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Multiethnic Parastates and Nation-Building: The Case of the Transnistrian Imagined Community

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2020

Ion Marandici Open the ORCID record for Ion Marandici [Opens in a new window]
Ion Marandici*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: ionmar@rutgers.edu
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Abstract

This article explores nation-building processes in the Transnistrian imagined community. While some scholars describe Transnistria’s nation-building strategy as a civic, multicultural project, the analysis of recent demographic and educational data corroborated with the close examination of local media content and official discourses—all point to the emergence of a distinct political culture marked by the increasing use of the Russian language in the public sphere, and the politicization of the Moldovan identity. Discourses about ethnic and national identity in the region have evolved as the Transnistrian elites reimagine the political community as part of the Russkii Mir. These circumstances suggest that, in the long run, the breakaway region might function as the southeastern frontline of Russian irredentism with the elites of the Pridnestrovska͡ia Moldavska͡ia Respublika continuing to call on the Russian Federation to annex the parastate instead of seeking a peaceful reintegration into Moldova.

Keywords

Transnistrianation-buildingassimilationMoldovansRusskii Mir
Type
Special Issue Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 48 , Special Issue 1: Special Issue on the Emergence and Resilience of Parastates , January 2020 , pp. 61 - 82
Copyright
© Association for the Study of Nationalities 2020

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