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Transnistrian Nation-Building: A Case of Effective Diversity Policies?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2019

Alexander Osipov  and
Hanna Vasilevich
Alexander Osipov*
Affiliation:
International Centre for Ethnic and Linguistic Diversity Studies, Flensburg, Germany Visiting Researcher, Centre for the Study of Ethnic Conflict, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Hanna Vasilevich
Affiliation:
Visiting Researcher, Centre for the Study of Ethnic Conflict, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland International Centre for Ethnic and Linguistic Diversity Studies, Prague, Czech Republic
*
*Corresponding author. Email: aosipov1@gmail.com
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Abstract

This article addresses the reasons why ethnic diversity has never posed a challenge to the stability of Transnistria (also called the Transnistrian Moldovan Republic), an unrecognized state that broke away from Moldova during the collapse of the Soviet Union. We analyze the major societal and political patterns relevant to ethnic relations in the region and focus on the structure, content, and effectiveness of Transnistrian legislation concerning ethnic and linguistic diversity along with the practices of its implementation. In our view, formal and informal ethnic divisions do not hinder the political stability of Transnistria. We conclude that the stability of ethnic relations in Transnistria in part results from a deliberate policy aimed at managing diversity. This policy provides for the dependence of the populace on the state apparatus achieved through a dense plethora of government-orchestrated activities as well as the reproduction of nonconflictual, eclectic, and thus socially acceptable national narratives inherited from the Soviet past.

Keywords

Transnistriade facto statesregime of ethnicitydiversity policybanal nationalism
Type
Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 47 , Issue 6 , November 2019 , pp. 983 - 999
Copyright
© Association for the Study of Nationalities 2019

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