All blame for what happened in 1990-1992 during the brief “war” between the Republic of Moldova and Pridnestrovie is now placed at the feet of Russia, which is not just overly simplistic but factually wrong. Continue reading 1992, Revisited
The international community really dropped the ball in 1991, and a lot of people suffered as a result. Continue reading Games With Frontiers
Last weekend, my wife and I decided to go visit Transnistria, the “country that doesn’t exist”, but, of course, very much does exist. But an unexpected burst of cold rain and a malfunctioning battery quickly turned our carefree day trip into something we could never have anticipated. This is a true story. Chisinau has several bus stations, but the one with daily shuttles to Transnistria … Continue reading Scared, Alone, and Paranoid in Transnistria
Time to take a brief break from all the happy stuff and talk about some real shit. Romanians like to have collective amnesia about their history and forget that beyond all the crazy Communist Ceausescu shit, there was also a “fun” period of fascism. Living here in Moldova, which skipped the fascist part and went straight to the Big C, I’ve been able to more … Continue reading Nasty Scenes
One of the most interesting periods of history that very few people on either side of the Prut River remember today is that there was a Soviet Moldovan Republic long before Romania ceded Bessarabia without a fight in 1940. It took several years after the 1917 “October” Revolution in Russia before the Soviet Union was able to exist as a coherent polity. Some of the … Continue reading Yes, MASSR
All Things Romania 