Nationality Policy in Soviet Moldova: 1944–1989 by Igor Casu (review)

И. Мартынюк, За оградой славянофильства: Николай Данилевский... 464 Ghenadie MARDARI Igor Casu. Nationality Policy in Soviet Moldova: 1944-1989. Chisinau, Moldova: Cartdidact, 2000. 214 p. Conclusions in Romanian, English and Russian. Bibliographical references . Index. Historical research should be guided by the desire to uncover the truth, or else it is just propaganda. However, the mere elimination of dishonest presentations of the past does not always produce a single truthful “story”. More often than not the work of historians leads to debates about the nature of their case studies, which are only rarely solved by the mere elucidation of facts. In the age of pluralism, methodology becomes of primary concern. Therefore , the current transition in the study of Eastern European History must be equally guided by the search for hidden truths of the past, and by the search for new methods of constructing research and corresponding presentations of findings. Moreover, it appears that the new generation of scholars has the burden of finding its own way towards accommodating the need for new methods, insofar as there are few local traditions to follow in this regard . Yet, works like the quoted study of Igor Casu on the politics of nationality in the Soviet Moldova inspire optimism through the indirect evidence of enthusiasm and honest search for new ways of historical analysis. Step by step, the new historiography is conquering its own domain. Nationality Policy in Soviet Moldova is a book of limited availability to the larger audience of the Central and Eastern Europe, primarily because it is printed in Romanian . Moreover, its unstated but transparent goal to reveal the inevitability of the latest geopolitical choices of Moldovans imposes certain limitations on the possibility of general- Ab Imperio, 1-2/2001 465 izing its conclusions to other countries . But its methodology makes it particularly important for the scholars from the entire region – as an effort to go beyond mainstream tendencies, as well as an indication of the need to go even further on this path. Dr. Casu was perhaps uniquely qualified to write a synthetic work on the history of the nationality policy in Moldova, having an enviable access to relevant literature written by Moldovan, Russian, Romanian and Western scholars on the subject (which he clearly studied minutiously ). His preliminary research revealed that, to date, there is no coherent and comprehensive work on the subject. The absolute majority of the available material is either biased in its selection of primary sources, or focused on narrow aspects and short periods of time. A complete understanding of the Soviet politics on nation building in Moldova requires a balanced longitudinal study, which would discuss this process “from cradle to grave”. Moreover, it would have to include cultural, ethnodemographic, linguistic , psychological, as well as economic dimensions. The undertaking may seem to be too ambitious, unless the author manages to find a suitable way to structure the material . In this case, the formula was generated by the epistemological views of the author. Casu expressed from the very beginning his conviction (backed by a quote from the discourses of Paul Valery) that in every case there must be facts on which everyone must (and do) agree. Regardless of the debates that surround them, certain events occurred in history beyond reasonable doubt. Therefore, the key to presenting a comprehensive and objective history of the processes under discussion was found by the author in the method derived from the previous assertion. In other words, he engaged in a extensive comparative study of sources, and filtered out all the dubious, or tendentious elements from the final presentation. The result was an advanced textbook which narrated the events grouped in chapters by aspects (cultural, linguistic , ethnodemographic, economic , psychological), supporting every sentence with rich footnotes and disclosing every gap in the data that was available. This work was a huge advancement towards objectivity, but fell short of reaching its goal, because of the obvious tribute it had to pay to the Soviet tradition of historic lore. According to the latter, objectivity is taken for granted not only in the real life events, but also in the mind of the historian. A researcher is supposed to be a professional who has superior knowledge on the events that he or she is selflessly...