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Book review: Historical Dictionary of Moldova, edited by Andrei Brezianu and Vlad Spanu (2007 Scarecrow Press)

Review by Alex van Oss, Foreign Service Institute

 

Until such time as a major Moldovan novel or play is available in English, or a Moldovan performer captivates world audiences (which started to happen a few years ago in Europe with the Pop trio O-zone's hit song 'Dragostea din Tei,' or Love under Linden Trees), the curious armchair explorer could do worse than leaf through the Historical Dictionary of Moldova.  That way, should fate ever take one to this particular destination, time there will not be wasted on inessentials.

The Historical Dictionary of Moldova is an illuminating and somewhat seductive book, and one should start off slowly by reading its introduction, and then jotting down items for further research.

 

Like many Americans unfamiliar with the portion of Europe that slopes from the Carpathians toward the deltas of the Danube, Dniester, Prut, and Bug Rivers, and the Black Sea, I was under the gravely mistaken impression that Romania (Rumania?) and Moldova (Moldavia perhaps? or Bessarabia?), along with Wallachia, Transylvania, and Transnistria, were just a bunch of confusing entities (rather like Constitution and Independence Avenues in Washington, D.C.) that moved around and perhaps even switched places from time to time.

 

Not so.  The Historical Dictionary introduction has set me straight on these points and many more.

 

For example, I didn't know (until I read page 5) that Moldova's "constant yearning for sovereignty, manifested as far back as the 14th century."  In other words, Moldova is three times as old as the United States, and thus has deep roots and long experience with sovereignty--or at least with the yearning for, and struggle to maintain it.

 

The reader will also learn that Moldova, like Romania, belonged to the Roman Empire, and part of it served as the eastern outpost of ancient Dacia (we make a note to look up Dacia), where bits of Trajan's Wall are still to be found (hmm...what wall? and why was it built? Must find out). The region suffered a flurry of incursions by Goths, Huns, Pechenegs, Avars, and Slavs, and eventually became a vassal principality to the Ottomans.

 

The Dictionary describes Moldova's "viparian status" (that's 'riparian,' surely) and something called the "thalweg" of the Danube delta.  ('Thalweg' sent me scrambling through several other dictionaries, whereupon I discovered it was not a typographical error, but a geographical term meaning the deepest continual line along a valley or streambed).   The 20th century brought upon Moldova Soviet-imposed collectivizations, deportations, repopulations, along with a shift away from the Romanian language (or 'Wallacho-Moldavian' as it was called by 19th century Russians).

 

All this, and more, in the introduction alone.  Then comes the dictionary itself, where one can chomp down on some real historical meat and find out, for example, the detailed and fascinating etymology of "Moldova," or the difference between the MASSR (Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic), MSSR (Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic), MDFR (Moldavian Democratic Federated Republic), and the MDR (the Moldavian Democratic Republic...'see MDFR,' says the entry).

 

The Historical Dictionary will prove especially instructive to those with a Russian bias, for here we learn that the Dnieper River--which in Russian is the Dniepr (with a trilled Slavic r, like an airplane propeller)--derives from the ancient Latin name Danaster. This is logical, given Rome's formative influence on Romanian and Moldovan ethnicity and culture. The Dictionary informs us that Karl Marx called the Romanian language "a kind of Oriental Italian," and in his memoirs lamented Bessarabia's 1812 annexation to the Russian Empire (quelle surprise for Soviet readers, had they read this evidently unpublished extract).

 

The name Bessarabia--so evocative and romantic to me--comes apparently from the house of Basarab, which ruled the Principality of Wallachia.  Alas, the entry does not reveal Bessarabia's connection with the other Arabia (there is none, apparently, but why not, given the name?).

 

There are sound reasons to learn about Moldova in today's post-USSR world (now almost twenty years old). Moldova, which strives to bind itself more closely with the European Union, belongs to a growing number of significant regional economic and geopolitical groups. Moldovans travel and study at home and abroad, and thus contribute to an expanding pool of cosmopolitan professional talent. Familiarity with Moldova will become increasingly imporant as international business and economic ties develop.

 

But back to armchair exploration:  Someone (I don't remember who) once stated that Moldova possesses "more singular traits" that any of the successor states to the Soviet Union, and that it is "in many ways odd."  (I like odd countries.)  Subsequently I read an article by a recent foreign visitor to Chisinau who reported having breakfast at a hotel--with a harp providing background music. (This is good news indeed.)  Finally, when a Moldovan friend described his country's 150 wineries and a place called Cricova, a former limestone mine, with more than 30 miles of labyrinthian underground streets filled with racks of wine bottles--why, I was ready to go!

 

But all in good time: best not to be distracted by inessentials.  Better to get grounded by reading this new and most welcome Historical Dictionary of Moldova.

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