6 - Responding to Mass Emigration amidst Competing Narratives of Identity: The Case of the Republic of Moldova

Summary

Abstract

The Republic of Moldova has been in search of a raison d’etre as a foundation for a narrative of national identity since becoming an independent state following the dissolution of the USSR. The two main Orthodox churches active in the country have played an important role in this process. Yet both state and church have concomitantly had to react to a more pressing and concrete issue: the mass emigration of predominantly working-age citizens in the context of the economic downturn brought about by the transition from socialism to a free market economy.

Keywords: Orthodox Christianity in Moldova, post-Soviet religious revival, Moldovan diaspora, competing Moldovan identities

Introduction

Large-scale emigration has represented the single most important social – and even existential – challenge facing the Republic of Moldova ever since the country proclaimed its independence in August 1991. Between 1989, when the last Soviet census was carried out, and 2018, the population of the young state decreased by almost a million citizens, shrinking, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, from 3,657,079 to an estimated 2,681,735 by the end of 2018. A similar trend can be noticed in the breakaway region of Transnistria, which counted only 475,100 inhabitants in 2015; a decrease of over 200,000 compared to 1989 (Ostavnaia 2017: 18). The process of migration overwhelmed both state institutions and Moldovan society at large, which were already faced simultaneously with the tasks of democratic statebuilding and the transformation from a Soviet-style command economy to a market-based system. It was against this backdrop that religious life in the country, especially the majoritarian Orthodox Christian faith, experienced an almost spectacular revival, while also having to respond to the most pressing social issues, including the consequences of migration both within the country and in the ever-growing diaspora.

Religion, ethnicity and population

The religious landscape of the Republic of Moldova is dominated by Orthodox Christianity, which could have (had) the potential to serve as a unifying factor in this ethnically diverse society, which is divided almost evenly between supporters of European integration and those who would prefer closer ties with Russia. Furthermore, Orthodox Christianity was deeply rooted in public life before the state-imposed atheism in Soviet times after World War II.