ABSTRACT
The collapse of the Russian empire in 1917 permitted the national liberation of the Moldovan people but after World War I the territory of Moldova was divided once again. The forces who came to power in the Right-Bank Moldova proclaimed independence of the Bessarabian People’s Democratic republic. Already in 1988, prominent members of the Moldovan cultural elite came out with the idea of organizing the Moldovan Democratic Movement in Support of Perestroika to press both for democratization and the end of cultural decay in the republic. A spectacular rise of mass political activism began in the context of campaigning for legislative elections, scheduled for February 1990. The activists from both the Moldovan and minority communities depicted their opponents in threatening terms in order to secure electoral support. Major intensification of minority concerns about their future in a republic controlled by the titular nationality resulted from a series of legislative acts introducing new state symbols.
