Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
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ASSR of the Ukrainian SSR | |||||||||
1924–1940 | |||||||||
Map of the Moldavian ASSR and territory claimed (hatched area) | |||||||||
Capital | |||||||||
Area | |||||||||
• 1926 | 7,516 km2 (2,902 sq mi) | ||||||||
• 1939 | 8,288 km2 (3,200 sq mi) | ||||||||
Population | |||||||||
• 1926 | 572,339 | ||||||||
• 1939 | 599,156 | ||||||||
Government | |||||||||
• Type | Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic | ||||||||
• Motto |
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First Secretary | |||||||||
• 1924–1928 | Iosif Badeev | ||||||||
• 1939–1940 | Pyotr Borodin | ||||||||
History | |||||||||
• Established | 12 October 1924 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 2 August 1940 | ||||||||
Political subdivisions | Rîbnița Raion Dubăsari Raion Tiraspol Raion Ananiv Raion | ||||||||
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Today part of | Moldova Ukraine |
The Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (
Creation
The active propagandist of idea in creation of Moldavian autonomy on territory of Ukrainian Transnistria was Russian revolutionary and a native of Bessarabia
Establishing the republic became a matter of dispute. Despite the objections of
On the other hand, Kotovski held that a new republic would spread Communist ideas into neighboring Bessarabia, with a chance that even Romania and the entire Balkans would be revolutionized. For the Soviets the republic was to be a way for winning over Bessarabians of Romania and the first step towards a revolution in Romania.[2] This purpose is explained in an article of the newspaper Odessa Izvestia in 1924, in which a Russian politician, Vadeev says that "all the oppressed Moldavians from Bessarabia look at the future Republic like at a lighthouse, which spreads the light of freedom and human dignity,"[3] as well as in a book published in Moscow, which claimed that "once the economic and cultural growth of Moldavia has begun, aristocracy-led Romania will not be able to maintain its hold on Bessarabia."[4] While the creation of ethnic-based autonomous republics was a general Soviet policy at that time, with the creation of the Moldavian ASSR, the Soviet Union also hoped to bolster its claim to Bessarabia.[5]
On March 7, 1924, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Ukraine recognized a political prudence in creation of autonomy, yet to the final untangling of the question it was decided to return after a careful ascertainment of situation in the region.[1] The debated question was about a form in meeting the interests of Moldavian population (autonomous republic, autonomous oblast, district, or raion).[1] Whereas in process of carried work it became clear that statistical data on the number of Moldavians presented by the Kotovsky's commission is inflated compared to official, on 18 April 1924 the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Ukraine approved to consider the creation of the autonomy inappropriate.[1] However, in Moscow this position was ignored.[1] The All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee (VUTsVK) yet went further and about a week later on 24 April 1924 it created the VUTsVK Central Commission on affairs of national minorities.[6]
Accepted on 29 July, the decision of the Central Committee of the
Geography
The Moldavian ASSR was created from a territory previously administered as parts of the
Initially (March 1924) organized as an oblast (Moldavian Autonomous Oblast), it had only four districts, all of them having a Moldavian majority:[8]
- Rîbnița – 48,748 inhabitants, of which 25,387 Moldavians – 52%
- Dubăsari – 57,371 inhabitants, of which 33,600 Moldavians – 58%
- Tiraspol – almost entirely Moldavians
- Ananiv – 45,545 inhabitants, of which 24,249 Moldavians – 53%
On 12 October 1924, the oblast was elevated to the status of an autonomous republic and included several other territories, including some with little Moldavian population, such as the Balta district (where the capital was located), which had only 2.52% Moldavians.
The official capital was proclaimed the "temporarily occupied city of
History
The Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was established inside the Ukrainian SSR, on 12 October 1924.[7]
The area was quickly industrialized, and because of the lack of a qualified workforce, a significant migration from other Soviet republics occurred, predominantly Ukrainians and Russians. In particular, in 1928, of 14,300 industrial workers only about 600 were Moldavians.[citation needed]
In 1925, the MASSR survived a famine.
In December 1927, Time reported a number of anti-Soviet uprisings among peasants and factory workers in Tiraspol and other cities (Mogilev-Podolskiy, Kamyanets-Podolskiy) of southern Ukrainian SSR. Troops from Moscow were sent to the region and suppressed the unrest, resulting in ca. 4000 deaths. The insurrections were at the time completely denied by the official Kremlin press.[10]
In 1932 and 1933 another famine, known as Holodomor in Ukraine, occurred, with tens of thousands of peasants dying of starvation. During the famine, thousands of inhabitants tried to escape over the Dniester, despite the threat of being shot.[11] The most notable such incident happened near the village Olănești on February 23, 1932, when 40 persons were shot. This was reported in European newspapers by survivors. The Soviet side reported this as an escape of "kulak elements subverted by Romanian propaganda."
On 30 October 1930, from an improvised studio in Tiraspol, started broadcasting in
Demographics
Moldavian ASSR had a mixed population, in which less than one third was Moldavian.[2] At its creation, its area was 7,516 km2 (2,902 sq mi) and included 11 raions on the left bank of Dniester.[7]
According to the 1926 Soviet census, the Republic had a population of 572,339,[14] of which:
Ethnic group |
census 1926 | 1936 | ||
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Number | % | Number | % | |
Ukrainians | 277,515 | 48.5% | 265,193 | 45.5% |
Moldavians | 172,419 | 30.1% | 184,046 | 31.6% |
Russians | 48,868 | 8.5% | 56,592 | 9.7% |
Jews | 48,564 | 8.5% | 45,620 | 7.8% |
Germans | 10,739 | 1.9% | 12,711 | 2.2% |
Bulgarians | 6,026 | 1.1% | ||
Poles | 4,853 | 0.8% | ||
Romani | 918 | 0.2% | ||
Romanians | 137 | 0.0% | ||
Other | 2,300 | 0.4% | 13,526 | 2.4% |
Total | 572,339 | 582,138 |
Despite this extensive territory allotted to the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, about 85,000 Moldavians remained in Ukraine outside the territory of MASSR.[2]
Promotion of Moldavian identity
The tenet that the
As part of the effort to keep the language in Soviet Moldavia ("Moldavian Socialist culture") far from Romanian influences ("Romanian bourgeois culture"), a reformed Cyrillic script was used to write the language, in contrast with the Latin script officially used in Romania. The linguist Leonid Madan was assigned the task of establishing a literary standard, based on the Moldavian dialects of Transnistria and Bessarabia, as well as Russian loanwords or Russian-based calque.
In 1932, when in the entire Soviet Union there was a trend to move all languages to the Latin script, the Latin script and literary Romanian language was introduced in Moldavian schools and public use. Madan's books were removed from libraries and destroyed. This movement, however, was short lived, and in the second half of the 1940s a new trend of moving languages to the Cyrillic script started in the Soviet Union.
In 1937, during the Soviet
This policy remained in effect until 1989. Use of Cyrillic is still enforced in Moldova's breakaway region of Transnistria, where it is claimed to be returning the language to its roots.
Ukrainian SSR |
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First level |
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Second level |
Third level |
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History of Moldova |
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Moldova portal |
Disbanding
On June 26, 1940 the Soviet government issued an ultimatum to the Romanian minister in Moscow, demanding Romania to immediately cede
On August 2, 1940, the Soviet Union established the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (Moldavian SSR), which consisted of six counties of Bessarabia joined with the westernmost part (with an area of 4,118 km2 (1,590 sq mi)[19]) of what had been the MASSR,[15] effectively dissolving it.
Head of Government
- Revkom
- October 1924 – April 1925 Griogriy Stary (also Borisov)
- Soviet People's Commissars
- April 25, 1925 – May 1926 Aleksey Stroyev
- May 1926 – 1928 Griogriy Stary
- 1928 – April 1932 Sergei Dmitriu
- April 1932 – June 1937 Griogriy Stary (arrested June 22, 1937)
- July 1938 – ? Fyodor Brovko
- February 1939 Georgiy Streshny
Chairmen of Council
- Central Executive Committee
- April 25, 1925 – May 1926 Griogriy Stary
- May 1926 – May 1937 Yevstafiy Voronovich (shot in 1937)
- May 1937 – July 1938 Georgiy Streshny (acting)
- Supreme Council
- July 1938 – 1940 Tikhon Konstantinov
See also
- Moldavia Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine
- Grigory Kotovsky
- Ecaterina Arbore
- Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Moldova
- Transnistria Governorate
- Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina
- Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic – an ASSR with similar purpose on the Soviet-Finnish frontier
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Vermenych, Ya. Moldavian ASSR (МОЛДАВСЬКА АРСР). Encyclopedia of History of Ukraine.
- ^ a b c King, p.54
- ^ Nistor, Vechimea... p.22, who cites Odessa Izvestia, 9 September 1924, no. 1429
- ^ King, p.54, who cites Bochacher, Moldaviia, Gosizdat, Moscow, 1926
- ^ Sidney & Beatrice Webb. Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation? Vol. I. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1936. p. 77. "This exclusively agricultural community... may perhaps be regarded as a lasting embodiment of the protest of the USSR against the Roumanian seizure of Bessarabia, which, it is hoped, may one day be enabled, as South Moldavia, to unite with the northern half of what is claimed to be a single community. With this view, the Moldavian Republic maintains a sovnarkom of People's Commissars, but is for many purposes dealt with as if it were merely an oblast of the Ukraine."
- ^ Yakubova, L. VUTsVK Central Commission on affairs of national minorities (ЦЕНТРАЛЬНА КОМІСІЯ У СПРАВАХ НАЦІОНАЛЬНИХ МЕНШИН ПРИ ВУЦВК). Encyclopedia of History of Ukraine. 2013
- ^ a b c King, p.52
- ^ Nistor, Vechimea... p.19, who cites Izvestia, 29 August 1924
- ^ King, p. 55
- ^ Disorder in the Ukraine?, Time, December 12, 1927
- ^ King, p. 51
- ^ Rodica Mahu, Radio Moldova se revendica de la Radio Tiraspol Archived 2013-05-21 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Radiofonie românească: Radio Basarabia – Cultură – Radio România Actualităţi Online". www.romania-actualitati.ro.
- ^ Nistor, Vechimea... p.4; King, p. 54
- ^ ISBN 0-8179-9792-X.
- ISBN 0-471-62406-3, p. 231
- ^ William Julian Lewis , The Warsaw Pact: Arms, Doctrine, and Strategy, Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, 1982, p.209
- ISBN 90-411-0582-4, p. 79
- ISSN 2345-1130. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
References
- Charles King, The Moldovans: Romania, Russia, and the Politics of Culture, Hoover Institution Press, 2000
- (in Romanian) Elena Negru – Politica etnoculturală în RASS Moldovenească(Ethnocultural policy in Moldavian ASSR), Prut International publishing house, Chişinău 2003
- (in Romanian) Ion Nistor, Vechimea așezărilor românești dincolo de Nistru, București: Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului, Imprimeria Națională, 1939
Further reading
- King, Charles (March 1998). "Ethnicity and institutional reform: The dynamics of "indigenization" in the Moldovan ASSR". S2CID 153556366.