Problems of Preservation of National and Cultural Identity in the Context of Cultural Policy of Transnistria
This article analyzes the historical prerequisites that influence the formation of the identity of the population of Transnistria, based on the common language, history, culture and statehood in the conditions of polyethnicity and multiculturalism of the republic with a “deferred legal status”. Among the array of basic identities, the national-cultural one is viewed through the prism of regulatory, legislative, socio-cultural and linguistic policies aimed at protecting the cultural, educational and linguistic rights and freedoms of the Pridnestrovian people, strengthening the statehood of Transnistria with existing educational and cultural imbalances, as well as progressive reverse processes. When considering the current state of interethnic consolidation, attention is focused on the problems of preserving national and cultural identity, its markers are singled out, transformational processes are identified due to historical, political and ethno-cultural interactions, the dynamics of the ethnic composition of the population of Transnistria is analyzed. It is noted that in the ethnic structure over the past 30 years, the Moldovan ethnos (initially being the backbone of the statehood of the newly formed country) has given way to the Russian one, because the share of Russian citizens is already more than a third of the population (33.8%). At the same time, a part of the Transnistrians already self-identify as the “Pridnestrovian people”. Thus, on the basis of the ideology of “Transnistrian internationalism”, which allows representatives of more than 70 ethnic groups to coexist peacefully, a new community is being formed, which makes it possible to observe the transformation processes taking place in the study area in dynamics. Focusing on “Russian culture”, the author focuses on the need to activate the mechanisms of creative bilingualism, the development of the ethno-festival movement, ethnographic event tourism of various ethnicities of the multinational Transnistria, which should be reflected in the ongoing State cultural policy. The author presents the directions of activity for the preservation of the national and cultural identity of the Transnistrian people in the key of ethno-cultural, communication and infrastructural processes.