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Moldova
Index
At the end of 1991, the formal liquidation of the
Soviet Union
was the surprisingly swift result of partially hidden
decrepitude
and centrifugal forces within that empire. Of the fifteen
"new"
states that emerged from the process, many had been
independent
political entities at some time in the past. Aside from
their
coverage in the 1991 Soviet Union: A Country Study,
none had
received individual treatment in this series, however.
Belarus
and Moldova: Country Studies is the second in a new
subseries
describing the fifteen post-Soviet republics, both as they
existed
before and during the Soviet era and as they have
developed since
1991. This volume covers Belarus and Moldova, two nations
on the
western border of what was once the Soviet Union.
The marked relaxation of information restrictions,
which began
in the late 1980s and accelerated after 1991, allows the
reporting
of extensive data on every aspect of life in the two
countries.
Scholarly articles and periodical reports have been
especially
helpful in accounting for the years of independence in the
1990s.
The authors have described the historical, political, and
social
backgrounds of the countries as the background for their
current
portraits. However, in general, both Belarus and Moldova
(especially the former) have been written about to a
lesser extent
than other former Soviet republics. In each case, the
authors' goal
in this book was to provide a compact, accessible, and
objective
treatment of five main topics: historical setting, the
society and
its environment, the economy, government and politics, and
national
security.
In the case of Belarus, providing a definitive spelling
of a
personal name or place-name has been a challenge. All
names have
been transliterated according to the transliteration
schemes
devised by the United States Board on Geographic Names
(BGN); which
is widely used by the United States government, although
not by the
Library of Congress or in most scholarly works. According
to the
BGN system, most Cyrillic letters are transliterated
similarly from
both Belarusian and Russian. But some letters are
transliterated
from the two languages differently (for example, "e,"
which remains
"e" in transliterated Russian but becomes "ye" in
transliterated
Belarusian), and some letters exist in Belarusian but not
in
Russian.
Because Belarusian names often differ from the Russian
versions
that have been used predominantly by the Russian Empire,
the Soviet
Union, and the world in general, the Russian version is
given in
parentheses at the first occurrence of a name. Otherwise,
the
Belarusian names have been used throughout. The few
exceptions to
this are well-known names (Moscow) and words
(perestroika)
that have acquired a standardized spelling in English
usage.
Another problem in writing about Belarus is what to
call it and
when. In its early history, the region was known as
"Belaya Rus',"
"Belorussia," "White Ruthenia," or "White Rus'." (A number
of
explanations have been proffered for the term "white.") As
if this
were not confusing enough, the terms "Rus'" and "Russia"
have often
been confused, sometimes deliberately. The original Rus'
was Kievan
Rus', which existed for centuries before Muscovy (which
would later
become Russia) gained significance. Russia later claimed
to be the
sole successor to Kievan Rus' and often blurred the line
between
the two. In the Russian language, both "russkiy" and
"rossiyskiy"
mean "Russian."
During the time when Belarus was part of the Russian
Empire and
the Soviet Union, it was commonly known as Belorussia, and
the
language was known as Belorussian. Occasionally,
nationalist groups
would form and take a name that included the word
"Belarusian," but
this use of the word was the exception. It was only after
the
Supreme Soviet declared the country independent that the
name was
changed from the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic to
the
Republic of Belarus, despite the title of the earlier
Declaration
of State Sovereignty of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist
Republic.
The policy in this volume has been to use
"Belarus/Belarusian" in
the earliest historical times; "Belorussia/Belorussian"
while it
was a part of either the Grand Duchy, Poland, the Russian
Empire,
or the Soviet Union; and "Belarus/Belarusian" after the
country
declared independence in August 1991. The exceptions are
names in
which "Belarus/Belarusian" was deliberately chosen over
"Belorussia/Belorussian" by the groups themselves.
For Moldova, the problem of personal names and
place-names is
somewhat different. When Moldovan, a dialect of Romanian
written in
the Latin alphabet, was designated the official language
of Moldova
in 1989, the Cyrillic alphabet (imposed by Joseph V.
Stalin) was
dropped, thus obviating the need for transliteration.
However, the
Moldovan names appearing in the text of this volume are
missing
most of the diacritics used by the language. In this case,
it is a
matter of lagging technology: the typesetting software
being used
simply cannot produce the necessary diacritics in the text
(although they appear on the maps). For this the authors
apologize
and hope that by the time this country study is updated,
missing
diacritics will no longer be the norm.
As was also the case with Belarus, Moldova and the
Moldovans
are referred to in different ways depending on the period
of
history. Until the creation of the Moldavian Autonomous
Oblast
(outside the traditional boundaries of Moldova) by Moscow
in 1924,
"Moldova" and "Moldovan" were the terms for the region and
the
language. From 1924 until the parliament changed the
country's name
officially in 1990, the terms used were "Moldavia" and
"Moldavian."
As with Belarus, the policy in this volume has been to
adhere to
these different names during their respective periods of
usage,
with the exceptions of names in which "Moldova/Moldovan"
was
deliberately chosen over "Moldavia/Moldavian" by the
groups
themselves.
Measurements are given in the metric system; a
conversion table
is provided in Appendix A. A Chronology is provided at the
beginning of each chapter. To amplify points in the text
of the
chapters, tables in Appendix A provide statistics on
aspects of the
societies and the economies of the countries. A Glossary
provides
information on certain terms in order to explain their
background
without creating distractions in the text. The
Bibliography lists
recently published sources thought to be particularly
helpful to
the reader.
The body of the text reflects information available as
of May
1995. Certain other portions of the text, however, have
been
updated. The Introduction discusses significant events and
trends
that have occurred since the completion of research; the
Country
Profiles include updated information as available; and the
Bibliography lists recently published sources thought to
be
particularly helpful to the reader.
Data as of June 1995
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