Pridnestrovian Mindset

By: Roman Konoplev, chief editor of “Dniester.Ru”.

Radicals are so good at planting different topics, just like putting some wood on the fire. But I’m absolutely sure that Pridnestrovian authorities will make decisions on the monument to Ivan Mazepa without looking back at impostors from Chisinau who try to look like “mega-patriots of Russian idea”. Of course, the question is not an easy one. For example, not a single political figure or a political party, who have some power in Pridnestrovie, make radical statements. President of Pridnestrovie (Transnistria) keeps silence. So do leaders of political parties, the vice-president, the chairman of the Parliament. They don’t try to get points on complex issues. Basically, president Igor Smirnov made his decision speaking about the monument. This decision is being performed.

Bishop Justinian is not silent, he appears with declarations, but he is out of politics. He is the chancellor of the diocese. He doesn’t have any political responsibility and he is not answerable to people in case the border is closed and people’s business is broken and so on. The Ukraine can help bring mass migration from Pridnestrovie and there will be 15 000 people living here, not 400 thousand. Despite Moldova’s strict demands, the Ukraine is not suffocating Pridnestrovie.

Mazepa’s portraits can be seen in some Ukrainian schools of Pridnestrovie. There are schools where you can still see Lenin’s portraits. There are some “Romanian” schools in Pridnestrovie where children study according to Moldovan programs, they use Latinic alphabet and study Romanian. Portraits of Lenin and Mazepa are not likely to be found there, one can probably see Eminescu’s portraits. Another history might be studied in these schools and the graduates of the Romanian schools of Pridnestrovie might study in Bucharest in the future. But many of them will stay here, in Pridnestrovie, and they will live and work near to us and no one will have even a thought to provoke squabbles on this matter. They love their culture and they are nationalists a little, just like those who finish Ukrainian schools. But this is not the nationalism when people kill each other and hate each other. They are nationalists like me, as I have some souvenirs from Russia at home.

We used to study by old history text-books and we used to sort out things ourselves. So, those who go to schools today do not study history by text-books. There are topics that “divide” the society – as a rule, these topics are fed artificially by some representatives of Chisinau. The actualization of complex issues is the matter of hands of those who execute the order to “dissolve” Pridnestrovie with its unique relations between people in Moldova like in acid. Pridnestrovie must be one of the few places at the territory of the former Soviet Union where people respect their own traditions and culture. They respect other people and their culture and tradition even if they don’t like something.

Not everybody in Chisinau dream about “dissolving Pridnestrovie”. In Chisinau, one can hear voices of those who think that Pridnestrovie has the right to save its unique mindset and these voices can be heard more often.

Yesterday I went to the Blood Bank of Pridnestrovie in Tiraspol. It is an old building where the last repairs must have been done during the Soviet period. But there I found colored posters in Romanian on the walls which encourage people to donate blood to help other people. I also read some booklets against tuberculosis and AIDS – half of them was in Romanian and another half was in Russian.

Whatever Moldovan radical additions write about Pridnestrovie, people can’t imagine that many things do not play any role in Pridnestrovie. I think that there were no radical nationalists and skinheads in Blockaded Leningrad because common problems make many claims senseless. Only being in trouble, people understand that first of all they are people, and claims and wrangles are just nonsense and garbage.