Meet the one who founded political Moldovanism, the Moldavian language and Transnistria

Okay, obviously it wasn’t just one man, but if we had to choose one man to consider "the founding father"this would definitely be Abram Grinștein.

I recommend you to read his entire biography on Wikipedia, as it is not very long. But very briefly:

Grinstein was born in Balti in 1890 and was a lawyer by profession. During the Russian revolution and the proclamation of Moldovan autonomy, Abram Grinstein was elected deputy in Country Council. The Country Council was the local parliament that had a key role in the unification of Bessarabia with Romania. But Grinstein was on opposite ideological positions. So after the unification was achieved, he crossed the Dniester into the territories controlled by the communists and joined the Soviet Communist Party.

In 1920, Grinstein was the organizer the attack on the Romanian Senate, resulting in 3 deaths. Even if his name is eclipsed by his Max Goldstein (the one who planted the bomb)Grinstein was the organizer and financier.

But only now are the important things done by Grinstein following: he was the organizer and the first de facto head of Moldovan RASS. He was also the author of the first text that claimed that Moldovans are NOT Romanians and that the Moldovan language is different from Romanian. In fact, this was a point of conflict between the Romanian communists exiled in the USSR and the representatives of the Soviet authorities. The Romanians claimed that all of Romania must be united and, thus, a unity of the Moldavians with the rest of the Romanians must be affirmed, while the Soviets and Grinstein focused on the annexation of Bessarabia to the USSR. Iosif Badeev, the first first secretary of the Communist Party of the Moldavian SSR, promoted the use of the Cyrillic alphabet for the Moldavian language.

Grinstein was killed by Stalin and forgotten by history. But the consequences of his activities are still visible today:

1. The existence of the idea that "Moldovans are NOT Romanians".

2. The existence of Transnistria.