Misplaced Pages

Moldovenism

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Glebbukov (talk | contribs) at 04:24, 1 December 2008. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 04:24, 1 December 2008 by Glebbukov (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

Moldovenism is a term sometimes used to refer to the political view that asserts a Moldovans to be a distinct nation separate from Romanians. It is used primarily by critics of such views.

Moldovenism in independent Moldova

The debate surrounding the nationality of the Moldovans has resurfaced after the collapse of the USSR. One side argues that Moldovans have always been Romanians, with the region's modern history separate from Romania. The other side emphasizes the distinctiveness of Moldovans. Some argue that Moldovans have always been separate from Wallachians and that the Moldovans from Moldova and Romania thus form a common ethnic group distinct from the other peoples known as Romanians; others state that the Moldovans from Bessarabia have changed due to their long isolation from Romania and that nearly two centuries of political separation was "more than ample time for each country to develop its own separate national identity"

A 2001 survey by American professor William Crowther, showed that 87% of the Romance-speaking population of Moldova considers itself "Moldovan", rather than the "Romanian".

On 19 December 2003, the Moldovan Parliament, dominated by the Communist Party of Moldova, adopted a document called "The Concept on National Policy of the Republic of Moldova", which defines the official nationality policy of Moldova. The document revolves around the following ideas:

  • there are two different peoples (Romanians and Moldovans) that live in both Moldova and Romania, speaking two different languages, Romanian and Moldovan.
  • Romanians are an ethnic minority in Moldova.
  • the Republic of Moldova is the rightful successor of the medieval Principality of Moldova.

This document has been criticised by the pro-Romanian press and authors for being "anti-European" and also "contradicting Article V of the Moldovan Constitution", that states that "no ideology may be pronounced as official ideology of the State".

See also

Notes

  1. "Moldovan: An Identity but not a Language"
  2. Charles King, "The Moldovans: Romania, Russia, and the Politics of Culture", Hoover Press, 2000, pg. 159
  3. Gribincea A., Grecu, M. The Concept on National Policy of the Republic of Moldova UNHCR.

References

Further reading

Categories: