Alexander Korshunov, “The future of our republic is in the unity of the Pridnestrovian people”

International Mother Language Day is celebrated around the world on February 21. It was established with the aim of promoting linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism in countries. “Languages ​​are the most powerful tool for the preservation and development of material and spiritual heritage. According to UNESCO estimates, half of the approximately 6000 languages ​​of the world (of which 139 are in Russia) may soon lose their last speakers. Every two weeks one language disappears in the world, taking with it the whole cultural and intellectual heritage of ethnic groups”, the rationale for the holiday says. Such an endangered language can be considered the Moldovan language in the Cyrillic script In Pridnestrovie. It is now spoken and written only in our republic. The language, traditions and culture of the Moldovan people are protected at the state level with the support of the Union of Moldovans of Pridnestrovie. Other national communities also operate in the republic - Societies of Belarusian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Russian culture, Jewish and Armenian communities, and so on.

It was with the protection of the right to speak the native language that the history of the formation of the Pridnestrovian statehood began. In August-September 1989, residents of Pridnestrovian cities took part in political strike. They demanded from the leadership of Soviet Moldavia to introduce two state languages ​​on the territory of the republic - Moldavian and Russian. In the summer of 1989, the law "On the Functioning of Languages ​​on the Territory of the MSSR" was adopted. According to it, the Moldovan language, based on the Latin script, as the state language "is used in all spheres of political, economic, social and cultural life and therefore performs the function of the language of interethnic communication on the territory of the MSSR". The Pridnestrovian protest against the discriminatory language policy of Kishinev became one of the prerequisites for the creation of a young republic.