Moldova
Ethnic groups represented in Moldova include Moldovan/Romanian,
Ukrainian, Russian, Gagauz, and Bulgarian. Romanian (officially
known as Moldovan) is the official language; Russian, Ukrainian, and
Gagauz also are spoken. The great majority of Moldova's population
is Christian Orthodox--90% of the population nominally belongs to
one of the two main Orthodox denominations. The Moldovan Orthodox
Church, an autonomous diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church and
loyal to the Patriarch of Moscow, has 1,281 component parts,
including churches, monasteries, and other buildings; the
Bessarabian Orthodox Church, affiliated with the Romanian Orthodox
Patriarchate in Bucharest, has 309 component parts. In addition,
followers of the Old Rite Russian Orthodox Church (Old Believers)
have 15. The government does not seek out or record the number of
adherents of religious organizations. |
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The Republic of Moldova occupies most of what has been known as
Bessarabia. Moldova's location has made it a historic passageway
between Asia and southern Europe, as well as the victim of frequent
warfare. Greeks, Romans, Huns, and Bulgars invaded the area, which
in the 13th century became part of the Mongol empire. An independent
Moldovan state emerged briefly in the 14th century under celebrated
leader Stefan the Great but subsequently fell under Ottoman Turkish
rule in the 16th century.
After the Russo-Turkish War of 1806-12, the eastern half of Moldova
(Bessarabia) between the Prut and the Dniester Rivers was ceded to
Russia, while Romanian Moldavia (west of the Prut) remained with the
Turks. Romania, which gained independence in 1878, took control of
Russian-ruled Bessarabia in 1918. The Soviet Union never recognized
the action and created an autonomous Moldavian republic on the east
side of the Dniester River in 1924.
In 1940, Romania was forced to cede Bessarabia to the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.), which established the
Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic by merging the autonomous
republic east of the Dniester and the annexed Bessarabian portion.
Stalin also stripped the three southern counties along the Black Sea
coast from Moldova and incorporated them in the Ukrainian Soviet
Socialist Republic. Romania sought to regain Bessarabia by joining
with Germany in the 1941 attack on the Soviet Union. On June 22,
1941, German and Romanian troops crossed the border and deportations
of the Jews from Bessarabia began immediately. By September 1941
most of the Jews of Bessarabia and Bukovina had been transported in
convoys and force marched to concentration camps in Transnistria.
About 185,000 Jews were in the Transnistria area in concentration
camps by 1942 in abysmal conditions. Very few were left alive in
these camps when the Soviets reoccupied Bessarabia in 1944.
In September 1990, the Supreme Soviet elected Mircea Snegur as
President of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Moldova. A former
Communist Party official, he endorsed independence from the Soviet
Union and actively sought Western recognition. On May 23, 1991, the
Supreme Soviet renamed itself the Parliament of the Republic of
Moldova, which subsequently declared its independence from the
U.S.S.R.
In August 1991, Moldova's transition to democracy initially had been
impeded by an ineffective Parliament, the lack of a new
constitution, a separatist movement led by the Gagauz (Christian
Turkic) minority in the south, and unrest in the Transnistria region
on the left bank of the Nistru/Dniester River, where a separatist
movement declared a "Transdniester Moldovan Republic" in September
1990. The Russian 14th Army intervened to stem widespread violence
and support the Transnistrian regime which is led by supporters of
the 1991 coup attempt in Moscow. In 1992, the government negotiated
a cease-fire arrangement with Russian and Transnistrian officials,
although tensions continue, and negotiations are ongoing. In
February 1994, new legislative elections were held, and the
ineffective Parliament that had been elected in 1990 to a 5-year
term was replaced. A new constitution was adopted in July 1994. The
conflict with the Gagauz minority was defused by the granting of
local autonomy in 1994. |
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