ABSTRACT
The independent Republic of Moldova, formed in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, is a peculiarly fragile new state. The Moldovans are divided as to whether they in fact constitute a ‘nation’ at all, and this in turn has created uncertainty about the ultimate meaning and purpose of their ‘national selfdetermination’. They speak a language whose literary standard is essentially no different from Romanian, and live on the territory of the former Soviet Republic of Moldova. In the inter-war period, much of this territory belonged to Romania. Language and history pose complicated questions for Moldovans and for the new Moldovan state. Does the fact that Moldovans speak Romanian mean that they are really Romanians, and therefore that their ultimate destiny is to re-unite with Romania? Is the idea of a separate Moldovan political identity to be dismissed as a ‘deformation’ of the Soviet period, or has their history shaped the Moldovans into a distinctive national group who now see their interests as best served by building a state of their own?
