United Work Collective Council of Transnistria: Causes and Background

Abstract

The United Work Collective Council of Transnistria remains a relevant but understudied topic. It started as a reaction to forced Romanianization in the 1980s at workers’ unions at factories and enterprises. A single body to represent the international interests of all collectives was a logical consequence of the sociopolitical mobilization. The research hypothesis was as follows: the donor regions that faced with discriminatory centrifugal policies had to mobilize their socio-political movements to defend their interests. The author applied the method of historical and comparative analysis to the cases of Transnistria and Slovenia, which shared the same prerequisites for socio-political mobilization. However, the cases had substantive and chronological differences. In Slovenia, the socio-political mobilization was protracted and started as early as in the 1950s; the consolidating idea was to achieve national emancipation within the federation. In Transnistria, the intensity of socio-political mobilization (1988–1989) was caused by the radical centrifugal policy; the civic and ideological values were the consolidating idea. Local elites and labor collectives contributed to the socio-political mobilization both in Slovenia and Transnistria. The radical nationalist policy, destabilized legislative initiatives, uneven economic development, and disproportionate distribution of resources triggered the socio-political mobilization in the donor republics, which eventually resulted in open confrontations with the central government.