Soviet Satellites - Moldova

22 Jun 2016 . category: Travel . Comments
#Soviet

Intro

Our last Soviet Satellite was Moldova, added at the last minute due to our Turkmenistan visas falling through. We were mostly in Moldova for the chance to visit Transnistria, a breakaway state that has been described as “a veritable supermarket of drugs, girls, and weapons.” We had actually considered going the year of our Balkans trip, but were scared away by these sorts of descriptions on the internet as well as the dire warnings of a Romanian friend. This time, we did more research, and determined we were probably going to be okay. (Spoiler alert: we made it out alive).

Unfortunately, flying from Tashkent to Chisinau (the capital of Moldova) was a real pain, requiring a crazy early flight from Tashkent to Moscow, 14 hours in Moscow Airport, and then a crazy late flight from Moscow to Chisinau. Thankfully, we survived the ordeal, and Aeroflot didn’t lose our bags, yay! Also, we realized just how lucky we’d been in Central Asia: suddenly paying more than a dollar for bottled water seemed ridiculously expensive. Upon arrival, we checked into our wonderfully Soviet hotel, slightly apprehensive but excited for the next day.

Transnistria!

Getting from Chisinau to Transnistria is actually quite straightforward, with buses running frequently to Transnistria’s capital, Tiraspol. We were a bit worried about the border, having heard many stories of travelers being detained and asked for bribes. As a precaution, we wrote down a bunch of phrases in Russian such as “No bribes!” as well as the anti-bribery hotline. Apparently these had been useful for travelers in the past. Thankfully, the border going in was no problem, and we were handed the all important migration card without having to ask for it. We were even shepherded through by our bus driver who, although not an English-speaker, realized that two American tourists might put him behind schedule. He tried to cut the line for us to the outrage of the crowd, but all was well in the end. We then met our guide Sasha from Transnistria Tour and began walking around the city. The sights were honestly not particularly exciting, a collection of war memorials, monuments, etc. like many other cities. So I’m going to focus instead here on overall interesting thoughts. Thanks to Aaron for writing some of the sentences below.

Transnistria as a tourist attraction is advertised as the “last slice of the USSR,” but besides a handful of Lenin statues, Transnistria could have been anywhere in Eastern Europe. And indeed, we saw more Lenin statues in Kyrgyzstan and larger ones in Tajikistan. The main anomaly was the prevalence of Russian (not Soviet) flags and banners calling for unification with Russia:

Amusingly, there was even a huge billboard of an athletic Putin!

Relations with the US were…complicated. Our guide noted that because of Russian TV, and general pro-Russian sentiment, people there generally don’t like the US or Americans. However, American cultural hegemony was still on full display, with our guide’s music playlist consisting of almost entirely American songs, and Disney characters being easily found.

Politically, it’s worth noting that unlike any of the four Stans we visited, Transnistria had a totally peaceful transition of power from a post-Soviet leader in 2010. While the president is immensely powerful, he does appears to be democratically accountable. There were no giant photos of him to be seen (only Putin was worthy of that honor, apparently) and our guide Sasha told us openly of the president’s failed economic plan and 30% pension cuts. These had apparently made him immensely unpopular, and she assured us that he would lose handily in the upcoming elections. We certainly didn’t hear talk like that in Uzbekistan! Nationalism was also unexceptional. While our guide referred to World War II as the Great Patriotic War, the 1992 conflict that secured Transnistria’s unrecognized independence was simply the “Moldovan-Transnistrian Conflict.” We saw several war memorials to both conflicts, but nothing out of line with other post-Soviet cities. The Soviets did like their World War II monuments. Pardon me, Great Patriotic War monuments. Of course, there are also more light-hearted structures, including this “I <3 Tiraspol” sign:

The only really exceptionally jarring thing was the country’s poor economic health. Our guide described how as a secondary school English teacher she would be paid a mere $130 per month. Hardly a living wage in a country where prices seemed to be around half of what we pay in the U.S. For example, the pizza we had for lunch (at Andy’s Pizza) cost $6. See this documentary for more about the frightening economic circumstances. It discusses how many men in rural villages have sold kidneys in order to make ends meet. The lack of economic opportunity has caused most of the country’s youth to look elsewhere for employment, with most going to Russia apparently. And Russia supports Transnistria in other ways as well, providing Russian citizenship to many citizens as well as free gas to the country. Basically, given the rough economic circumstances brought about by its strange political status, support from Russia seems to be the only thing keeping Transnistria afloat. No wonder so many Transnistrians want to join, even “pleading” according to the BBC.

Given all these hardships, it’s unsurprising that many young people don’t have a particularly optimistic view of the future. Talking to Sasha about the this was definitely the most interesting (and also saddest) part of our tour, especially given that she’s exactly the same age as me. We asked her where she thought Transnistria would be in 25 years. At first she laughed that she wouldn’t be here in 25 years, so it didn’t matter to her. She was hoping to end up in Germany, or at least Russia. Then when pressed, she responded that Transnistria would not exist in 25 years. Despite the pro-Russia fervor, reminding us a bit of the relationship between Kosovo and Albania, she didn’t think that union was feasible after Crimea. But, she also believed that anti-Moldova propaganda would make that reunion challenging as well. Basically, the overall outlook seems rather grim, with no future scenarios being both desirable and feasible.

On a happier note, here’s a selfie we took with Sasha:

Exiting Transnistria

Now the hard part, leaving Transnistria. This is largely where other travelers had been shaken down for bribes. Thankfully, it was surprisingly relaxed, even more so than entry. We didn’t even have to get off the bus! A guard came through and collected our cards without checking passports and we were on our way in thirty seconds flat. We had survived Transnistria!

Chisinau

We ended by wandering around Chisinau, the highlight of which was this small Occupy-esque encampment, apparently by the Dignity and Truth Platform Party in response to worsening economic conditions and corruption scandals. I wish we had had more time in Chisinau, but a whole day wandering around in the Transnistrian heat left me completely exhausted.

The End

This marks the end of our Sojourn through Soviet Satellite States. For anyone who actually read this far, thanks for sticking around. From here the traveling continues, onward to Istanbul and 14 other European countries!

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