ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the issue of Moldova's borders and identity in the context of the main geopolitical challenges the country has been facing since independence. In 1775, the Habsburg Empire annexed the northern part of the Moldovan state and renamed it Bukovina, while the eastern part, historically known as Bessarabia, became part of the Russian Empire after the Russian-Ottoman war of 1806-1812 and remained so until 1917. The Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) was the first state in history to be formed on the basis of an ethno-political unit, or nationality in Soviet parlance. On 2 September 1990, the area, with political and military support from Moscow, proclaimed its independence as the Pridnestrovian Moldovan Republic (PMR) and ceased to take orders from the central government of the Republic of Moldova. The rejection of neo-Communist Moldovenism by large segments of the population and an overwhelming majority of intellectuals and students can be recognised as a manifestation of Romanian identity.
