(Estimated Pub Date) the Challenge of Ethnic Conflict to National and International Order in the 1990S: Geographic Perspectives- October 1995

Approved for Release: 2018/06/01 C00123268
Soviet Republics. Rather than seeking mere indepen-
dence, it proclaimed its desire to join, or rather rejoin,
Romania. The Moldovans are Romanians who as a
result of history found themselves under Russian rule.
While Russians in Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine, and other
republics were in general not frightened of the inde-
pendence movements taking place in the non-Russian
republics, that of Moldova threatened to place them
under alien (Romanian) rule. Violent protests erupted,
and open warfare‘ ensued in the Trans-Dniestr region,
which attempted to secede from Moldova and join
Ukraine.
Moldova itself became part of Russia as a result of
Russian imperial expansionism? Moldova was
annexed from the Ottoman Empire. After World War I
it was reunited with Romania, only to find itself being
passed back to the USSR after World War II. This war
resulted in a drastic diminution of the Jewish and Ger-
man populations,‘and many Tatars also left for Turkey
and Romania. on the other hand, Stalin deported
many Moldovans, attached the southern part of Mold-
ova (Budjak) to Ukraine, and induced the in-migration
of hundreds of thousands of Russians and Ukrainians.
In addition, the Trans-Dniestr region, which was for-
merly part of Ukraine, was added to Moldova (in an
attempt to gerrymander borders, effectively reducing
the Moldovan proportion of Moldova’s population)
and BucovinalBukovina (the area around Chemovitsl
Chernivtsy) was detached from Romania and trans-
ferred to Ukraine.
Deep antagonisms exist between Ukrainians and
Romanians, between Russians and Ukrainians in
Moldova, and between ethnic Russians and Moldo-
van-Romanians in Romania. Moldovan nationalist
talk of anschluss between Moldova and Romania has
led to uprisings among the Russians, Ukrainians, and
1 ln the 19th century, the Russian Empire expanded into areas
under Ottoman-Turkish control. The region of Bessarabia was
taken by Russia. No Romania existed at that time. The population
of Moldova was changed dramatically as a result of this. It already
had a large Tatar and Jewish population that had come during the
period of the Ottomans, but, with incorporation into the Russian
Empire, Orthodox Christians from Bulgaria and other parts of the
Ottoman Empire (Bulgars, Greeks, Romanians, Gagauz, and even
some Albanians and Serbs) migrated to Bessarabia. In addition to
these, Cossacks fromthe northern Caucasus were settled there by
Catherine the Great. and Germans were invited to settle there as
well. Thus, by the 20th century, it already had a very mixed popu-
lation, even though the Romanians (Moldovans) were still in the
majority. .
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other non-Romanians of the region. This has the
potential to become a serious problem not only on a
local level but also in Romania as well. We should
remember that one of Ceasuescu’s major demands
from Brezhnev was the return of Moldova to Roma-
nian control. .
The Gagauz (Bulgarian Orthodox Turks) of Moldova
have also expressed serious concerns about the rise of
Moldovan-Romanian nationalism and fear the merger
of Moldova with Romania.’ As such, they have allied
themselves with the Russian and Ukrainian popula-
tions in Moldova. In and of themselves they do not
represent a serious problem to Moldova, Romania, or
Ukraine. Their importance is transient and is tied to
the greater Slavic-Romanian split in Moldova.
Western Ukraine
The western part of Ukraine (Galicia and Ruthenia)
became part of the Russian Empire and the USSR for
the first time after World War II. In this area there had
been a strong Central European and Catholic influ-
ence. Here distinct dialects of Ukrainian are spoken,
and the Uniate Church has recently been reinstated as
an officially recognized religion. The Uniate Church
(Byzantine Rite Catholics) had millions of followers
among the Ukrainians, Slovaks, Romanians, and Hun-
garians. In most cases this religious institution was
declared illegal during the Soviet period. Although the
demands for its recognition are great throughout the
greater region of Ukraine, only in the western part of
Ukraine does it represent any potential threat to the
stability of a nation. Because westem Ukraine became
pan of the Soviet Union only in the post-World War II
period and because the Uniate Church in that region
used Ukrainian and not Russian as the language of the
church, it is considered by its members as the “true”
Ukrainian church. Among Ukrainians themselves
there is a deep cultural split between those who lived
under Russian and Soviet rule for the past 200-plus
years and those who lived under Polish or Austrian
5 The origin of the Gagauz is still debated. They are either linguisti-
cally Turkified Bulgarians, Bulgarian Orthodox Christianized
Turks, or a combination of both. Regardless of actual origin, today
they are Turkish in speech (for instance, Istanbul Turkish) and are
Bulgarian Orthodox in religion.
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Approved for Release: 2018/06/01 C00123268