ABSTRACT
In contrast to the other European countries that have emerged from the former Soviet Union - Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia - Belarus and Moldova stand out as countries for which ideas of nationhood and statehood were developed and imposed only in the 20th century, by the Soviet Union itself. In the case of Moldova, its post-Soviet history has been marked by a search for a clear identity, and by a struggle to assert itself and even to survive culturally, politically and economically.
