Timeline Moldova
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An independent Republic east of Romania,
once
part
of the Soviet Union. Its capital is Chisinau.
(SFC, 1/28/97, p.A5)(WSJ, 7/25/97, p.A1)
Two-thirds of the 4.3 million people are ethnic Romanians.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.A14)
6,000BC Bronze age settlements
were found here.
(SFC, 1/28/97, p.A5)
100-1BC A Roman fortified citadel was built about
this time. It may have protected a town occupied by a late-era
Sarmatian king.
(SFC, 1/28/97, p.A5)
c1400-1500 Steven the Great, Stefan Chel Mare,
waged battles against the Turks in the 14th century became a
national hero. He was buried in the village of Kobynya. In 2000 a
600-year-old oak tree that marked his grave was killed by a cold
snap and high winds.
(SFC, 12/9/00, p.D8)
1812 Russia acquired
Bessarabia, the north eastern part of the original principality of
Moldavia, in the aftermath of the Russo-Turkish War (1806-1812).
(Econ, 1/6/07,
p.43)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessarabia)
1903 Apr, Russia instigated a
Jewish pogrom in Kishinev. 49 people died and some 600 were
seriously injured.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A18)
1905 More anti-Jewish pogroms
swept the province of Bessarabia.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A18)
1907 Mar 31, Romanian Army put
down a Moldavian farmers' revolt.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1918 An attempt to establish a
Moldovan Soviet failed and Romanian troops occupied the province.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A18)
1922 A law was passed that
halved the number of Jewish schools.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A18)
1924 The Bolsheviks formed the
Moldovan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR), aka
Transdniestria, as a basis for later taking over a chunk of Romania.
(WSJ, 7/8/97, p.A1,8)(http://tinyurl.com/b7m4b)
1938 A law was passed that
deprived Jewish heads of household of their civil rights.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A18)
1939 Aug 23, German Foreign
Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Soviet Commissar for Foreign
Affairs Vyacheslav M. Molotov signed a Treaty of Non-Aggression, the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact freeing Hitler to invade Poland and Stalin
to invade Finland. Secret protocols, made public years later, were
added that assigned Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Bessarabia to be
within the Soviet sphere of influence. Poland was partitioned along
the rivers Narev, Vistula and San. Germany retained Lithuania
enlarged by the inclusion of Vilnius. Just days after the signing,
Germany invaded Poland, and by the end of September, both powers had
claimed sections of Poland. World War II and Hitler's invasion of
the Soviet Union were just around the corner.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A16)(DrEE, 9/28/96, p.3)(DrEE,
10/26/96, p.4)(AP, 8/23/97) (HNPD, 8/22/98)(HN, 8/23/98)
1940 Jun 26, The Soviet Union
delivered an ultimatum to Romania and 2 days later occupied
Bessarabia and North Bukovina.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_Bessarabia_by_the_Soviet_Union)
1940 Moldova was formed from
the former Republic of Moldavia and the ceded Romanian territory of
Bessarabia.
(WUD, 1994 p.922)(Econ, 9/30/06, p.60)
1941 Jun 13, Thousands of
Jewish community leaders in Bessarabia (Moldova) were deported to
Siberia as part of the general purge. The Soviet Union, which had
occupied the former Romanian province a year earlier, loaded 22,600
Moldovans on cargo trains bound for Siberia, where the deportees
were used for forced labor.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A18)(AP, 6/13/06)
1941 Jul 23, German and
Romanian troops reoccupied Moldova as part of Operation Barbarossa.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A18)
1941 Jul, The 16,000 sq. mile
area of the Ukraine named Transnistria was granted by Hitler to the
Romanian dictator Ion Antonescu for Romania’s participation in the
war against the soviet Union. Jews from Bessarabia, Bukovina and
Moldova were transferred here and many thousands were murdered from
1941-1944 by the Romanian Gendarmeric, the Einsatrzgruppe D,
Ukrainian police and Sonderkommando R.
(WSJ, 7/30/97, p.A15)
1941 Oct 8, The Romanian
government gave the order to deport 11,000 Jews remaining in
Kishinev across the Dniester to Rybnitsa and into Nazi hands.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A18)
1941-1945 Some 148,000 Bessarabian Jews were
killed in Rybnitsa and other ghettos and concentration camps on the
East bank of the Dniester during the Nazi occupation.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A18)
1941-1945 In 2000 Radu Ioanid authored "The
Holocaust In Romania," which described how 250,000 people died under
Ion Antonescu. 25,000 Gypsies were deported to Transnistria (later
in the Ukraine), of whom 1,500 died.
(WSJ, 1/19/00, p.A20)
1944 Jul 20, The death march of
1,200 Jews from Lipcani, Moldavia, began.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1944 The Soviet army
re-conquered Bessarabia. Only then were the two parts of present-day
Moldova joined together to form the Moldavian SSR. At the same time,
about one-third of Bessarabia, including its entire Black Sea
coastline, was incorporated into the Ukrainian SSR. The
Transdniester region, having long been part of the Russian Empire
and then the Soviet Union, remained more Russified and Sovietized
than Right-Bank Moldavia.
(http://tinyurl.com/b7m4b)
1944 Aug 6, All 1,200 Jewish
death marchers from Lipcani, Moldavia, died by this date.
(MC, 8/6/02)
1949-1951 In Moldova SSR 2 waves of deportations
were carried out, with some 40,000 Moldovans sent to Siberia and
what is now Kazakhstan.
(AP, 6/13/06)
1990 Sep, Transdniestria
declared its independence over fears that Moldova planned to reunite
with Romania. It was not recognized internationally.
(www.aliciapatterson.org/APF1803/Meier_Foster/Meier_Foster.html)(AP,
1/5/12)
1991 Aug 27, Moldova (Moldavia)
declared independence from USSR.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moldova)
1992 Feb 14, The former Soviet
republics of Ukraine, Moldova and Azerbaijan rejected a proposal for
a unified army, sharply rebuffing Russian President Boris N.
Yeltsin.
(AP, 2/14/02)
1992 Russian reactionaries
fought against the Soviet breakup and repulsed Moldova’s bid to hold
on to Transdniestria. A civil war with Moldova left up to 700 people
dead.
(WSJ, 7/8/97, p.A1,8)(Econ, 1/29/05, p.52)(SSFC,
2/12/06, p.E2)
1992 Andrei Ivantoc, a member
of the Popular Moldovan Front, was arrested by separatist
authorities of Trans-Dniester. A year later he and the three
others were sentenced on charges of committing terrorist acts
against citizens of Trans-Dniester. The Popular Moldovan Front
called for the reunification of Moldova with neighboring Romania.
The group's members were seen as martyrs by some in Moldova and
Romania for their opposition to the separatists. Ivantoc was
released in 2007.
(AP, 6/2/07)
1992-1994 Russia's Alexander Lebed commanded
troops in Moldova’s break-away region of Trans-Dniester, where
ethnic conflict rose between the Moldovan government and Slav
separatists. He ended the bloodshed there.
(SFC, 10/18/96, A18)
1996 Pres. Mircea Snegur and
Parliament Speaker Petru Lucinschi went into 2nd round elections.
Voters seemed to seek a diminished relationship with Russia and
closer ties with Romania.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.A14)
1996 Dec 2, Petru Lucinschi, a
top Communist official in Soviet days, beat incumbent Mircea Snegur
53% to 47%.
(WSJ, 12/3/96, p.A1)
1997 Jul 25, It was reported
that American led teams rewritten the tax laws, launched a stock
market, and helped break up farm collectives formed under the Stalin
era.
(WSJ, 7/25/97, p.A1)
1997 Oct, The US purchased 21
MiG-29 aircraft from Moldova for $40-50 million, in order to keep
the planes out of the hands of Iran. In 2005 Moldova arrested
Valeriu Pasat, former defense minister (1997-1999), on suspicion of
pocketing $10 million during the sale of 21 MiG-29 fighter jets.
(SFC,11/5/97, p.A5)(WSJ, 3/14/05, p.A1)
1997 Former Soviet republics
(Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova) formed Guuam
to seek cooperation outside Russian influence.
(WSJ, 3/4/05, p.A13)
1998 Mar 22, Elections were
held and the Communist party received about 30% of the vote.
Political parties scrambled to form a coalition to keep the
Communists out of power.
(SFC, 3/24/98, p.A14)
1998 Mar, Ion Ciubuc was
appointed prime minister.
(SFC, 2/2/99, p.A10)
1999 Feb 1, Ion Ciubuc
announced his resignation as prime minister. He blamed parliament
and the ruling coalition for not supporting his efforts to implement
market reforms.
(SFC, 2/2/99, p.A10)
1999 Nov, The government of Ion
Sturza was dismissed amid accusations of corruption and
mismanagement of the economy.
(SFC, 12/16/99, p.C2)
1999 Dec 15, Russia cut off
natural gas deliveries due to a debt of $600 million.
(SFC, 12/16/99, p.C2)
2001 Feb 25, In Moldova
Communists made strong gains in parliamentary elections. They won
70% of the seats and would name the next president.
(WSJ, 2/26/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 2/27/01, p.A1)
2001 In Moldova Vladimir
Voronin, a former baker and member of the Communist Party, was
elected president. He stepped down after serving the maximum two
terms.
(AP, 5/12/09)
2001 Moldova passed its 1st
laws against sex trafficking.
(SFC, 6/24/04, p.W1)
2003 May 25, In Moldova the
Communist Party consolidated its hold on power in this former Soviet
republic, winning over 47 percent of contested posts for mayor and
other municipal offices. The Communists, who came to power in 2001,
were led by Pres. Vladimir Voronin.
(AP, 5/26/03)
2003 Dec 8, Russian military
documents confirmed that dozens of rockets outfitted with dirty
bombs appeared to be missing from the military airport at Tiraspol,
the capital of Transdniestria.
(SFC, 12/9/03, p.A13)
2003 Dec 27, Russia removed all
Soviet-built anti-aircraft missiles from its vast arms depots in a
Moldova province to prevent them from falling into the hands of
terrorists. The missiles were flown from Transdniestria Province to
Moscow.
(AP, 12/29/03)
2003 Moldova Pres. Voronin
rejected a deal on Transdniestra that would have left Russian troops
on Moldovan soil for at least 15 years while giving the breakaway
region wide autonomy.
(WSJ, 3/4/05, p.A13)
2003 Moldova passed laws
against sex trafficking with minimum prison sentences. An estimated
200-400 thousand Moldovan women and girls had been lured to foreign
countries by sex traffickers since the mid 1990s.
(SFC, 6/24/04, p.W1)
2004 Dec, Moldovan Foreign
Minister Andrei Stratan called 1,500 Russian troops in Transdniestra
a “military occupation.”
(WSJ, 3/4/05, p.A13)
2005 Mar 6, Moldova held
national elections. Nine special stations were opened near the
border with Trans-Dniester so the separatist region's 700,000
residents can vote. Trans-Dniester authorities have refused to allow
any polling stations on their territory. The governing pro-Western
Communists won a parliamentary majority, but fell short of taking
enough seats to re-elect President Vladimir Voronin.
(AP, 3/6/05)(AP, 3/7/05)
2005 Mar 11, Moldova arrested
Valeriu Pasat, former defense minister, on suspicion of pocketing
$10 million during the 1997 sale of 21 MiG-29 fighter jets to the
US.
(WSJ, 3/14/05, p.A1)
2005 May 12, Austrian
authorities reported the break up a major human trafficking ring led
by Romanian, Moldovan and Ukrainian criminals who smuggled more than
5,000 East Europeans to the West, many enduring horrific conditions
in tiny hiding spaces in cars, trucks and trailers.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2006 Apr 6, It was reported
that Russian health and sanitary officials had imposed a ban on
Georgian and Moldovan wines effective May 1. Authorities said the
wines contained pesticides and heavy metals. The ban was soon
extended to brandy and sparkling wines.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Jul 6, In Moldova an
explosion ripped apart a small bus in Tiraspol, capital of the
separatist region of Trans-Dniester, killing eight people and
injuring 46. The blast was caused by a bomb carried onboard by a
passenger. Transdniestrian politicians blamed Moldovan provocateurs.
(AP, 7/8/06)(Econ, 8/5/06, p.48)
2006 Sep 17, Voters in
Moldova's breakaway Trans-Dniester region overwhelmingly approved a
referendum for the separatist government's bid to eventually join
Russia.
(AP, 9/18/06)
2006 Oct 16, In Moldova an
appeals court overturned a guilty verdict against the former defense
minister, clearing him of charges he sold 21 fighter planes too
cheaply to the US. Valeriu Pasat, who was defense minister from 1997
to 1999 and head of the country's spy services from 1999 to 2002,
claimed the case against him was politically motivated because of
his support for a movement opposed to Communist President Vladimir
Voronin.
(AP, 10/16/06)
2006 Nov 28, Russia’s Pres.
Putin said the ban on Moldovan wine and meat products would be
lifted, a move that appeared to be aimed at easing Moscow's entry
into the WTO. Putin also said Russia and Moldova would resume a
dialogue aimed at resolving Moldova's conflict with Trans-Dniester.
(AP, 11/28/06)
2007 Jul 9, An appeals court
freed Moldova's former defense minister, overturning his conviction
for abusing his position in the 1997 sale of 21 fighter planes to
the United States.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Dec 16, Russian
authorities expelled a Moldovan journalist critical of the Kremlin
in a move condemned by media watchdogs.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2008 Apr 11, In Moldova a
Sudanese-owned transport plane laden with fuel crashed shortly after
takeoff from an airport near the capital and burst into flames,
killing all 8 people on board.
(AP, 4/12/08)
2008 Aug 5, The UN said heavy
rains and storms have led to some of the worst floods in 40 years in
parts of Ukraine, Moldova and Romania since July 22, causing great
damage to homes, infrastructure and farmland. In Ukraine, 34 people
have been killed in the west of the country along the Dnestr and
Prut rivers; in Moldova, three people are reported to have drowned
in the capital Chisinau; in Romania five people have been killed.
(AFP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 25, Russia's
parliament voted unanimously to urge the president to recognize the
independence of Georgia's two breakaway regions, a move likely to
stoke further tensions between Moscow and the small Caucasus
nation's Western allies. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned
ex-Soviet Moldova against repeating Georgia's mistake of trying to
use force to seize back control of Transdniestria, a pro-Moscow
breakaway region.
(AP, 8/25/08)(Reuters, 8/25/08)
2009 Jan 18, Moldovan poet
Grigore Vieru (b.1935) died in a car crash. He was admired for his
courage in promoting Romanian, the country's native language, when
Moldova was a Soviet republic. In the 1970s, he wrote "The Little
Bee," Moldova's first Romanian-language school manual for young
children.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Apr 5, In Moldova the
Communist Party won re-election under alleged ballot rigging. The
Communists, in power since 2001, won about 50% of the vote in what
international observers said was a fair election. With a population
of 4.1 million, Moldova was one of Europe's poorest nations with an
average monthly salary of $350. Last year Moldovans abroad sent home
$1.6 billion, roughly the same amount as the state budget.
(AP, 4/7/09)(Econ, 4/18/09, p.58)
2009 Apr 7, In Moldova
anti-communist protesters stormed the Parliament, hurling computers
through shattered windows and setting fire to furniture in a violent
demonstration against what they said were fraudulent elections. 3
people were left dead and hundreds were detained.
(AP, 4/7/09)(Econ, 8/8/09, p.46)
2009 May 7, The European Union
extended its hand to former Soviet republics, holding a summit to
draw them closer into the EU orbit despite Russia's deep misgivings.
Presidents, premiers and their deputies from 33 nations signed an
agreement meant to extend the EU's political and economic ties. The
six ex-Soviet republics to whom the partnership would apply are
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
(AP, 5/7/09)
2009 May 12, Vladimir Voronin
(68), Moldova's former president, was voted head of parliament by
his Communist Party colleagues. Three opposition parties boycotted
the ballot, claiming the country's April 5 election was rigged.
(AP, 5/12/09)
2009 Jun 3, Moldovan lawmakers
failed for a second time to elect a president, meaning the
Parliament elected in April will be dissolved and a new election
will be held this summer.
(AP, 6/3/09)
2009 Jun 16, The US added six
African countries to a blacklist of countries trafficking in people,
and put US trading partner Malaysia back on the list. Chad, Eritrea,
Niger, Mauritania, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe were added to the list in
the annual report. Removed from the list were Qatar, Oman, Algeria,
and Moldova.
(AFP, 6/16/09)
2009 Jul 29, Moldova held
elections. At least three people were killed and hundreds of others
arrested after protesters, some of whom used the social network
Twitter to organize after cell phone networks went down, stormed
parliament and the president's office. With 98% of the vote counted,
the four opposition parties had 50.9 percent to the Communists'
45.1%. A pro-European alliance of four parties won the most seats in
the 101-seat parliament but fell short of the 61 votes necessary to
elect a president.
(AP, 7/29/09)(AP, 7/30/09)(AP, 11/28/10)
2009 Aug 8, In Moldova the four
pro-Western parties that upset the Communists in recent elections
agreed on a coalition deal to form a new government.
(AP, 8/8/09)
2010 Feb 3, Ukraine's security
service said 5 Russian FSB agents were detained last month after
being caught trying to obtain confidential military information from
a Ukrainian citizen. The FSB said the Ukrainian citizen its agents
were working with had himself been apprehended in November while
allegedly spying on neighboring Moldova's Moscow-backed breakaway
Trans-Dniester republic.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Jun 20, Moldova
authorities detained 2 former policemen and another person on
suspicion of trying to sell four pounds (nearly two kg) of uranium
on the black market, but it was unclear if this was enough for a
"dirty bomb." The uranium-238 had a value of euro9 million ($11.35
million). This was not made public until Aug 25.
(AP, 8/25/10)
2010 Sep 12, An Egyptian
security official said 16 Russians and Moldovans, who killed an
Egyptian smuggler, have handed themselves over to police. Some of
the would-be migrants to Israel attacked and fatally stabbed
smuggler Massud Salim (31) after he attempted to rape one of the
female members of the group.
(AFP, 9/12/10)
2010 Nov 28, Voters in Moldova,
Europe's poorest nation, tried to break a political deadlock that
has kept it without a functioning government for more than a year.
The governing pro-Europe alliance led the opposition Communists in
early election results, but it was not clear if the coalition would
win enough legislative seats to end the country's year-long
political deadlock.
(AP, 11/28/10)(AP, 11/29/10)
2010 Dec 10, A Moldova court
ordered a recount in the inconclusive national election after the
Communist Party complained of "massive irregularities" in the Nov 28
vote.
(AP, 12/10/10)
2011 Mar 11, In Moldova US Vice
President Joe Biden urged the government to fight corruption and
implement pro-Western democratic reforms, saying that Washington
would offer support to Europe's poorest country as it seeks to move
closer to the EU.
(AP, 3/11/11)
2011 Jun 28, Moldova officials
said 6 people have been arrested for trying to sell an unspecified
amount of uranium-235 to a North African country for $28.85 million.
(SFC, 6/30/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 1, The first talks in
nearly six years between Moldova and the pro-Moscow separatist
region of Trans-Dniester concluded in Lithuania with an agreement
for more meetings at the beginning of next year.
(AP, 12/1/11)
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