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MoldovaPostwar Reestablishment of Soviet Control
With the restoration of Soviet power in the Moldavian
SSR,
Joseph V. Stalin's government policy was to
Russify (see Glossary)
the population of the Moldavian SSR and destroy
any
remaining ties it had with Romania. Secret police struck
at
nationalist groups; the
Cyrillic alphabet (see Glossary)
was
imposed on the
"Moldavian" (see Glossary) language; and
ethnic
Russians and Ukrainians were encouraged to immigrate to
the
Moldavian SSR, especially to Transnistria. The
government's
policies--requisitioning large amounts of agricultural
products
despite a poor harvest--induced a famine following the
catastrophic drought of 1945-47, and political, communist
party,
and academic positions were given to members of
non-Romanian
ethnic groups (only 14 percent of the Moldavian SSR's
political
leaders were ethnic Romanians in 1946).
The conditions imposed during the reestablishment of
Soviet
rule became the basis of deep resentment toward Soviet
authorities--a resentment that soon manifested itself.
During
Leonid I. Brezhnev's 1950-52 tenure as first secretary of
the
Communist Party of Moldavia (CPM), he put down a rebellion
of
ethnic Romanians by killing or deporting thousands of
people and
instituting forced
collectivization (see Glossary).
Although
Brezhnev and other CPM first secretaries were largely
successful
in suppressing "Moldavian" nationalism, the hostility of
"Moldavians" smoldered for another three decades, until
after
Mikhail S. Gorbachev came to power. His policies of
glasnost (see Glossary) and
perestroika (see Glossary)
created conditions in which national feelings
could be
openly expressed and in which the Soviet republics could
consider
reforms.
Data as of June 1995
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