The ambivalence of authenticity, or how the Moldovan language was made

Slavic Review

Volumn 58, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 118-141

  King, Charles ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 53149136229     PISSN: 00376779     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/2672992     Document Type: Article

References (154)

1. Susan Gross Solomon, "The Soviet-German Syphilis Expedition to Buriat Mongolia, 1928: Scientific Research on National Minorities," Slavic Review 52, no. 2 (Summer 1993): 204-32;
2. Yuri Slezkine, "From Savages to Citizens: The Cultural Revolution in the Soviet Far North, 1928-1938," Slavic Review 51, no. 1 (Spring 1992): 52-76;
3. Yuri Slezkine, "The USSR as a Communal Apartment, or How a Socialist State Promoted Ethnic Particularism," Slavic Review 53, no. 2 (Summer 1994): 414-52;
4. Michael Smith, "The Eurasian Imperative in Early Soviet Language Planning: Russian Linguists at the Service of the Nationalities," in Susan Gross Solomon, ed., Beyond Sovietology: Essays in Politics and History (Armonk, N.Y., 1993), 159-91.
5. See Charles King, "Moldovan Identity and the Politics of Pan-Romanianism," Slavic Review 53, no. 2 (Summer 1994): 345-68;
6. William Crowther, "The Politics of Democratization in Postcommunist Moldova," in Karen Dawisha and Bruce Parrott, eds., Democratic Changes and Authoritarian Reactions in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova (Cambridge, Eng., 1997), 282-329;
7. Tom Gallagher, Romania after Ceauşescu: The Politics of Intolerance (Edinburgh, 1995), 185-90.
8. For western treatments of Soviet Moldova, see Michael Bruchis, One Step Back, Two Steps Forward: On the Language Policy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the National Republics (Moldavian: A Look Back, a Survey, and Perspectives, 1924-1980) (Boulder, Colo., 1982);
9. and Nicholas Dima, From Moldavia to Moldova: The Soviet-Romanian Territorial Dispute (Boulder, Colo., 1991).
10. On identity debates within the historiographical literature, see Wim P. van Meurs, The Bessarabian Question in Communist Historiography (Boulder, Colo., 1994).
11. The most important treatment written by both Moldovan and Romanian authors is loan Scurtu, et al., Istoria Basarabiei, 2d ed. (Bucharest, 1998).
12. The only western study of cultural policy in the MASSR is Klaus Heitmann, "Rumänische Sprache und Literatur in Bessarabien und Transnistrien (die sogenannte moldauische Sprache und Literatur)," Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie 81 (1965): 102-56.
13. Heitmann's treatment, however, was based almost entirely on the highly inaccurate work of N. P. Smochinǎ, "Republica Moldoveneascǎ a Sovietelor," Moldova nouǎ 1, no. 1 (1935): 3-55,
14. and N. P. Smochinǎ, "Moldova nouǎ 1, nos. 2-3 (1935): 131-237;
15. and N. P. Smochinǎ, Republica Moldoveneascǎ a Sovietelor (Bucharest, 1938)
16. . 5. For evidence of the use of the ethnic designation "Moldovan," see the travelers' accounts in Charles Upson Clark, Bessarabia: Russia and Roumania on the Black Sea (New York, 1927);
17. Charles Upson Clark, United Romania (New York, 1932);
18. Em. de Martonne, What I Have Seen in Bessarabia (Paris, 1919);
19. Henry Baerlein, Bessarabia and Beyond (London, 1935);
20. Henry Baerlein, In Old Romania (London, 1940).
21. For representative critiques of the lack of Romanian national consciousness among Moldovans, see Arhimandritul Gurie, "Moldovene, învatcombining dot belowǎ-te a te pretcombining dot belowui," România nouǎ, 4 February 1918, 1;
22. Cassian R. Munteanu, Prin Basarabia româneascǎ: Însemnǎri de cǎlǎtorie (Lugoj, 1919);
23. Porfirie Fala, Ce neam suntem? O lǎmurire pentru Moldovenii din Basarabia (Chişinǎu, 1920);
24. T. Vicol, "Constǎtari triste," Basarabia: Ziar sǎptǎmǎnal independent, 18 December 1924, 1;
25. I. Zaborovschi, "Basarabia: Câte-va precizǎri istorice," Viatcombining dot belowa Basarabiei (Journal), 1, no. 2 (1932): 25-28;
26. Al. Terziman, "Mizeria culturalǎ în Basarabia," Viatcombining dot belowa Basarabiei (newspaper), 9 June 1933, 1;
27. and Ion Pelivan, Sǎ vorbim româneşte (Chişinǎu, 1938)
28. . 6. The creation of a single Romanian state ushered in a period of intense nation-building, a struggle to create a unified Romanian nation from peoples and territories that had spent the past century or more under Hungarian, Austrian, Russian, Bulgarian, or Turkish rule. On the difficulties of nation-building between the wars, including in Bessarabia, see the magnificently rich account by Irina Livezeanu, Cultural Politics in Greater Romania: Regionalism, Nation Building, and Ethnic Struggle (Ithaca, 1995).
29. The MASSR was formed on 12 October 1924, on the east bank of the Dnestr River. Although ostensibly a form of self-determination for ethnic Moldovans, the MASSR's 1926 population of 572,114 was nearly 49 percent Ukrainian and only 30.1 percent Moldovan. The remainder was composed of Russians (9 percent), Jews (8 percent), Germans (2 percent), Bulgarians (1 percent), and other nationalities. Some 85,000 Moldovans remained outside the MASSR in other parts of Ukraine. Vsesoiuznaia perepis' naseleniia 1926 goda (Moscow, 1929), 13:39;
30. Moldova: Materialile statistice (Balta, 1928), 304.
31. Antony Babel, La Bessarabie: Étude historique, ethnographique et économique (Paris, 1926), 212n1;
32. Gh. Tǎtǎrescu, Internatcombining dot belowionalǎ a III-a şi Basarabia (Bucharest, 1925), 30-34.
33. See also the extensive treatment by the Romanian secret police inspector general for Bessarabia, Z. I. Husǎrescu, Mişcarea subversivǎ în Basarabia (Chişinǎu, 1925).
34. For these arguments, see Nicolae Titulescu, "Two Neighbours of Russia and Their Policies: (I) Roumania and Bessarabia," Nineteenth Century and After 95 (June 1924): 791-803.
35. The extent of the Moldovan "ethnic space" was always rather confusing in Soviet parlance. The area of the medieval Principality of Moldova actually stretched from the Carpathian Mountains to the Dnestr River, a region that had historically included Bessarabia but not Transnistria. Soviet scholars and propagandists were divided over the degree to which the boundaries of Soviet Moldova should mirror those of the historic Moldova region.
36. Nicolae Movileanu and Boris Stratulat, "Cherez prizmu dokumentov," Moldova i mir, 1992, nos. 6-7:30.
37. On this issue, see Obrazovanie Moldavskoi SSR i sozdanie Kommunisticheskoi Partii Moldavii: Sbornik dokumentov i materialov (Chişinǎu, 1984), 104-5;
38. V. Dembo, Sovetskaia Moldaviia i bessarabskii vopros (Moscow, 1925), 38;
39. V. Dembo, Respublika bez stolytsi: Radians'ka Moldavshchyna - AMSRR (Khar'kov, 1930), 22;
40. and Kul'turne budivnytstvo na Moldavii (Balta, 1929), 13.
41. A. Repida, Obrazovanie Moldavskoi ASSR (Chişinǎu, 1974), 112.
42. See also the map in M. N. Bochacher, Moldaviia (Moscow, 1926), 58. The "provisional" capital was moved to Tiraspol in 1929.
43. "Cuvîntaria lui t. Zatonski la plenumu Comobului PK(b)U," Moldova socialistǎ, 24 May 1931, 1.
44. See also Hamilton Fish Armstrong, The New Balkans (New York, 1926), 153.
45. Henning Bauer, Andreas Kappeler, and Brigitte Roth, eds., Die Nationalitäten des russischen Reiches in der Volkszählung von 1897 (Stuttgart, 1991), 1:183.
46. O. S. Lukianets, Russkie issledovateli i moldavskaia etnograficheskaia nauka v XIX-nachale XX v. (Chişinǎu, 1986), 93. It is a myth, perpetuated in much Romanian historiography, that the Russian tsarist authorities attempted to create a separate Moldovan identity to keep Bessarabia separate from Romania. That identity already existed.
47. See Viktor Garskii, Trudovaia Bessarabiia isovetskaia vlast' (Moscow, 1921).
48. K. N. Derzhavin, "Literaturnoe stroitel'stvo v sotsialisticheskoi Moldavii," Trudy Instituta slavianovedeniia Akademii Nauk SSSR, 1932, no. 1:239-96.
49. The distinction between "corpus planning" and "status planning" (determining the appropriate use of different languages in government, education, and other spheres) is analogous to the distinction made in Soviet linguistics between "language construction" (iazykovoe stroitel'stvo) and "language policy" (iazykovaia politika). See M. I. Isaev, Sotsiolingvisticheskie problemy iazykov narodov SSSR (Moscow, 1982).
50. See, for example, Lazar Şaineanu, Dictcombining dot belowionar universal al limbei române, 5th ed. (Bucharest, 1925);
51. I. Aurel Candrea-Hecht and Gh. Adamescu, Dictcombining dot belowionarul enciclopedic ilustrat "Cartea Româneascǎ" (Bucharest, 1931).
52. "Protokol zasedaniia Moldavskogo Nauchnogo Komiteta ot 14/II-1930," Arhiva Organizatcombining dot belowiilor Social-Politice a Republicii Moldova, Chişinǎu (hereafter AOSPRM), f. 49, op. 2, d. 42, l. 1.
53. P. I. Chior, Dispri orfografia lingii moldovineşti (Bîrzula, 1929), 11. For similar views, see also "Protokol V-ogo ob''edinennogo Plenuma Moldavskogo Obkoma i Ob. KK KP/ b/U," AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 1, d. 516, ll. 1-101. The description of Romanian as a "gallicized salon language" (ofrantsuzhennyi salonnyi iazyk) remained standard in Soviet Moldovan publications into the 1970s.
54. See, for example, A. M. Lazarev, Moldavskaia sovetskaia gosudarstvennost' i bessarabskii vopros (Chişinǎu, 1974), 275. Interestingly, some Romanian authors made precisely the same argument in criticizing their own government's policy in Bessarabia.
55. See Al. David, "Scrisul românesc în Basarabia," Viatcombining dot belowa Basarabiei (newspaper), 17 November 1932, 1;
56. V. Prisacaru, "Sa ne cinstim limba!" Viatcombining dot belowa Basarabiei (newspaper), 23 September 1933, 1.
57. AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 2, d. 42, ll. 7, 9. The principalities of Wallachia and Moldova united in 1859 to form the precursor of modern Romania.
58. L. Pechenaia, Douî lageri - douî politişi: Dispri zîdiria natcombining dot belowîonalo-culturnicî 'n R.A.S.S.M. şî staria 'n Basarabia ocupatî (Tiraspol, 1931).
59. M. V. Sergievskii, Moldavskie etiudy (Moscow, 1936), 11.
60. Chior, Dispri, 3; AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 1, d. 516, l. 62.
61. Chior, Dispri, 15.
62. AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 1, d. 516, ll. 51, 95-97.
63. G. Buciuşcanu, Gramatica limbii moldoveneşti (Balta, 1925);
64. G. Buciuşcanu, Slovar moldovo-rusesc (Balta, 1926);
65. Buciuşcanu, Slovar ruso-moldovenesc (Balta, 1926). The Buciuşcanu texts, in addition to containing numerous typographical errors, were criticized by the party leadership as being too "Romanian" in their orientation, even though they used the Cyrillic script. "Protokol zasedaniia Komissii po rassmotreniiu grammatiki moldavskogo iazyka ot 26 marta 1926 goda," AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 1, d. 776, ll. 2-3.
66. A fully functioning Moldovan Academy of Sciences was not inaugurated until August 1961. On the various stages from the MSC to the creation of the academy, see O. Iu. Tarasov, "Iz istorii organizatsii pervykh nauchnykh tsentrov v Sovetskoi Moldavii," in XXV s''ezd KPSS i problemy razvitiia nauki (Chişinǎu, 1977), 20-30;
67. O. Iu. Tarasov, Ocherki istorii organizatsii nauki v Sovetskoi Moldavii (1924-1961) (Chişinǎu, 1980);
68. V. I. Tsaranov, "Razvitie istoricheskoi nauki v Moldavskoi SSR," in V. I. Tsaranov, ed., Istoricheskaia nauka Sovetskoi Moldavii: K 60-letiiu obrazovaniia Moldavskoi SSR i sozdaniia Kompartii respubliki (Chişinǎu, 1984), 5-22.
69. "Polozhenie o Moldavskom Nauchnom Komitete pri Narkomprose AMSSR," AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 1, d. 951, l. 35.
70. Nicolae Movileanu, "Din istoria Transnistriei (1924-40) (II)," unpublished manuscript.
71. Tarasov, Ocherki, 22; "Spisok - MNK," AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 1, d. 1249, l. 28;
72. D. E. Shemiakov and V. P. Isak, eds., Luptǎtori pentru fericiria poporului (Chişinǎu, 1985), 145.
73. "Schimbǎrili în gramatica moldoviniascî, înǎriti di Comitetu di Ştiintcombining dot belowî Moldovinesc dipi lîngî Comissariatu di Luninaria Obştiascî di RASSM în şǎdintcombining dot belowa dila 26 iulii 1927," AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 1, d. 1019, l. 16.
74. L. A. Madan, Gramatica moldovniascî (Tiraspol, 1929), xiii-xvi.
75. L. A. Madan, Gramatica moldovniascî Ibid., xi.
76. For an excellent overview of linguistic theory and its relationship to nationalities policy, see Michael G. Smith, "Soviet Language Frontiers: The Structural Method in Early Language Reforms, 1917-1937" (Ph.D. diss., Georgetown University, 1991).
77. AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 2, d. 42, ll. 2-3.
78. Ibid., l. 3.
79. Madan, Gramatica, xii.
80. AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 2, d. 42, l. 2. For a similar situation regarding Uzbek identity, see William Fierman, "Language Development in Soviet Uzbekistan," in Isabelle T. Kreindler, ed., Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Soviet National Languages: Their Past, Present, and Future (Berlin, 1985), 205-33.
81. Madan, Gramatica, xii.
82. On the complex history of Romanian as a literary language, see Elizabeth Close, The Development of Modern Rumanian: Linguistic Theory and Practice in Muntenia, 1821-1838 (New York, 1974).
83. See Stepan Martsell, Rossiisko-rumynskaia grammatika (St. Petersburg, 1827);
84. Ia. Ginkulov, Nachertanie pravil valakho-moldavskoi grammatiki (St. Petersburg, 1840);
85. Mihail Ciachir, Russko-moldavskii slovar" (Chişinǎu, 1907).
86. The most important ethnographic study of Moldovan speech patterns before World War I was Gustav Weigand, Die Dialekte der Bukowina und Bessarabiens (mit einem Titelbilde und Musikbeilagen) (Leipzig, 1904), a bourgeois scholar often cited by the Soviets for his attempts to catalogue the differences between Moldovan speech forms and standard Romanian.
87. See the discussions of this practice in "Fratcombining dot belowi Moldoveni, învǎtcombining dot belowatcombining dot belowi slova latinǎ," Viatcombining dot belowa Basarabiei (newspaper), 1 February 1925, 1.
88. Madan, Gramatica, xii.
89. Madan, Gramatica, Ibid., ix.
90. Pavel Chior, "Natsional'nyi vopros na Moldavii," manuscript, AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 1, d. 1352, l. 6.
91. Ibid., ll. 6-7.
92. P. Chior, "Pe drumul moldovenizǎrii," Plugarul roş, 8 December 1926, 2.
93. Chior, "Natsional'nyi vopros," 1. 7.
94. Chior, "Natsional'nyi vopros," Ibid., 1. 14.
95. See the lists of new words and protocols from various meetings of the Linguistics Section of the MSC in AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 1, d. 1817, l. 2; f. 49, op. 2, d. 44, ll. 1-22; d. 43, ll. 2-43.
96. AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 1, d. 516, l. 53.
97. Chior, Dispri, 13.
98. Chior, Dispri, Ibid., 15.
99. Chior, Dispri, Ibid., 12.
100. Chior, Dispri, Ibid., 12.
101. Chior, Dispri, Ibid., 12.
102. "Kratkaia dokladnaia zapiska po voprosu narodn[ogo] prosveshcheniia AMSSR," AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 1, d. 1531, ll. 29-42.
103. Ibid., l. 31. See also AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 1, d. 516, ll. 95-97.
104. AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 1, d. 1817, l. 3.
105. Kul'tura Moldavii za gody sovetskoi vlasti, vol. 1, pt. 2 (Chişinǎu, 1976), 236-39.
106. AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 1, d. 1817, l. 1.
107. "Stenogramm vystuplenii na plenume Moldavskogo Nauchnogo Komiteta [1933]," AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 2, d. 57, l. 13. See also "Scoateri din protocolu plenumului larg a Comitetului S. Ştiintcombining dot belowînic Moldovenesc dila 14-16 Octiabri anu 1929," AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 2, d. 44, l. 23; Tarasov, Ocherki, 23.
108. On the difficulties involved in bringing more ethnic Moldovans into the MASSR's institutions, see Charles King, "Ethnicity and Institutional Reform: The Dynamics of 'Indigenization' in the Moldovan ASSR," Nationalities Papers 26, no. 1 (1998): 57-72.
109. AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 1, d. 1890, l. 51.
110. Ibid., l. 59. Moldova literarî had previously appeared as an occasional supplement to Plugarul roş.
111. AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 1, d. 516, l. 53.
112. AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 1, d. 734, l. 1ob.
113. Examples from these series include: Kh. Bogopol'skii, Om prifaci RASSM în colectiv dilaolaltî (Tiraspol, 1929);
114. S. Dumitraşcu, A noastrî-i pozîtcombining dot belowîia (Tiraspol, 1931).
115. AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 1, d. 1082, l. 34.
116. Amintelnitcombining dot belowa brigadului culturnic-massnic (Tiraspol, 1932), 39-40.
117. AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 1, d. 2475, l. 168.
118. AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 1, d. 1082, l. 11.
119. AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 1, d. 516, l. 68.
120. M.-I., "Moldovenizatcombining dot belowia îi lucrul bun, - dar limba de stricat nu trebue," Plugarul roş, 14 July 1926, 2.
121. I. D. Cioban, "Cîte şeva despre limbǎ," Moldova socialistǎ, 6 June 1938, 2.
122. AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 1, d. 516, l. 66.
123. Chior, "Natsional'nyi vopros," ll. 4-14.
124. Letter from editor, Bil'shovyk Ukrainy, to Staryi, 29 February 1928, AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 1, d. 1352, l. 3.
125. See James E. Mace, Communism and the Dilemmas of National Liberation: National Communism in Soviet Ukraine, 1918-1933 (Cambridge, Mass., 1983);
126. and George O. Liber, Soviet Nationality Policy, Urban Growth, and Identity Change in the Ukrainian SSR, 1923-1934 (Cambridge, Eng., 1992).
127. I. V. Stalin, "Tov. Kaganovichu i drugim chlenam PB TsK KP(b)U," Sochineniia (Moscow, 1948), 8:149-54.
128. I. V. Stalin, "Sochineniia" Ibid., 153.
129. M[ykola] Skrypnyk, "Khvylovizm chy Shums'kizm?" Bil'shovyk Ukrainy 2 (1927): 27-36,
130. cited in Mace, Dilemmas, 111.
131. Chior, "Natsional'nyi vopros," l. 13.
132. Chior, "Natsional'nyi vopros," Ibid., l. 14.
133. Paul Wexler, "Belorussification, Russification, and Polonization: Trends in the Belorussian Language, 1890-1982," in Kreindler, ed., Sociolinguistic Perspectives, 37-56;
134. Paul Wexler, Purism and Language: A Study in Modern Ukrainian and Belorussian Nationalism (1840-1967) (Bloomington, 1974).
135. William Fierman, Language Planning and National Development: The Uzbek Experience (Berlin, 1991), 128-29.
136. On the demise of the MSC, see Charles King, "The Moldovan ASSR on the Eve of the War: Cultural Policy in 1930s Transnistria," in Kurt W. Treptow, ed., Romania and World War II (Iasi, 1996), 9-36.
137. "Dokladnaia zapiska o natsional'nom-kul'turnom stroitel'stve AMSSR [1933]," AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 1, d. 2225, l. 19. From this point, Madan's fate is uncertain. He never seems to have become a party member, so there are no personal files on him in the Moldovan party archives. Some historians speculate that he managed to survive the first round of purges by leaving the MASSR before the mid-1930s.
138. Letter from Siderskii to Malenkov, 16 February 1937, AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 1, d. 3754, ll. 1-3.
139. E. Romanova, "Comisar al revolutcombining dot belowiei," Comunistul Moldovei, 1988, no. 10:30-35.
140. Letter from Garmel' to Emlianov, n.d., AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 1, d. 2507, l. 25.
141. See the lists of books removed from MASSR libraries in AOSPRM, f. 49, op. 1, d. 3880, ll. 59-61; d. 3881, l. 22; d. 3883, l. 134. As late as summer 1994, many of these books were still included in the "special fund" of the Moldovan National Library. I had the privilege of helping to carry them up from the basement to be recatalogued that summer.
142. On the removal of "enemy words" from the press, see B. Lekhtman, "Klassovaia bor'ba na nauchnom fronte," Krasnaia Bessarabiia, 1934, nos. 8-9:29-30;
143. N. I. Golub, "Sarcinile curente ale clǎdirii natcombining dot belowionale culturale în RASSM," Octombrie, 1935, no. 1:13-21;
144. M. A. Anghelescu, "Rezultatele activitǎtcombining dot belowii Editurii de Stat a Moldovei în 1934," Octombrie, 1935, no. 1:42-44
145. . 97. On these projects and their reversal, see Kreindler, ed., Sociolinguistic Perspectives;
146. Uriel Weinreich, "The Russification of Soviet Minority Languages," Problems of Communism 2, no. 6 (1953): 46-57;
147. E. Glyn Lewis, Multilingualism in the Soviet Union: Aspects of Language Policy and Its Implementation (The Hague, 1972);
148. M. Mobin Shorish, "Planning by Decree: The Soviet Language Policy in Central Asia," Language Problems and Language Planning 8, no. 1 (1984): 35-49;
149. Michael Kirkwood, "Glasnost', 'The National Question,' and Soviet Language Policy," Soviet Studies 43, no. 1 (1991): 61-81;
150. Gerhard Simon, Nationalism and Policy toward the Nationalities in the Soviet Union (Boulder, Colo., 1991);
151. Michael Kirkwood, ed., Language Planning in the Soviet Union (London, 1989);
152. Paul M. Austin, "Soviet Karelian: The Language That Failed," Slavic Review 51, no. 1 (Spring 1992): 16-35.
153. For an interesting comparative perspective, see Tom Priestly, "Denial of Ethnic Identity: The Political Manipulation of Beliefs about Language in Slovene Minority Areas of Austria and Hungary," Slavic Review 55, no. 2 (Summer 1996): 364-98.
154. Brian Weinstein, "Language Strategists: Redefining Political Frontiers on the Basis of Linguistic Choices," World Politics 31, no. 3 (1979): 345-64.