March 28, 2023

Moldova Speaks Romanian


Moldova Speaks Romanian
Moldovan President Maia Sandu kissing her country's flag. Visegrad24, Twitter.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu announced last week that Romanian will be declared the national language of Moldova.

Analysts believe the action was aimed at Moscow, after suspicions arose that the Kremlin had fueled anti-government protests as part of a potential coup attempt. Sandu said, "We speak in Romanian, an official language of the European Union."  

Moldova and Romania are close culturally, historically, and linguistically, with many residents holding dual citizenship — including Sandu herself. Since Moldova's independence from the USSR, the country has drifted away from its Russian-Soviet legacy. However, the Moscow-backed breakaway region of Transnistria has kept the Cyrillic script, a nod to its alliance with Russia. The rest of Moldova uses the Romanian Latin script. In 2013, a Moldovan court ruled in favor of a law that replaced the Moldovan language with Romanian in the country's constitution.

The country accelerated the process of distancing itself from Russia after electing its current pro-West president in 2020. When Russia invaded Ukraine, anxiety grew around what might happen to Moldova and Transnistria, as the country is not a member of NATO or the EU. The Moldovan president expressed solidarity with the Transnistrian leadership after Transnistria appeared to be under threat of invasion from Russia in April 2022, improving a relationship ruined after the Transnistrian war in 1992.

The Russian press has reported that the linguistic move is part of a Moldovan reunification plan with Romania — a NATO and EU member — that would supposedly take place by 2030. Yet reunification is unlikely to happen any time soon.

 

You Might Also Like

We Have Land Enough

We Have Land Enough

How the situation in Russia looks from a village in the very remote and very Far East.
War, Made Nuclear
  • March 06, 2023

War, Made Nuclear

Russia is developing a new type of military strategy to account for the use of nuclear weapons.
Not That Way
  • February 26, 2023

Not That Way

Vladimir Putin revoked a 2012 decree aimed at economic integration with the EU and supporting Moldovan sovereignty.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.  
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
Survival Russian

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
The Little Golden Calf

The Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955