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Moldovans, or Moldavians (original name: Moldoveni; Молдовень is used by the Moldovan Cyrillic script, which nowadays has official status only in Transnistria) are the native population in, depending on one's interpretation, all or part of the lands that correspond to the former Principality of Moldavia. In the Republic of Moldova, the term Moldovans is used to officially denote an ethnicity separate from Romanians.

The recognition of Moldovans as a separate ethnicity, distinct from Romanians, is nevertheless a relatively new and controversial subject (See the chapter Controversy). Outside of the Moldovan Republic, this group is currently recognized as a minority ethnic group only by several former soviet republics.

Population

The majority of Moldovans live in Romania, where they represent the Romanian population of the counties which belonged to the former Principality of Moldavia: Suceava, Botoşani, Neamţ, Iaşi, Bacău, Vaslui, Vrancea and Galaţi. On the Romanian census from 2002 4,577,139 Romanians were counted here. During the Communist era many Moldovans migrated to industrial centers from other parts of Romania, so that the real number of Moldovans might be even higher. Some estimations count the number of Moldovans in Romania at around 6-7 million, and the Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin spoke of 10 million Moldovans living in the neighbour country, though this number is likely exaggerated

Moldovans constitute 76.1% of the population of Moldova.. In the schismatic region Transnistria in the eastern part of the country, they compose a relative ethnic majority with 31.9% of the population.

The 2001 census in Ukraine counted 258,600 Moldovans, as well as 151,000 Romanians, who may or may not be counted together (see the controversy section below).

History

Prior to the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia in the 1940s, which led to the formation of the Moldovan SSR Moldovans in the territories of modern Romania and Moldova were considered to form a subgroup or regional group of the Romanian ethnos along with Transylvanians, Oltenians, etc. A series of Soviet propaganda campaigns attempted to erase the links between Moldova and Romania in order to dissuade any ideas of re-unification of the two states, including an emphasized 'distinct' Moldovan language, history, culture etc. and the claim that Moldovans constitute a separate ethnic group.

The official Soviet policy on the Moldovan language and identity was not constant: there were two intervals (1932-1937 and in the mid-1950s) during which the Soviet scholars declared the unity between the two languages.

Numerous Romanians, as well as a large part of the Moldovan populace, claim that external interference rather than any actual differences led to Moldova's increasingly separate identity. Despite this, certain Moldovans have pressed for recognition of an ethnic Moldovan identity, separate from that of Romanians. In the 2004 census, out of the 3,383,332 people living in Moldova, 16.5% (558,508) chose Romanian as their mother tongue, whereas 60% chose Moldovan. While 40% of all urban Romanian/Moldovan speakers chose Romanian as their mother tongue, in the countryside this percentage was just under 15.

Religion

Some differences between Moldovans and Romanians include denominational affiliation, as under Soviet rule the Orthodox Church of Bessarabia was transferred from the Romanian Orthodox Church to the Russian Orthodox Church. However, immediately after Moldova declared independence from the Soviet Union, the Romanian Orthodox Church reorganized the Moldovan Metropolitan Church under its authority, forming the autonomous Metropolis of Bessarabia (Romanian/Moldovan: "Mitropolia Basarabiei"). Moldovans are now split between the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia and the Metropolis of Chişinău and Moldova which depends on the Russian Patriarchate.

Moldovan ethnos theory and the Romanian identity

In the past, the term Moldavian/Moldovan has been used to refer to the population of the historical Principality of Moldavia. Nevertheless, after 1924, Soviet sociologists began using the term to demonstrate the distinctiveness of the natives of Bessarabia, in a movement called Moldovenism. On December 19, 2003, the Moldovan Parliament adopted "The Concept on National Policy of the Republic of Moldova" which critics have accused is a revival of the Soviet-style Moldovenist theories. The document states that Moldovans and Romanians are two distinct peoples and speak two different languages, Romanians form an ethnic minority in Moldova, and that the Republic of Moldova is the legitimate successor to the Principality.

Today, Moldovans are recognized as an ethnic group by several CIS countries. Presently, the largest number of people who declared their ethnicity as Moldovan live in the Republic of Moldova, where according to the 2004 Census, they comprise 76.1% of the population. In Ukraine, according to that country's census in 2001, Moldovans constitute a recognized ethnic minority of 0.53% (7.28% in Chernivtsi Oblast and 5.01% in Odessa Oblast).

Controversy

The issue is an extremely sensitive and controversial one. Even within the Republic of Moldova there is disagreement on whether Moldovans represent a distinct ethnic group, as demonstrated by the political platforms of parties such as the PPCD. In Romania, despite its proximity to Moldova, no Moldovan ethnicity was reported in the 2002 census, as Moldovans are understood to be a regional Romanian subgroup that lives in the Romanian historical province of Moldavia. The Romanian government as well as various other states do not recognize the existence of a Moldovan ethnic group. In the CIA World Factbook. a single entry "Moldovan/Romanian" is used. A group of international census experts observing the census had stated that "the census had been generally conducted in a professional manner", however, they also identified certain problems in the collection of data for this census, particularly in the domain of nationality (that is, Romanian vs. Moldovan) and language. These experts claim that census enumerators have often encouraged respondents to declare that they were "Moldovans" rather than "Romanians". They also declared that the chapters concerning about the spoken language and the ethnic affiliation can't be veridic.

See also

• Ethnogenesis

Notes

1. "Foreign citizens. Resident Population" (2006) at the Istituto nazionale di statistica
2. 2002 Census Results in Romania
3. Official Chisinau Seeks Recognition Of Moldovan Ethnicity And Minority In Romania (February 28, 2007)
4. ^ 2004 census results in Moldova
5. ^ , , , 2001 census results in Ukraine
6. King, pg. 2
7. ^ King, pg. 3
8. Michael Bruchis. The Language Policy of the CPSU and the Linguistic Situation in Soviet Moldavia, in Soviet Studies, Vol. 36, No. 1. (Jan., 1984), pp. 119.
9. National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova: Census 2004
10. Gribincea A., Grecu, M. The Concept on National Policy of the Republic of Moldova UNHCR.
11. 2002 census results in Romania
12. The Moldovan identity is understood as purely regional in Romania, like Transylvanian, Oltenian or Dobrudjan.
13. Moldova CIA World Factbook. Retrieved 2002, 07-17
14. Experts Offering to Consult the National Statistics Bureau in Evaluation of the Census Data, Moldova Azi, May 19, 2005, story attributed to AP Flux. Retrieved October 11, 2005.
15. BBC, 29 Nov. 2007

References

• King, C. The Moldovans: Romania, Russia and the Politics of Culture, Hoover Institution Press, 2000, ISBN 0-8179-9792-X.

• Ethnic groups in Europe
• Moldovan society
• Romanian society
• Romance peoples