Press Release
on the organization of the debate “Golgotha of the Romanian Language”. Debates series held by the news agency IPN in its conference room with the support of the German Foundation “Hanns Seidel”

Held on 02 September 2024, Debate No. 314 brought together: Marin Gherman, director of the Institute of Political Studies and Social Capital in Chernivtsi, university lecturer, associate professor at “Ștefan cel Mare” University of Suceava, Anatol Șalaru, founder of the literary-musical and sociopolitical club “Alexei Mateevici” during the national renaissance period and Igor Boțan, IPN project’s standing expert.

Igor Boţan, the permanent expert of IPN’s project, said that the “Way of the Cross” meaning the “Way of Pain”, the “Way of Suffering” is a route located in the Old City of Jerusalem which the Christian tradition says is the road along which Jesus Christ carried his cross to his place of crucifixion, called Golgotha (the skull, the head), or the Calvary. The word Golgotha is the Greek transcription in the New Testament of the name in Aramaic, “Place of the skulls”, “calva” in Latin meaning “skull”. A place outside the walls of Jerusalem where Jesus Christ was crucified. The route is about 600 meters long and is a famous pilgrimage site for Christians.

“The national language of a country is the language spoken by the majority of the people, which is usually also the official language of the country. International practice shows that the language spoken by the majority of the citizens of a state is declared the official language of that state. In this regard, the late judge of the Constitutional Court, Gheorghe Susarenco, said that, normally, the citizens must communicate with the state, with its authorities. As a rule, an official language is established in the state and through this they can address the authorities and communicate in society, expressing their thoughts and honoring their civic obligations. So, instituting the mother tongue of most of the country’s population as the official language is a way to take it under the protection of the state. It is one of the conditions for the existence of the nation within its sovereign national-state formation and that is why it is enshrined in an article of the Constitution as the “official language of the state”,” explained Igor Boțan.

According to the expert, the metropolis is a state or large city from antiquity, considered in relation to its colonies. Respectively, the colonies are territories dependent on the colonial state, that is on the metropolis.

Marin Gherman, director of the Institute of Political Studies and Social Capital in Chernivtsi, university lecturer, associate professor at “Ștefan cel Mare” University of Suceava, believes that we can speak about a harmful foreign influence on the situation of the population within colonial states and on the linguistic situation in such spaces, in particular. “And here there are many different opinions regarding the influence of these empires of the past – the Russian Empire in the case of Bessarabia and the Austrian (Habsburg) Empire in the case of Bukovina. Subsequently, there was this influence that the Soviet Union had on those territories that were torn from the body of historical Moldova that constitute the two states – Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova at the moment. Unfortunately, when we talk about the colonial, imperial influence on these territories, we are talking about policies of denationalization, cultural unification, identity weakening – things that happened equally both in Bukovina and in Bessarabia,” he said.

Referring to the differences, Marin Gherman said that the Habsburg Empire shaped and cultivated loyalty to the central authorities and pursued a policy of balancing this internal competition between different national and ethnic projects. Ethnic. On the other hand, the Russian Empire was trying its best to Russify the population. “It did not have such a civilized attitude towards minorities, as the Habsburg Empire had. And then the Soviet Union, promoted dangerous concepts for us, such as Moldovenism, the Moldovan language and other concepts of geopolitical origin, emphasizing once again the importance of politics and linguistic identity for social perceptions and for the future of the Romanian-speaking community, but also for preserving our identity as such,” said the director of the Institute of Political Studies and Social Capital in Chernivtsi.

Anatol Șalaru, founder of the literary-musical and sociopolitical club “Alexei Mateevici” during the national renaissance period, said that the sociopolitical and economic situation of the Romanian population was marked by the desire of the Russian Empire, then of the Soviet Union. for expansion and conquest. All the methods characteristic of an empire were applied. During Tsarist Russia, there was a great desire for the assimilation of minorities, while during the Soviet Union – the desire to create the new Soviet man, who speaks a single language and has a single culture. They acted at different levels, first of all with regard to the Romanian language, which was forbidden in Bessarabia, both in the press and in the church and in schools. For a period, the schools worked as part of churches. The forces of repression acted on the population. The Russian army, police, church took over the leadership of the church in Bessarabia and the Russification began, both of the clergy and of the population.

“Classical changes, demographic changes were made in Bessarabia. Let us remember that Gagauz and Bulgarian population from Bulgaria were brought to Bessarabia in order to diminish the share of the local population. Ukrainian villages were created along the Prut, which practically guarded the border of the Tsarist Empire. There were done many things that practically led to the Russification of the population. But still our luck was that there “central television” did not exist always and there was no internet, there were no other factors that would have contributed even more intensively to Russification. The native Romanian factor was also preserved among the Romanian population in Bessarabia. It happened the same during the Soviet Union – without Romanian books, televisions in Russian, Russian in the public space and in state institutions – only in the Russian language. There was no vital space for the Romanian language,” stated Anatol Șalaru, former minister of defense.

The public debate entitled “Golgotha of the Romanian Language” was the 314th installment of the series “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates”. The project is implemented by IPN News Agency with the assistance of the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany..

The Agency published 4 news stories on the debate (see the English version of www.ipn.md): on 02.09.24, „ Golgotha of the Romanian Language. IPN debate”;-  https://www.ipn.md/en/golgotha-of-the-romanian-language-ipn-debate-8004_1106933.html; “Anatol Șalaru: A person who does not know their language and history cannot generate political slogans”; https://www.ipn.md/en/anatol-salaru-a-person-who-does-not-know-their-language-8004_1106935.html ; „ Marin Gherman: Cultural elite in Chernivtsi was raised during Soviet period in Chisinau”;- https://www.ipn.md/en/marin-gherman-cultural-elite-in-chernivtsi-was-raised-during-soviet-8004_1106953.html; „Igor Boțan: No one disputes existence of Moldovan dialect, but Moldova’s official language is Romanian”;- https://www.ipn.md/en/igor-botan-no-one-disputes-existence-of-moldovan-dialect-but-8004_1106956.html.

Valeriu Vasilica, director of IPN