Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-b4m5d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-23T12:35:28.088Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Multiethnic Parastates and Nation-Building: The Case of the Transnistrian Imagined Community

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2020

Ion Marandici Open the ORCID record for Ion Marandici [Opens in a new window]
Ion Marandici*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article explores nation-building processes in the Transnistrian imagined community. While some scholars describe Transnistria’s nation-building strategy as a civic, multicultural project, the analysis of recent demographic and educational data corroborated with the close examination of local media content and official discourses—all point to the emergence of a distinct political culture marked by the increasing use of the Russian language in the public sphere, and the politicization of the Moldovan identity. Discourses about ethnic and national identity in the region have evolved as the Transnistrian elites reimagine the political community as part of the Russkii Mir. These circumstances suggest that, in the long run, the breakaway region might function as the southeastern frontline of Russian irredentism with the elites of the Pridnestrovska͡ia Moldavska͡ia Respublika continuing to call on the Russian Federation to annex the parastate instead of seeking a peaceful reintegration into Moldova.

Keywords

Transnistrianation-buildingassimilationMoldovansRusskii Mir
Type
Special Issue Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 48 , Special Issue 1: Special Issue on the Emergence and Resilience of Parastates , January 2020 , pp. 61 - 82
Copyright
© Association for the Study of Nationalities 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Imagined Communities, London: Verso.Google Scholar
Annual Statistical Yearbook of PMR 2000–2016. 2017. The Ministry of Economic Development of PMR, Tiraspol. http://mer.gospmr.org/pechatnye-izdaniya.html.Google Scholar
Arel, Dominique, and Ruble, Blair. 2010. Rebounding Identities: The Politics of Identity in Russia and Ukraine, Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press.Google Scholar
Benea, Radu. 2014. The Moldovan High School in Tiraspol – the Besieged Fortress Syndrome, Radio Free Europe, June 2. https://www.europalibera.org/a/25406480.html.Google Scholar
Blakkisrud, Helge, and Kolstø, Pål. 2013. “From Secessionist Conflict toward a Functioning State: Processes of State- and Nation-Building in Transnistria.” Post-Soviet Affairs 27 (2): 178–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. 1996. Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cash, Jennifer. 2007. “Origins, Memory and Identity: Villages and the Politics of Nationalism in the Republic of Moldova.” East European Politics and Societies 21: 588–610.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caspersen, Nina. 2012. Unrecognized States. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chamberlain-Creanga , Rebecca. 2006. “The ‘Transnistrian People?’ Citizenship and Imaginings of ‘the State’ in an Unrecognized Country.” Ab Imperio 4: 371–399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chamberlain-Creangă, Rebecca A. 2011. “Cementing Modernisation: Transnational Markets, Language and Labour Tension in a Post-Soviet Factory in Moldova.” PhD diss., London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Anthropology.Google Scholar
Chandra, Kanchan, ed. 2012. Constructivist Theories of Ethnic Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clogg, Rachel. 2008. “The Politics of Identity in Post-Soviet Abkhazia: Managing Diversity and Unresolved Conflict.” Nationalities Papers 36 (2): 305–329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Comai, Giorgio, and Venturi, Bernardo. 2015. “Language and Education Laws in Multi-ethnic De Facto States: the Cases of Abkhazia and Transnistria.” Nationalities Papers 43 (6): 886–905.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dembinska, Magdalena, and Danero Iglesias, Julien. 2013. “The Making of an Empty Moldovan Category within a Multiethnic Transnistrian Nation.” East European Politics and Societies 27 (3): 413–428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deutsch, Karl. 1959. Nationalism and Social Communication. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Doyle, Michael. 1986. Empires. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Fruntaşu, Iulian. 2002. O Istorie Etnopolitică a Basarabiei 1812–2002. Chişinău: Cartier.Google Scholar
Gellner, Eric. 2008. Nations and Nationalism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Guțu, Ana. 2017. “Limba Moldovenească – Limba Istorică a Poporului Moldovenesc [The Moldovan Language - the Historical Language of the Moldovan People].” Adevărul Nistrean, November 22. http://gazeta.gospmr.org/adeverul-nistryan/?p=208.Google Scholar
Kaufman, Stuart J. 1996. “Spiraling to Ethnic War: Elites, Masses, and Moscow in Moldova’s Civil War.” International Security 21 (2): 108–138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, Charles. 2001. “The Benefits of Ethnic War: Understanding Eurasia’s Unrecognized States.” World Politics 53 (4): 524–552.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitskan, Zinaida. Emisiunea Ta, Archive of the TV Show 2012 – 2018, Pervyĭ Pridnestrovskiĭ. Accessed March 14, 2018. https://tv.pgtrk.ru/show/717.Google Scholar
Kitskan, Zinaida. La Timp, Archive of the TV Show 2012 – 2017, Pervyĭ Pridnestrovskiĭ. Accessed March 14, 2018. https://tv.pgtrk.ru/show/74.Google Scholar
Kolstø, Pal. 2006. “The Sustainability and Future of the Unrecognized States.” Journal of Peace Research 43 (6): 723–740.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krasnosel’skiĭ, Vadim. 2017. Press Conference, Pervyĭ Pridnestrovskiĭ, July 21. https://tv.pgtrk.ru/show/57902/59321. (Accessed November 2, 2017.)Google Scholar
Krasnosel’skiĭ, Vadim. 2017. The History of PMR’s Statehood, Dialogues with the President Show, Pervyĭ Pridnestrovskiĭ Kanal, July 11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAk9kQaKb3A. (Accessed October 2, 2017.)Google Scholar
Krasnosel’skiĭ, Vadim. 2017. Pridnestrovye Otkazalos’ Byt’ Rumynskim [Transnistria Refused to Be Romanian], Izvestia.ru, November 27. https://iz.ru/674712/aleksei-zabrodin/pridnestrove-otkazalos-byt-rumynskim.Google Scholar
Kubik, Jan, and Bernhard, Michael, eds. 2014. Twenty Years after Communism: The Politics of Memory and Commemoration. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kulyk, Volodymyr. 2014. “Soviet Nationalities Policies and the Discrepancy between Ethnocultural Identification and Language Practice in Ukraine.” In Historical Legacies of Communism in Russia and Eastern Europe, edited by Kotkin, Stephen and Beissinger, Mark. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Laitin, David. 1998. Identity in Formation: The Russian-Speaking Population in the New Abroad. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Laitin, David, and Fearon, John. 2000. “Violence and the Social Construction of Ethnic Identity.” International Organization 54 (4): 845–877.Google Scholar
Laruelle, Marlene. 2008. Russian Eurasianism: An Ideology of Empire. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Laruelle, Marlene. 2016. The Russian World: Russia’s Soft Power and Geopolitical Imagination. Washington, DC: Center on Global Interests. http://globalinterests.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/FINAL-CGI_Russian-World_Marlene-Laruelle.pdf.Google Scholar
Laruelle, Marlene. 2016. “The Three Colors of Novorossya, or the Russian Nationalist Mythmaking of the Ukrainian Crisis.” Post-Soviet Affairs 32 (1): 55–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ministry of Education of PMR. 2017. School Enrollment Data for 2017-2018. http://minpros.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=95. (Accessed October 8, 2017.)Google Scholar
Ministry of Economic Development of PMR. 2017. Data on PMR’s Educational System. http://mer.gospmr.org/gosudarstvennaya-sluzhba-statistiki/informacziya/svedeniya-ob-obrazovatelnyh-uchrezhdeniyah.html. (Accessed October 9, 2017.)Google Scholar
Nagel, Joanne. 1994. “Constructing Ethnicity: Creating and Recreating Ethnic Identity and Culture.” Social Problems 41 (1): 152–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nikiforova, Natalia. 2008. “Polilingvizm i Obrazovanie na Rodnom Yazyke kak Element Gosudarstvennoj Obrazavatelnoj Politiki Pridnestrov’a. [Multilingualism and Education in Mother Tongue as Elements of PMR’s State Education Policy]” Olvia-Press , April 2. https://novostipmr.com/old/2008/ol02-04-08.html. (Accessed February 2, 2018.)Google Scholar
Nikonov, Vyacheslav, ed. 2010. Smysly i T͡sennosti Russkogo Mira [The Meanings and Values of the Russian World]. Moscow: Fond Russkiĭ Mir.Google Scholar
O’Loughlin, John, Toal, Gerard, and Kolosov, Vladimir. 2017. “Who Identifies with the ‘Russian World’? Geopolitical Attitudes in Southeastern Ukraine, Crimea, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Transnistria.” Eurasian Geography and Economics 57 (6): 745–778.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osipov, Alexander, and Hanna, Vasilevich. 2019. “Transnistrian Nation-Building: A Case of Effective Diversity Policies?” Nationalities Papers 47 (6): 983–999.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pervyĭ Pridnestrovskiĭ Kanal. 2017. Gazety Gomin, Adevarul Nistrean, i Pridnestrov’e – s 10% skidkoj, November 13. https://tv.pgtrk.ru/ru/news/20171113/63435. (Accessed March 1, 2008.)Google Scholar
Pervyĭ Pridnestrovskiĭ Kanal. 2017. Evenimente, Official Youtube Channel, June 12. Accessed December 2, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ2SMGja0sA. (Accessed December 2, 2017.)Google Scholar
Pervyĭ Pridnestrovskiĭ Kanal. 2017. Emisiunea Ta, Official Youtube Channel. January 2015 – December 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayH06rU1xlU. (Accessed December 4, 2017.)Google Scholar
Protsyk, Oleh. 2009. “Representation and Democracy in Eurasia’s Unrecognized States: The Case of Transnistria.” Post-Soviet Affairs 25 (3): 257–281.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roper, Steven. 2005. “The Politicization of Education: Identity Formation in Moldova and Transnistria.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies 38: 501–514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rossi, Michael. 2019. “The Durability of Parastates: Declarative Statehood in the Absence of Constitutive Sovereignty.” Nationalities Papers 48 (1): 24–41.Google Scholar
Said, Edward. 1994. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Sandu, Serghei. 2016. “Adevărul Nistrean i Gomin – 6 Let Sovmestnoĭ Raboty [Adevarul Nistrean and Gomin – 6 Years of Cooperation],” Pervyĭ Pridnestrovskiĭ Kanal, August 4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxhXYpyWpPw. (Accessed December 1, 2017.)Google Scholar
Shevchuk, Evgeny. 2013. V Pridnestrov′e Molodoe Pokolenie Vystupaet za Ideologii͡u Evraziĭskoĭ Integrat͡sii [The Youth of Transnistria Support the Ideology of Eurasian Integration], Interview by Pavel Zarifullin for the Lev Gumilev Center, Moscow, May 12. http://www.gumilev-center.ru/evgenijj-shevchuk-v-pridnestrove-molodoe-pokolenie-vystupaet-za-ideologiyu-evrazijjskojj-integracii/. (Accessed January 2, 2018.)Google Scholar
Simon, Patrick. 2008. “The Choice of Ignorance: The Debate on Ethnic and Racial Statistics in France.” French Politics, Culture and Society 26 (1): 7–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solonari, Vladimir. 2003. “Creating a ‘People’: A Case Study in Post-Soviet History Writing.” Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 4 (2): 411–438.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smirnov, Igor. 2007. Vmeste s Rossieĭ [Together with Russia], Published on the Archived Website of the President of PMR. http://www.president-pmr.org/material/218.html. (Accessed February 2, 2017.)Google Scholar
Stati, Vasile. 2003. Dicționar Moldovenesc-Român [The Moldovan-Romanian Dictionary], Chisinau: Academy of Sciences of Moldova.Google Scholar
Strelkov, Igor, and Navalny, Alexey. 2017. Debate between I. Strelkov and A. Navalny on TV Dozhd, YouTube video, min. 38–48, July 20. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smvTX7wstbU. (Accessed August 15, 2018.)Google Scholar
Tini͡aev, Ivan. 2017. Perepis’ Naselenii͡a PMR [PMR’s Population Census], Newspmr.com, March 9. http://newspmr.com/novosti-pmr/obshhestvo/15927. (Accessed December 2, 2017.)Google Scholar
Troebst, Stefan. 2003. “We are Transnistrians!: Post-Soviet Identity Management in the Dniester Valley.” AbImperio 1: 437– 466.Google Scholar
Volkova, Anna. 2001. Lider. Archived Version of Igor Smirnov’s Presidential Website. http://www.president-pmr.org/material/102.html. (Accessed March 3, 2018.)Google Scholar
Wilson, Andrew. 2015. The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Wolchik, Sharon L. ed. 1999. Ukraine: The Search for a National Identity. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Worden, Elizabeth Anderson. 2011. “The Mock Reform of History Education in Moldova: Actors versus the Script.” Comparative Education Review 55 (2): 231–251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yekelchyk, Serhy. 2007. Ukraine: Birth of a Modern Nation. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar