border despite my strong interest and regular threats to go. You know why? Each time I decide what neighboring area to visit next, Moldova loses out because they have a ridiculous border policy where they charge you (at least, Americans) $60USD to enter. What is this, Disneyland? Give me a bloody break. It’s bad enough you’ll be collecting my hotel and food and general tourist money, plus all manner of taxes, of course. But you want to charge me an entrance fee? Pshaw!
Sure, I’ll loosen the grip on my wallet one of these days. I really want to see Transdnistria, but so far I have not been to Moldova for that exact reason. It’s purposterous.
March 31st, 2006 at 9:37 am
ahhh… but you should go. i spent a lovely christmas there a few years ago. we drove through a crazy blizzard and i fought with the border guard who wanted money (i told him i would happily pay but we would have to stand outside in the wind and snow to negotiate – he gave up. moral – a ridiculous request CAN be beaten with an equally ridiculous request!) i spent new years eve day in the police station, the court, the passport office (repeat cycle a few times for fun) because i failed to register upon arrival. not a problem if you stay in a hotel. a big problem if you stay with a family and want to… i don’t know.. leave the country again?
i’m told spring is also a wonderful time of year there.
half the fun of going to mo is the weird process of getting your visa. the other half is getting there. take the bus – that’s all i can say.
i seriously suspect more than 20 or 30% speak russian. the cia factbook says only about 6% are ethnic russian but.. tv – russian. movie theaters – russian. i was a little weirded out to have people speak to me (the oh-so-not-romanian/
moldovan/russian) in russian in the piata. you have to think that a country that calls russia it’s savior is probably more than happy to speak russian.
for a FABULOUS intro to moldova – check out zdob si zdub. ignore “everyone in the casa mare” because they have so many other songs that are just crazy wonderful! in fact, they will be in your neck of the woods in a couple of weeks for the sarbatoarea floriilor sau ceva asa.
as for transdnistria… i’ll take a wild guess and suggest your “organization” might not be thrilled with that. i’d keep it on the down-low. you know?
April 1st, 2006 at 9:47 pm
Hmmm… arguing with border guards in a blizzard and fighting a court system over silly registrations? You sure have a different idea of a lovely christmas =P
Ah, but you bring up come good points and interesting advice. I’ve read several negative things about that part of Moldavia. I will remember about the bus! Apparently, the other thing I heard was that there is some ONE particular city I should cross through… because the rumors say that other ones are supposedly illegal. (At least, for my passport, anyway.)
Thanks for the advice on the music! I’ll check them out tomorrow, if I can find something other than just samples. I just hopped on their website and was disappointed to see no navigation item for “Tours” …which should be pretty much standard for any musical act. Ah, well, their English wasn’t so good either, so maybe they just dont know much. (How’s that for bias?)
Nah, I’ve no secrets about Transdnistria. When I finally get over there, I’ll slap up some photos here and recount my adventures (if any).
April 9th, 2006 at 8:05 pm
this is the only way i know how to reach you. a mo friend just emailed me that moldova will be dropping the visa requirement for americans and eu cit. starting january 2007. just wait til next spring.
April 10th, 2006 at 10:53 am
Yes, I’m hiding out from Johnny Law although with each new post, my anonymity slips away… and soon the jackbooted thugs will be knocking down my door…
I suppose I should look into making a friendly little contact mechanism to stuff into the template. Thanks for the wake up call. I’ll put it on my To Do list.
As for Moldova, that’s better news than vegetarians to a farm cow, I tell yew whut! Thanks for the update. Now I can feel guilt-free in postponing all tentative itineraries for one full year and circumvent their very lame (I’d like to racist, but it doesn’t quite work) entrance tax.