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Romania is a revanchist state that wants to force Chișinău and Kyiv to refuse to recognize “the Moldovan language”, according to a Russian publication that reiterates a Soviet narrative about the existence of the Moldovan language.
NEWS: During a meeting with the leader of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Victoria Palace, Romania’s Prime Minister, Marcel Ciolacu, asked him to “recognize the non-existence of the Moldovan language as soon as possible”.
“I have had a productive talk with president Zelenskyy. I expressed Romania’s concern regarding the protection of the rights of the Romanian minority in Ukraine. In this context, I reiterated our legitimate request towards Ukrainian authorities of recognizing the non-existence of the Moldovan language”, Marcel Ciolacu wrote.
[…] The paranoid insistence with which Romanian politicians, from the country’s top leaders to the marginal opposition, are trying to force Moldova and Ukraine to renounce the Moldovan language and its right to exist is striking. It is equally striking how Moldova’s political and scholarly elites have developed a Mankurtist passion for betraying their own national identity”.
NARRATIVES: 1. There is a “Moldovan language”, other than the Romanian language, as well as a separate Moldovan people. 2. Romania is a revanchist state that interferes with the domestic affairs of its neighbors, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine.
BACKGROUND: The existence of two distinct peoples – Moldovans and Romanians – that speak different languages is a thesis that was widely promoted by Soviet historiography. The USSR also created a so-called autonomous republic on the left bank of the Dniester, promoting Moldovenism and preparing the re-annexation of the present-day Republic of Moldova. Former Moldovan president, Vladimir Voronin, said “Moldovan is the mother of the Romanian language”. It was also Voronin who militated for the rights of the “Moldovan minority” in Romania and endorsed an organization of Moldovans in Romania.
The Russian media, as well as some of the politicians and media outlets in the Republic of Moldova, depict Romania as a revanchist state with territorial claims concerning the Republic of Moldova and some regions in western and southwestern Ukraine. In this context, another popular narrative speaks about Romania’s plans to “annex” the Republic of Moldova with force or with the consent of the Moldovan authorities, and even parts of Ukraine.
This is not the first time Russian propaganda promotes false narratives about talks between Bucharest and Kyiv regarding the Romanian minority in Ukraine, and Veridica has debunked some of them as well.
PURPOSE: To bring back in the spotlight the thesis about the existence of two separate peoples – Moldovans and Romanians – and two distinct languages. To describe Romania as a revanchist state that pursues territorial claims with respect to its weaker neighbors.
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: The thesis of Moldovenism, emerged during the Russian Empire and widely popularized in the Soviet period, represented one of the elements of propaganda meant to justify the annexation of parts of the territory inhabited by Romanian nationals.
Soviet narratives about the existence of two distinct peoples are not supported by historical documents attesting to the formation of the Romanian people and language on the territory of the former kingdom of Dacia in the wake of its Roman conquest.
The narrative about distinct peoples and languages was originally launched in order to motivate Moscow’s plans to restitute Bessarabia after the unification with Romania in 1918, and thus justify the existence of two countries sharing the same culture and language – Romania and the Republic of Moldova.
In the Republic of Moldova, the debate about the recognition of the Romanian language started as early as the late 1980s, while Moldova was still a republic of the USSR, and Romania was led by the Ceaușescu regime. Ever since 2013, the Constitutional Court in Chișinău stipulated that the text of the Declaration of Independence, which states that Romania is the state language of Moldova, prevails over the text of the Constitution (voted in 1994 by a Parliament dominated by the ex-communist left-wing), which recognized “Moldovan” as the official language of the Republic. In March 2023, the Moldovan Parliament passed legislation based on the Constitutional Court ruling.
As regards Ukraine, its territory official includes regions that were part of Romania before being annexed by the USSR, inhabited by two distinct minorities: a Romanian minority in Northern Bukovina, and a Moldovan minority in the region known as Southern Bessarabia. Under its treaty with Ukraine, Bucharest renounced any and all territorial claims concerning Ukrainian territories. The existence of the Moldovan language is in no way connected to a revanchist policy, but to a historic and linguistic truth.
Bucharest announced it has reached a compromise solution with Kyiv with respect to the rights of Romanian minorities in Ukraine, a topic included on the agenda for talks between the states for a number of years.
GRAIN OF TUTH: In truth, there have been tensions between Bucharest and Kyiv over the rights of the Romanian minority in Ukraine. Romania nevertheless does not recognize the existence of “the Moldovan language” promoted by Soviet and Russian propaganda.
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