Flag adopted 1990-05-12, coat of arms adopted 1990-11-03
Flag adopted 1990-05-12, coat of arms adopted 1990-11-03
This region, historically known as Bessarabia, has changed hands many times. After being Turkish for many years it became Russian in 1810. In 1917 it proclaimed independence before joining Romania in 1918. In 1940, under the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, it once more became Soviet. The territory was joined to the pre-existing Moldovan ASSR, a Soviet fiction carved out of Ukraine which in fact had very few Moldovans living there (this is the origin of the dispute between the modern Republic of Moldova and the self-styled Dniestr Republic, the largely Slavic-populated eastern region) and became the Moldovan SSR on 2 August 1940. From 1941 until 1944 Romania, allied to the Axis powers, once again ruled Bessarabia.
Post war, the Soviets created a largely artificial Moldovan language (largely accomplished by transcribing Romanian from the Latin alphabet into Cyrillic) and sought to encourage the creation of a separate Moldovan nation. This fiction could not disguise the fact that the Moldovans are essentially Romanian, and although Moldova's initially expressed aspiration of union with Romania is now much more muted, the Moldovan flag is basically that of Romania with the addition of the national coat of arms on the yellow stripe.
Romania/Moldova adopted a flag in the three colours during the revolutions of 1848 which drew inspiration (and vexillology) from the French revolution.
The old medieval principality of Moldova had a red military flag with a bison's (not ox's, as you think) head in the center. The bison is a symbol of Moldova and as old chronicles said means "power, independence and pride". This head you can see on our coat of arms. The three colors of Romanian and Moldovan flags were proposed in 1848 and represented three part of Romania:
I have been lead to believe that the bull like emblem is actually that of an Aurochs, a mamouth beast of pre-historic descent that survived in the remoter regions of eastern Europe untill the eightenth century, before it was hunted to extinction.
The story attributes the use of the aurochs head to the fact that the founding price of Moldova (who I think was a noble possibly of Hungarian descent) encountered one of these beasts on his travels from the Mountains of northern Romania (either the Marmourous region or the bucovina) and that the animal attacked, killing the nobles wife who was thrown into the river Moldova, which subsequently became the Romanian name for the territory east of the Carpathian mountains.
I am not sure if this legend is true, but the same scene is displayed in statue form in Sucevita in northern Romania.
"I am a Bassarabian or Moldovan as we are known these days and I would
like to correct some of the information that my fellow Bassarabian has given
you. First of all our flag represents the fact that we, Moldovans are the same
as the Romanians.The tricolour and the eagle shows the same latin routes and
the same ancestors. Bassarabia used to be part of the Principality of Moldova
and at one point it even used to be part of the Kingdom of Romania. The flag
shows that we hope one day that we could be one with our true homeland, Romania."
George Stoica, 19 March 1999
Just to give a brief history. Bessarabia hasa long been a part of Principality of Moldova located between Carpathian mountains and Dniestrer. After the Ottoman invasion, Moldova lost its independemce and became a sort of self-ruled province and its rulers (Gospodars) were appointed by Ottomans. Bessarabia became part of Russia according to the terms of peace treaty signed by Russia and Turkey in 1812. Authonomy was granted to Valakhia and the rest of Moldaova according to the Adrianopol Russian-Turkish treaty signed in 1829. In 1859 Valakhia and Moldova united as Principality of Romania which got formal independence 1n 1878 after another Russian-Turkish war when Romanians were Russian allies.
Bessarabia went back to Romania in 1918, whan Romania signed separate treaty with Austro-Germans (in fact, there was no other choice for Romania). Soviet Russia and later USSR did not recognise this transition. In 1924 Moldovian autonomy within Ukrainian SSR was proclaimed (now Transdniester). Probably Soviet authority wished to use it as a core for future "Soviet Romania". In 1940, USSR forced Romania to withdraw from Bessarabia which became Moldovan SSR. But some territories where Romanians (or Moldovans, actually it is a matter of self-determination of people of Moldova) had been minority were passed to Ukraine (South Bessaqrabia and Khotin). Simultaneously most part of Moldovan authonomy was transmitted to Moldovan SSR.
In 1941, after the Nazi invasion, Romania took back Bessarabia, annexed Trandniestr and all Ukrainian territories between Dniester and Bug (including Odessa). After the war, borders of 1940 were restored.
The current flag of Moldova was established in 1990 and Symbolised both Romanian
origin and wish to reunification (at the time most of non-communist Moldovan
politicians wanted to reunite). But it is turned out that most part of Moldovan
population do not support they aspirations. Now Moldova is fully independent
state and has no intentions to become part of Romania.
The colours and design of Moldovan flag is indeed intended to show proximity and kin to Romania, and it can not be denyed. It may be that a hope for a unification is also suggested in it, but as far as I know that is not the imidiate intention nor a political option whidely supported in Moldova (but surely it exists).
Anyway, it is not unusual and unheard, quite contrary, that the flags have symbolism of some idealistic hopes (or even assumption of some neighbouring parts), without the explicit imidiate political request (or treath). The case that first come to mind is central-americal "wish" for unification clearly expressed in their flags (and COAs), but without any imidiate political meaning and support. The "pan" colours (panslavene, panarab, panafircan...) could also be read that way, without making much of political meaning in this moment of history.
If I am not wrong, Moldovan-Romanian unification might easily be set into such "ideal" category.
[Editor's Note: This page has been carrying the following ratio 1:2 flag
at the time of these messages]
The Moldovan flag is the same as Romanian, the only difference is that the
moldovan flag has a coat of arms.
What do we really know about the proportions? What are our sources for the
proportion of the flag?
I checked three books, where I found the Moldova
flag
[hes92] explicitly states 1:2 and the image is 1:2
[vis94] shows an
image in 1:2
[zna99] explicitly states 2:3 and the image is 2:3
So we
might have the following explanations:
1. One or two of the above books are
wrong.
2. The flag was originally (de jure or only de facto)
1:2, but changed to 2:3 later on.
3. Both versions are in use, perhaps
signifying different political attitudes: As 2:3 is the proportion of the
Romanian flag, a 2:3 Moldovan flag might (might!) signify some pro-unification
opinion. Whereas 1:2 as the proportion of the flags of the former Soviet Union
might show some affinity to either Moldovan independence or Soviet
nostalgy.
To come to a conclusion, we would need:
1. Good evidence of
the actual use of the flag, i.e. photos
2. The legal texts prescribing the
flag.
About the ratio. It is clear that the current proportions are 2:3, even our
page says so, but perhaps our current image was once correct. Wasn't the
Moldovan flag (as other ex-soviet flags) 1:2 in 1992, to be later changed to
2:3?
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From what I have read (an Encyclopedia Americana flag article written by Whitney Smith) the coat of arms is an eagle holding a cross in its beak and an olive branch and scepter in its claws. On top of the eagle is a shield "perfess" (split in half horizontally) red on top and blue below, with a stylized ox head over all between a rose and a cresent. The eagle is from the old Romanian coat of arms and ultimately from Byzantium; the ox head represents the old province of Bessarabia; the cross is obviously Christian; the scepter and olive branch are probably for sovereignty and peace; as for the flower and cresent, I have no idea.
A similar flag is shown in Album 2000, captioned Customs Ensign. Differences
are that it is swallow tailed 1:2, indentation 90 degrees, a lighter blue field
(approxim. Pantone 299c), with 14 visible embettlements and 14 gaps, and the
indentations ocuches the white stripe just where the 15th brick would come.
Might it be that the swallow tailed version is to be used at sea, while the
rectangular for hoisting on land?
Rectangular flag is for hoisting in ports and customs check points, and
dependencies of the customs service. Swallow tailed 1:2 flag is for ships of the
customs agencies.
This story was reported in the Romanian newspaper "Romania Libera" (3 October
2000, article by Camelia Varvara).
In summary:
During the plenary
session of the Parliament of Moldova held on 29 September 2000, there was a
harsh debate on the use of the Romanian language in the medias. The deputy
Sergiu Burca evoked the communist medias of the 1988-1991 period, which called
the Moldovan tricolor flag "fastchiskii flag" (fascist flag). The deputy
Vladimir Voronin, president of the Moldovan Communist Party, immediatly shouted
"And they were right!".
Voronin is a former Minister of Interior of the 80's,
when demonstrations for resurrection of the national spirit, promotion of the
Romanian language and tricolor flag were repressed.
Several deputees have
sued the communist leader for "serious insults against the national flag of
Moldova". Voronin answered he had not intended to insult the Moldovan flag,
but another blue-yellow-red tricolor (evidently the Romanian flag).
Article
203/2 of the Penal Code of Moldova says that desecration of national symbols of
the Moldovan state or other states by people having official positions shall be
punished by destitution, 3 to 7 years in jail or a fine equivalent to 80 average
salaries.
The Romanian Foreign Office has moderatly reacted to Voronin's
words and asked the Moldovan authorities to take appropriate action against
Voronin, although his insults shall not endanger the relationships between both
countries.
Proportions: 2:3
The flag is made of 5 red and 4 black stripes, meaning the 9 villages which
have based the city of Ungheni.
The white "chevron" on COA (and white
triangle on flag, I think) stands for the river Prut, which makes a 90 degrees
turn there.
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