Moldovenism

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Moldovenism is a term used to describe the political support and promotion of a Moldovan identity and culture, including a Moldovan language, independent from those of any other ethnic group, the Romanians in particular. It is primarily used as a pejorative by the opponents of such ideas^{[citation needed]} as part of the wider controversy over ethnic and linguistic identity in Moldova.

Some of its supporters ascribe this identity to the medieval Principality of Moldavia. Others, in order to explain the current differences between Romanian-speaking inhabitants of the two banks of the Prut River, ascribe it to the long incorporation of Bessarabia in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. Opponents, on the other hand, claim that Moldovans and Romanians are a single ethnic group and that the Moldovan identity was artificially created by the Soviet authorities in the Moldavian SSR.

Supporters of a separate Moldovan identity contend that the people of Moldavia historically self-identified as "Moldavian" before the notion of "Romanian" became widespread. The belief that Romanians and Moldovans in Bessarabia and the Moldavian ASSR (MASSR) formed two separate ethnonational groups, speaking different languages and possessing separate historical and cultural traits, was also endorsed by the Soviet Union.^[1]