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Revision as of 17:46, 4 June 2006 by Constantzeanu (talk | contribs) (reverted boni's pov - please man, you are really not helping.)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) For other uses, see Moldovans (disambiguation). Ethnic group| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Moldova: 2,741,849 (2004) (Transnistria included) Romania: in the range of millions ( note that here, Moldovans tend to consider themselves Romanians) Ukraine: 258,619 (2001) Russia: 172,330 (2002) Kazakhstan: 19,458 (1999) Belarus: 4,300 (1999) Kyrgyzstan: 778 (1999) Tajikistan: 300 (2000) | |
| Languages | |
| Moldovan/Romanian | |
| Religion | |
| Predominantly Eastern Orthodox. | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| • Vlachs • Aromanians |
The term Moldovan denotes the autochtnous population of the territory of the former Principality of Moldavia which now predominantly resides in Romania, the Republic of Moldova, and Ukraine.
The recognition of Moldovans as a separate ethnicity, distinct from Romanians, is a relatively new and controversial subject. Before the anexation of Bessarabia by the USSR in 1940, there was no such thing as a Moldovan ethnic group. Today, this group is recognized as a minority ethnic group particularly by several former Soviet countries. Presently, the greatest number of people who declared their ethnicity as Moldovan live in the Republic of Moldova, where they comprise 76.1% of the population, although a group of international census experts has identified some problems in the collection of data for this census, particluarly in the domain of nationality (i.e. Romanian vs. Moldovan) and language. The problem they identified was that many respondents were encouraged to state that they were "Moldovans" rather then Romanians. What is also unclear is the fact that many of the respondents that indicated "Moldovan" actually might not consider the term Moldovan as an identity sepparate from Romanian. In Ukraine, they constitute a recognized ethnic minority of 0.53% (7.28% in Chernivtsi Oblast and 5.01% in Odessa Oblast).
Not everyone, however, agrees that Moldovans are a distinct ethnic group, even inside the Republic of Moldova itself. For example, in Romania, despite its proximity to Moldova, no Moldovan ethnicity has been reported in the 2002 census, and the Romanian government as well as various other states do not recognize the existence of a Moldovan ethnic group.
The reasons behind this is that Moldovans in the territories of modern Romania and Moldova were considered to form a subgroup of the Romanian ethnos along with the Transylvanians, Oltenians, etc., rather than constitute a separate ethnic group until the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia in the 1940s, which led to the formation of the Moldovan SSR. 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. Numerous Romanians, as well as a large part of the Moldovan populace, claim that external interference led to Moldova's increasingly separate identity rather than any actual differences.
Certain Moldovans have pressed for recognition of an ethnic Moldovan identity, separate from that of Romanians. Nevertheless, in the 2004 Moldovan Census, about 40% of the population of Moldova (55% of all Moldovans and Romanians in Moldova) reported Romanian as a native tongue, rather than Moldovan. Some differences include denominational affiliation, as under the Soviet regime the Orthodox Church of Bessarabia was transferred from the Romanian Orthodox Church to the Russian Orthodox Church. However, immediately after Moldova broke off the USSR, the Romanian Orthodox Church reorganized the Moldovan Metropolitan Church under its authority, forming the autonomous Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia (Romanian/Moldovan: "Mitropolia Basarabiei"). Moldovans are now split between Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia and the Metropolitan Church of Chisinau and the Whole Moldova which depends on the Russian Patriarchate.
References
- 2004 census results in Moldova
- 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.
- , , , 2001 census results in Ukraine
- 2002 census results in Romania
- Critics of the the 2004 Moldovan Census (and of those of other former Soviet countries) suggest that many who declared their ethnicity as Moldovan rather than Romanian may have done so due to a misunderstanding of the question asked, and/or due to social pressure or direct pressure from enumerators.