This is not the first time I've seen the image on the obverse, obviously:rolleyes:, but is it the first I've seen of the Latin alphabet used in relation to Moldova as anything "official." This is supposed to be for the 60th anniversary of the Victory over Germany.
Without opening a can of proverbial worms, who would have been likely to produce this medal? Tourist shops? Government (which)? Veterans organization?
The seller is a decent guy with a e-store full of odd "new" medals, but I am intrigued more by the language shift than the medal itself - the word "pentru" is awfully reminiscent of Romanian - other words may be as well, but that one stuck out in my mind.
Your question on what the language is called - Moldovan or Romanian- is another can of worms, however general concensus is that the language is Romanian with Russian words sprinkled in reflecting Moldova's 60+ rule by Soviet Union.
01-28-2010, 04:26 PM (This post was last modified: 01-28-2010, 04:28 PM by Greg Collins.)
I have a Romanian friend who refers to the Moldovans as brothers united by common language. It goes a bit deeper than that as, historically, Moldova was part of Romania or, to be more precise, Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. Linguistically and culturally they are, basically, the same people or, rather, the same melting pot (Gypsies, Romanians, Hungarians, etc.). They were separated in 1940 as a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, combining the areas of what is now Moldova and what is now Pridnestrovie into the Moldavian SSR. This is, of course, simplified.
One of the problems in all of this is the natural boundary of the Dneister river. The Russian people (linguistically and culturally) in large part remained on the eastern side of the river, while the folks above stayed on the western side. This culture/language divide became the basis of the conflict, beginning at the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, which gave birth to the Pridnestrovan Moldavian Republic in 1992 as a separate entity from Moldova; functioning in all ways as a separate republic but still not recognized except by South Ossetia and Abkazia.
In Moldova, most every sign you see will be written in what is basically Romanian- hence the medal. In Pridnestrovie, even though the State seal is inscribed with three languages (Russian, Ukrainian and Moldovan), the language used will be Russian.
Oh yeah, if you don't already know, "pentru" means "for".
"We are Marching for the Victory of Communist Labour" V.I. Ulyanov (Lenin)
I forgot to add that during the Soviet Union in order to loosen the Moldovan linguistic, cultural ties to Romania Greg mentions above, Soviet linguists "invented" the "Moldovan" language by basically writing Moldovan in cyrillic. The Soviets used this tactic with other republics' languages too.
This aberration has resulted in people today trying to claim Moldovan is an independent language.
This practice fell out of use in the 80's or perhaps a decade earlier, but you still see it occasionally in Moldova and more particularly in Transnistria/Pridnestrovia.
I must admit it's rather disconcerting to expect to read Russian and get a "Romanian" surprise.
Greg Collins Wrote:Oh yeah, if you don't already know, "pentru" means "for".
Thanks Greg - I just guessed that's what it meant (it's the "3a" of that region). ;)
desantnik Wrote:I must admit it's rather disconcerting to expect to read Russian and get a "Romanian" surprise.
That's what got me started asking questions. It was my first exposure to anything but "Russian" from this area.
As always, interesting history and contemporary information from both of you. I've seen the Russification of many languages from Mongolia to Moldova.:D It's most common in the "For Excellence in..." badges and ID documents (at least in my corner of the collecting world - education badges).
