The Battle for Identity in the MSSR (1965)
The Battle for Identity in the MSSR (1965)

Summary/Abstract: The year 1965 marked an open confrontation in the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (MSSR),set against a backdrop of tightening ideological control and a return to Neo-Stalinism after the brief “Thaw”period. Although First Secretary I. Bodiul warned that no deviations would be tolerated, the Third Congress of Writers in Chișinău transformed into a platform for national resistance. Supported by a large audience, writers like Aureliu Busuioc, Mihai Cimpoi, Ion Druță, and mathematician Petre Osmotescu denounced the policy of Russification, criticizing the marginalization of the Romanian language in education and public life. The central demand, initially disguised as calls for the “sanitation” of the language from Russicisms, escalated into an explicit and collective demand for the return to the Latin alphabet.This stance by the writers, which was equivalent to asserting Romanian identity, clashed directly with the official moldovenism promoted by the Party through figures like Iuri Barjanschi and Iosif Varticean. The latter defended the Cyrillic alphabet and glorified Russification as a Soviet benefit. Thus, the Congress crystallized the struggle between a cultural elite demanding a cultivated,reintegrated language, and the Communist Party, which insisted on a separate identity and language, strictly subordinated to political control.

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