The 1st Congress of Deputies of All Levels of Pridnestrovie took place 35 years ago

Deputies of villages, districts and cities of the left-bank Soviet Moldova and the city of Bendery gathered 35 years ago, on June 2, 1990 for the 1st Congress of Deputies of all Levels. 673 delegates of the congress arrived in the village of Parkany, Slobodzeya district. Historians recall that nothing like this had ever happened on the territory of the Soviet Union.

Deputies of all levels gathered in Parkany 10 days after a crowd of nationalists beat up Pridnestrovian deputies of the Supreme Council of the MSSR in Chisinau. Thus, the 1st Congress of Deputies of All Levels of Pridnestrovie was a kind of response to the aggressive nationalist sentiments of the Popular Front of Moldova. Deputies of village and district councils held meetings with residents in preparation for this important political event. Strikes were held at enterprises against the introduction of laws in the MSSR on the widespread use of the Moldovan language and its translation into the Latin script at the same time. There were clashes, since many heads of Pridnestrovian villages were on the side of the Popular Front of Moldova. The congress in Parkany was devoted to both ideological and economic issues. The Pridnestrovian Historical Portal reports that Pridnestrovians indeed had to independently resolve all vital issues against the backdrop of the collapse of existing ties between the subjects of the USSR in the context of an increasingly worsening economic situation and a large-scale socio-political crisis. The Declaration on the Socio-Economic Development of Pridnestrovie was adopted at the First Congress on June 2, 1990 and the Coordination Council was elected under the chairmanship of the future President of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic Igor Smirnov, who at that time headed the Tiraspol City Council. The Declaration contained the most important political norms for building a state (transfer of power to the Councils of People's Deputies, separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers, apoliticality of officials at any level of all branches of government) in addition to economic aspects. The document enshrined some rights and freedoms of citizens (political pluralism, equality of nationalities, free development of culture and languages, freedom of national self-determination of the individual), which later became the basis of the constitutional system in the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic. The Declaration of the Congress contained a provision that the most important issues of socio-political and socio-economic life should be put to a referendum. The congress recommended raising the issue of the feasibility of the formation of the Pridnestrovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within the Moldavian SSR in the future at local referendums based on the absence of any guarantees for the protection of civil rights by the official state bodies of the MSSR.

The First Congress of Deputies of All Levels of Pridnestrovie laid the foundations of the statehood of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic on June 2, 1990, the decision on the creation of which was made three months later, on September 2, 1990.

The Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic Alexander Korshunov addressed the delegates of the First and Second Congresses of Deputies of All Levels of Pridnestrovie:

The Congress of Deputies of All Levels in Pridnestrovie is a collegial advisory body of representative power, in the work of which deputies of the Supreme Council of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, city, district, village and settlement Councils participate. The Congress of Deputies of All Levels is convened on the most important issues of the domestic and foreign policy of the republic. The work of the congress is headed by the Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic. 

7 congresses of deputies of all levels have been held in Pridnestrovie over 35 years: in 1990, 1991, 1995, 2006 and 2024. More details about them are in the cards prepared by the press service of the Supreme Council of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic.