1956: Controverse lingvistice la Institutul Pedagogic din Chișinău

Abstract

In this study, the author analyses the linguistic controversies that erupted at the department of "Moldovan" language and literature of the State Pedagogical Institute of Chisinau during the controversial year 1956. After a few years of real linguicide promoted by I. D. Ceban, the director of the Institute of History, Language and Literature of the Moldovan Scientific Research Base of the USSR Academy of Sciences and his henchmen, de-Stalinization and Khrushchev's Thaw, allowed the "Romanianophiles, slightly camouflaged" philologists, to reject the theses of the "specifics of the Moldovan language" and to affirm the linguistic unity of the people that were living on both banks of the Prut, even though the Prut was just a political border. These linguistic controversies between these two opposite camps of the philologist-teachers of the department of the "Moldovan" language and literature are important for the explanation of the perpetuation of Romanianism and genesis of the national movement in the 80‘s.