Managing Intractable Conflicts: Lessons from Moldova and Cyprus

Nested Identities: From History Books to the Emergence of a Post-Conflict Generation in Moldova
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purely geographic notion, but rather they considered themselves “Soviet citizens” –
Russian-speaking people. The USSR was their motherland, not the MSSR.
The extremely dynamic developments of the political situation in the USSR in the
summer of 1990 initiated the so-called “parade of sovereignties”, and the Supreme
Soviets of the Union’s republics started to adopt declarations proclaiming their
sovereignty from the central power of the USSR. For the MSSR, the adoption of
the Sovereignty Declaration by the Russian Federation on the 12 th of June 1990 was
decisive. The Russian Federation was the nucleus of the USSR and it was identified
with the metropolis of the Russian Empire. The adoption of such a declaration by
the Russian Federation was a clear signal that the central power of the Union had
lost its central authority and that the other republics of the Union, situated at the
periphery of the Soviet Empire, could securely follow in its example.
Processes in the Eastern Districts of the Republic of Moldova
(Transnistria)
Since 1988, the political processes in the Transnistrian area have acquired a distinct
local specificity in relation to the ones occurring on the right bank of the Dniester.
It became obvious that in the communities of the left-side bank of the Dniester,
particularly in the industrial centers, the number of supporters of the democratization
processes and the national emancipation of the “titular nation” was much lower than
on the right-side bank. The few supporters of the withdrawal from the MSSR of the
USSR became the target of a policy of psychological harassment and hostility. On
the other hand, in the industrial centers on the left bank of the Dniester a process
of political mobilization of labor collectives of industrial companies was launched.
As a result, the antagonism between the decisions taken by the central power bodies
of the MSSR and the policies carried out at the local and regional levels deepened.
The adoption on the 23 rd of June 1990 of the Sovereignty Declaration by the
Supreme Soviet of the MSSR was a turning point in the political confrontation on
the issue regarding the relationship between the Republic of Moldova and the central
power of the Soviet Union. While the Sovereignty Declaration adopted by the
Republic of Moldova was no different, in essence, from similar declarations adopted
by the other Soviet republics, the Republic of Moldova turned out to be much more
vulnerable due to the destructive processes targeted at the statehood of the Republic
of Moldova unleashed in its Eastern districts. It is worth noting that the irrational
fear of the unification of the Republic of Moldova with Romania, generated by