Zhirinovsky's Russian Empire
- Thread starter Pellegrino
- Start date
MarshalBraginsky
Banned
Although what can Zhirinovsky gain from stirring up trouble in Ireland? Other than to give Britain some major headaches. Also, I'm not sure if FARC would even be willing to obtain aid from a not-so-communist-anymore UIS since they'd be appalled at the actions of the UIS. Then again, the Baloch weren't communists and they've obtained aid from them.
whitecrow
Banned
Let me put it another way: if North Korea or Apartheid South Africa were to anounce their support for Quebec independance, do you think politicians of Quebec would support those nations internationally?
MarshalBraginsky
Banned
Would have been irrelevant for sure. Then again, what happens to South Africa post-apartheid in this dystopia?
Even Lenin took cash form German Inteligence in 1917 so
...With Moscow playing up in Latin Americas Cuba and Castro may come into play. His island might be use by Russians in smuggling operations, ground for training bases for guerrilas from other countries etc. Interesting what Washington will do with that?
I was thinking about it, however PoD seems to occur to late to preserve aparheid after 1994. Z may try get some attention is RSA, but it is not to late for change anything there? Apartheid was worldwide under fire in 80s , coeperation with UIS mean only continuing of political isolation.
I just find out some idea. I think it will be interesting, if some future uptades will contain intervieves with president Lebed, from which we can learn about history of Russia under Zhirinovsky from his point of viev.
We will have two narrations, one Putin`s, claiming that Lebed was all time in control of UIS and Lebed`s, claiming thats all lie and this " Lord God's monkey" trying whitening himself by accusing him.
Besides, I am curious how Lebed will explain role he played in Zhirynovsky`s regime and and various war crimes commited by UIS armed forces which he was in charge.
We will have two narrations, one Putin`s, claiming that Lebed was all time in control of UIS and Lebed`s, claiming thats all lie and this " Lord God's monkey" trying whitening himself by accusing him.
Besides, I am curious how Lebed will explain role he played in Zhirynovsky`s regime and and various war crimes commited by UIS armed forces which he was in charge.
Good point Belle! The thing is, even if Lebed is secretly in charge all along he NEEDS Vladimir Zhirinovsky to be the fall guy. However, as we see in the next post, the military begins to operate with different philosophies in different parts of the country. Now in OTL Lebed earned a lot of his reputation because he was a General who took great care to avoid casualties. He won the conflict in Moldova despite being outnumbered 2-1 by the Moldovan troops, and in 1996 he was hailed as a savior in OTL when he went to Chechnya to negotiate a peace since he was seen as a resonable man (unlike General Tikhomirov who famously said during peace negotiations that he was about to bomb Grozny into the ground and everyone in the city should leave. Lebed was furious at the statement and called it "a bad joke"). In TTL we get hints that even if Lebed is in control of the country, he still has limited control over the military despite what Putin says (which has an element of self interest in it as well). we may never know the truth to what role General Lebed plays,
but as for a Zhirinovsky angle, there is somehong to say about not really knowing what he thinks and knows. what fun is a AH TL on Russia without some intrigue and mystery?
Last edited:
PART FIFTY FIVE: DIVIDE AND CONQUER
PART FIFTY FIVE: DIVIDE AND CONQUER
PART FIFTY FIVE: DIVIDE AND CONQUER
Some new names in this update:
Gagauzia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gagauzia
Former Italian PM Carlo Ciampi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Azeglio_Ciampi
UIS Presidential Candidate Vladimir Putin in an interview with the BBC on August 1, 2011.
Discussing the Moldovan conflict in 1994.
BBC: By February of 1994 it was increasingly looking like entire UIS was about to implode into a series of deadly civil wars. Chechnya and Georgia were in open revolt against the Russian dominated federal government. Tajikistan was in the midst of what most historians regard as a civil war between various ethnic and political factions. Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan’s border dispute nearly erupted into a full fledged war, and the violence in the former Baltic republics of Latvia and Estonia was beginning to spill over into Lithuania and even Russia. How did the UIS avoid collapse in 1994 and how did they avoid a situation where more of the country didn’t start turning into Chechnya?
Putin: There soon emerged two factions in the UIS military. General Vyacheslav Tikhomirov embraced the Zhirinovsky Doctrine. Attack and destroy and make an example of any who dared challenge the UIS. This was proving disastrous in Chechnya. But General Vladimir Kosylev and General Alexander Lebed embraced another approach, one that proved highly effective in Georgia and Moldova.
BBC: What approach was that?
Putin: Divide and conquer.
“When Eagles Soared: A Modern History of the Republic of Georgia”
(Routledge Series on Russian and East European Studies) – By Timothy Burnside
Routledge Press, (2005)
CHAPTER EIGHT
With the Georgian defeat at the battle of Sukhumi Colonel Akaki Eliava’s tenuous grip on power was broken. Fleeing Georgian troops were soon surrounded by rebellious factions of the Georgian military. These troops, loyal to ousted president Eduard Shevardnadze, quickly routed the Georgian troops loyal to Colonel Eliava in what many Georgians historians consider to be the day that the independent republic of Georgia ceased to exist.
“Shevardnadze made a deal with the devil,” one Georgian politician recalled, “and naturally the devil reneged on the deal. But by then it was too late. He destroyed half of the Georgian military in that operation.”
Although the majority of the defeated troops loyal to Colonel Eliava had little interest in fighting their fellow Georgians, Shevardnadze stunned his countrymen by ordering his forces to attack the now totally demoralized and defeated Georgian army.
“Many of the troops who fled Sukhumi were openly were hostile to Colonel Eliava and probably would have ousted him themselves once they reached Tbilisi,” the politician said, “but the vast majority of them were Zviadists and would have installed former President Zviad Gamsakhurdia as President. Needless to say, for the Shevardists this was unacceptable.”
However, the defeat of Zviadist forces proved to be a pyrrhic victory for Shevardnadze.
“Many Georgians saw him as a puppet of Moscow after that,” the politician added, “and although his troops easily overthrew the Eliava regime days after the battle of Sukhumi, the Georgian military was so badly damaged by the failed invasion of Abkhazia and the subsequent purge that they could do little to stop the Russians from overrunning Abkhazia and tearing it away from Georgia.”
Borders of the Caucasus Republics of the UIS in March of 1994
Romanian President stuns NATO by entering into “Bessarabian partnership” with Moldova counterpart; Russian Prime Minister calls move ‘unacceptable”
By Richard Roundtree
Economist
May 03, 1994
In another sign that the UIS may be on its last legs, Romanian President Gheorghe Funar stunned leaders in Western Europe by announcing that Romania will be signing the “Romanian-Bessarabian Friendship Treaty” with the UIS republic of Moldova next month. The move is seen as nothing short of a provocation by many in the West, with Italian Prime Minister Carlo Azeglio Ciampi condemning the planned partnership, calling it a “dangerous unilateral move that threatens the stability of all of Europe.”
Romanian President Funar dismissed fears in the West, promising that the “Romanian-Bessarabian Friendship Treaty” does little more than create a “free trade zone” between the two Republics.
“Our Moldovan brothers are suffering under crippling sanctions,” Funar said on Romanian television shortly after announcing the planned treaty, “every country in the UIS is suffering thanks to the political isolation of Russia. But why should Moldovans suffer because of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a man they despise and never had the opportunity to vote against?”
However, the move was quickly condemned in the Russian Duma, with newly appointed Russian Prime Minister Gennady Burbulis calling it “completely unacceptable.” Burbulis condemned sections of the planned treaty that would allow Moldovan citizens to obtain Romanian passports as well as a planned unified Romanian-Moldovan currency that would replace that UIS Ruble.
“Nearly a third of the citizens of Moldova are not Moldovan and do not want to be treated like second class citizens in a Greater Romania,” he said, “and considering Funar’s track record in Hungarian Szeklerland, can anyone blame them?”
Funar claims that the “unified passport” is simply an attempt to allow Moldovan citizens to “pull themselves out from the crippling international sanctions imposed on the UIS” and dismisses the fears over a unified currency.
“The UIS Ruble is in freefall,” he said dismissively, “inflation is at over 500% right now and there is no end in sight. But Moldovans have no say in the economic and political policies of Moscow and it is these policies that have led to this economic catastrophe.”
Russian President Vladimir Zhirinovsky also came out in opposition to the planned treaty and was even harsher in his criticism of it.
“Why doesn’t President Kerrey come out and call this what it is, a cheap Romanian anschluss?” he said at a press conference. “It is because the West doesn’t care! Anschluss is acceptable to them as long as the victims of a new Anschluss are Russian!”
The rehabilitation of General Alexander Lebed: A UIS soldier recounts the brief conflict in Moldova in April of 1994
Foreign Affairs (5/10/2004)
by William Hason
(Tiraspol, UIS)- Oleksiy Pylypenko remembers the day that the disgraced former Marshal of the UIS stepped off the helicopter in Tiraspol like it was yesterday.
“We heard that we were being appointed a new commander,” the Ukrainian soldier said with a chuckle, “a man named Colonel Gusev. Well, none of us ever heard of Colonel Gusev. We assumed they were really scrapping the bottom of the barrel with our new commander. None of us realized it was a code name for General Lebed.”
Pylypenko saluted the General as he stepped off the helicopter, still believing he was the mysterious Colonel Gusev. But one look at the medals on his uniform and the rank on his shoulder stunned the young soldier.
“I couldn’t hide my shock,” he recounted, “I wasn’t sure if I was suppose to call him Colonel Gusev or General Lebed or Marshal Lebed or what. I couldn’t believe the one time Marshal of the UIS was now here in Tiraspol!”
The rehabilitation of the future President of the UIS began that day in the rebellious republic of Moldova. As the UIS was collapsing, Moldova seemed to be the next republic to kick dirt in the face of the federal government. The Moldovans already nationalized their armed forces, and looked poised to move on the loyalist stronghold of Tiraspol.
“All of the Slavs in Moldova fled to the east, to what we referred to as Transnistria and what the Moldovans sarcastically called the East Bank.”
“We watched the Moldovan news broadcast and it kept calling Transnistria the ‘Russian occupied East Bank’” Pylypenko recalled, “and they talking about how the Moldovan military would soon ‘liberate’ the East Bank and drive the Slavs back to Russia. But most of us grew up in Moldova. We lived our whole lives here. We were deeply troubled by the rhetoric coming out of Chisinau.”
The morale in Tiraspol was further complicated by the lack of leadership in the 14th Army. General G. I. Yakovlev, the former commander of the UIS 14th Army in Tiraspol, had been reassigned to the Serbian Republic of Krajina in late 1992 and for much of the fourteen months since his departure the 14th Army saw a revolving door of various commanding officers. Almost all of them saw Moldova as little more than a spring board to bigger and better things.
“Many of these officers had come from somewhere else and had little interest in anything other than getting appointed to the 16-man Committee for State Security and Defense,” Pylypenko said, “They would ultimately do little in Tiraspol except make our lives a living hell.”
The officers often believed that creating a well disciplined Army involved beating the troops and ‘whipping’ them into shape. However, this emphasis on discipline often was coupled with a lack of guidance or leadership.
“They would yell at us over the smallest things and even invent reasons to beat us,” Pylypenko recalled, “but they had no idea how we were supposed to deal with the growing problem in Chisinau.”
The Colonel who commanded the 14th Army in November of 1993 was a man who had a history with General Lebed, and who was determined to attract the attention of the 16-man Committee for State Security and Defense.
“Colonel Zakharik served under General Lebed in Azerbaijan in 1988,” Pylypenko recalled, “and was severely reprimanded by the General. But he was a political appointee and he complained to the Communist Party leadership after that. He tried to get General Lebed in trouble.”
Neither Lebed nor Zakharik forgot the incident and upon Lebed’s appointment as Marshal of the UDR, he saw to it that Zakharik was stationed in Siberia.
“Unfortunately for us UIS President Lukyanov wanted to give Zakharik more authority,” Pylypenko said, “he considered Zakharik a potential ally because of his strong ties to the Communist Party. So he made secret arrangements to have him transferred to Tiraspol in November of 1993. General Lebed never had time to correct the move since he was ousted as Marshal of the UIS just seven days after Zakharik’s appointment.”
The arrival of Zakharik came just as Moldovan President Gheorghe Ghimpu imposed his own version of the Zhirinovsky Act and ordered the nationalization of all Moldovan forces. The brash Colonel saw this as an opportunity to make a mark with UIS President Lukyanov.
“He ordered us to attack Chisinau and seize Ghimpu,” Pylypenko recalled, “but it was insanity! We numbered less than 11,000 and this newly nationalized Moldovan Army numbered nearly 30,000!”
Many in the 14th Army also resented the fact that the foreign born Zakharik was clearly ignorant about the unique ethnic makeup of the Army he commanded. The vast majority of the 14th Army was made up of local Transnistrians, while the rest were mostly Ukrainian.
“He had no idea how to deal with the Ukrainians,” Pylypenko said, “he kept beating us and berating us if we dared to speak Ukrainian to each other. Well, many of my fellow Ukrainians were fed up with this little officer from St. Petersburg. They just went home, back to the Ukraine. They didn’t need to put up with this, and they certainly didn’t need to take part in a suicide mission against the Moldovans.”
Colonel Zakharik became enraged at the mass defections and he ordered his troops to shoot any Ukrainian who abandoned their post. By then the 14th Army was on the verge of a full scale mutiny.
“We actually plotted out independence,” Pylypenko said with a laugh, “I know it sounds crazy to you, an independent Republic of Transnistria, but that was the plan. We would kill this Colonel and then declare our separation from Moldova and form the Transnistrian Army. That’s how fed up we were with Moscow.”
The UIS constitutional crisis in late 1993, which led to the overthrow of UIS President Lukyanov, also had the unintended effect of postponing the planned invasion of Bessarabia. When the reformists emerged in control of the UIS after the end of the crisis, a deadly purge of officers and politicians sent shivers down the back of the unpopular Colonel. Although the anti-Communist purges were only happening in Russia and not in the Ukraine Colonel Zakharik was justifiably terrified.
“He was in grave danger,” Pylypenko said with a chuckle, “for one thing there was no question he was a communist. Second, there was no question we were all looking for an excuse to kill him. As soon as Vladimir Zhirinovsky emerged as the victor of the Constitutional Crisis, Colonel Zakharik fled to the one place where communists were safe: Belarus.”
The Colonel’s disappearance had the unexpected effect of boosting morale and the defections soon ended as the remaining Ukrainians elected to stay with the 14th Army. However, when the report came in that the mysterious Colonel Gusev would be coming in to take over two months later, morale again dropped.
“We assumed they were going to send some other ambitious officer who had no qualms about using us as pawns in his quest to become promoted,” Pylypenko said, “that’s why we were so shocked when one of the most powerful men in the country stepped off the helicopter and announced he was taking over command of the 14th Army.”
General Lebed’s first act was to restore confidence in the UIS military, a difficult task as the men of the 14th Army had seen the disastrous conflict in Chechnya explode into a deadly and bloody civil war.
“When General Lebed saw the condition we were in he demanded to know who was in command,” Pylypenko recalled, “we assumed the commander would be publically berated in front of us. Our uniforms had become torn and Colonel Zakharik had used a strange punishment against us, of tearing off of rank insignias when he became angry with us and screaming that we were being demoted to the rank of private. As a result many of us didn’t have ranks or guard pins on our uniform. We looked somewhat unprofessional.”
A young Captain stepped forward and announced that he was acting commander of the 14th Army due to Colonel Zakharik’s defection. General Lebed demanded to know why the men were wearing guard pins made out of cardboard and rank insignias written on white tape which many of the men wore on their sleeves.
“The young captain explained what Colonel Zakharik had done,” Pylypenko said, “and how Zakharik never ordered new supplies before he fled. He also explained how nobody in Moscow would accept an order for supplies made by a mere captain and as a result he was unable to order new guard pins.”
What followed next stunned the young Ukrainian, and all of the men of the 14th Army.
“General Lebed told this captain that he would not have that problem anymore,” Pylypenko recalled, “he was now being promoted to major. He then thanked him for holding the 14th Army together under such difficult circumstances and saluted him.”
The move immediately won over many of the soldiers in the 14th Army.
“You have to realize that prior to that promotions were based on political connections,” Pylypenko said, “and as a result we would get these officers shipped in from Moscow who were worthless but well connected. Most of them couldn’t pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel. But General Lebed’s move to promote from within showed us that we were not going to be Moscow’s dumping ground for bad officers anymore!”
General Lebed also won the loyalty of his troops by promising them that they would not be required to launch an operation unless they were attacked first.
“He put a lot of our fears at ease on the first day when he told us that he was not interested in forcing an invasion of Moldova,” Pylypenko recalled. “He didn’t need to impress anyone in Moscow! He often promised us that he would never call on us to attack…only to counterattack!”
Over the next eight weeks the 14th Army began to regain much of the cohesiveness that made them one of the most feared units in the former Soviet Union. So much so that for many soldiers, there emerged a hope that the Moldovans would attack.
“Remember this was our home,” Pylypenko said, “many of us were driven out of Chisinau and once it became clear that General Lebed was not using us as a weapon to carry out Zhirinovsky’s dream of a Greater Russia we started to see the conflict for what it really was: a fight for our homeland!”
Unlike all of the other officers that preceded him, General Lebed also encouraged his men to watch the Romanian and Moldovan television networks. As the increasingly nationalistic rhetoric flowed from Chisinau and Bucharest, the men of the 14th Army began to realize that the attack would soon be coming.”
“He would sit and watch these reports from Chechnya with us,” Pylypenko recalled, “but rather then get angry he would tell us ‘that is what a man can do when he is defending his home, and soon enough you will be defending your homes as well.’ Then as if on cue the news would switch to some report from Romanian President Funar calling for Bessarabia to be ‘liberated’ from Russia and to be ‘free’. We knew what ‘free’ meant to Funar though. It meant free of Slavs!”
On May 2nd, 1994 the moment the men of the UIS 14th Army knew would come finally arrived. The Romanian and Moldovan presidents announced that they would be signing a “friendship treaty” that would all but eliminate the border between the two countries. Pylypenko knew what it would mean not only to Transnistria, but also to the UIS.
“If Moldova and Romania unified while Moldova was part of the UIS it would turn the UIS into the Holy Roman Empire,” Pylypenko recalled, “our borders would become some meaningless line on a map.”
The announcement was quickly followed by a devastating assault on the tiny autonomous republic of Gagauzia. Moldovan president Ghimpu was determined to eliminate the de facto independence of the two breakaway regions in his country and moved on the lightly armed Gagauzians, perhaps erroneously believing that the Russians would never come to the aid of the Turkic minorities.
“It was a gross miscalculation on his part,” Pylypenko said, “perhaps Vladimir Zhirinovsky had a problem with Turkic peoples. But General Lebed saw them as countrymen persecuted by a fascist regime in Bucharest. For him, and for all of us, they were not Turkic but Transnistrians and we all now were under attack.”
The assault on Gagauzia prompted General Lebed to order his troops to prepare an assault, much to the delight of most of the troops in the 14th Army. Despite being outnumbered nearly two to one, General Lebed had a secret weapon up his sleeve.
“Many Moldovans resented President Ghimpu and deeply disliked Romanian President Funar,” Pylypenko, “they were prepared to fight for an independent Moldova but not Greater Romania.”
The lightning assault against the “West Bank” as many in the 14th Army sarcastically called it began on May 7th and was over in less than 24-hours. Seizing territory around Transnistria and liberating Gagauzia, the Moldovans began to pull back to Chisinau in preparation for the eventual assault on their capital city, an assault that would not come.
“They were so certain that we would march on Chisinau that they never stopped to recognize that we carved out a liberated Transnistria-Gagauzia,” Pylypenko said with a laugh. “Once we secured the borders, General Lebed called President Ghimpu and told him that if he went forward and signed the “friendship treaty with Funar,” or if he declared an independent Moldova that the UIS would admit “Transnistria y Gagauzia” as a full fledged Republic and would allow it to leave Moldova. Ghimpu screamed at Lebed, claiming such a move was illegal and the UN would never stand for such a thing, but Lebed just laughed and said ‘you really want to put all your cards in the United Nations? You realize the UIS sits on the Security Council don’t you?’”
For both Funar and Ghimpu, the gamble had failed. Neither side could agree to a union if it meant nearly 20% of Moldova would be severed from the country, and both quietly agreed to cancel the proposed “friendship treaty the following month.”
“At that point President Ghimpu realized his dream of a Greater Romania was over,” Pylypenko said, “He could declare independence and give up Transnistria or he could quietly try and buy his time and hope for the future. Little did he know that time was on our side and not his.”
Map of Gagauzi in Febrary of 1994
__________________________________________________________________
Areas controlled by the UIS 14th Army after ceasefire signed with Moldova in May of 1994.
PART FIFTY FIVE: DIVIDE AND CONQUER
Some new names in this update:
Gagauzia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gagauzia
Former Italian PM Carlo Ciampi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Azeglio_Ciampi
UIS Presidential Candidate Vladimir Putin in an interview with the BBC on August 1, 2011.
Discussing the Moldovan conflict in 1994.
BBC: By February of 1994 it was increasingly looking like entire UIS was about to implode into a series of deadly civil wars. Chechnya and Georgia were in open revolt against the Russian dominated federal government. Tajikistan was in the midst of what most historians regard as a civil war between various ethnic and political factions. Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan’s border dispute nearly erupted into a full fledged war, and the violence in the former Baltic republics of Latvia and Estonia was beginning to spill over into Lithuania and even Russia. How did the UIS avoid collapse in 1994 and how did they avoid a situation where more of the country didn’t start turning into Chechnya?
Putin: There soon emerged two factions in the UIS military. General Vyacheslav Tikhomirov embraced the Zhirinovsky Doctrine. Attack and destroy and make an example of any who dared challenge the UIS. This was proving disastrous in Chechnya. But General Vladimir Kosylev and General Alexander Lebed embraced another approach, one that proved highly effective in Georgia and Moldova.
BBC: What approach was that?
Putin: Divide and conquer.
“When Eagles Soared: A Modern History of the Republic of Georgia”
(Routledge Series on Russian and East European Studies) – By Timothy Burnside
Routledge Press, (2005)
CHAPTER EIGHT
With the Georgian defeat at the battle of Sukhumi Colonel Akaki Eliava’s tenuous grip on power was broken. Fleeing Georgian troops were soon surrounded by rebellious factions of the Georgian military. These troops, loyal to ousted president Eduard Shevardnadze, quickly routed the Georgian troops loyal to Colonel Eliava in what many Georgians historians consider to be the day that the independent republic of Georgia ceased to exist.
“Shevardnadze made a deal with the devil,” one Georgian politician recalled, “and naturally the devil reneged on the deal. But by then it was too late. He destroyed half of the Georgian military in that operation.”
Although the majority of the defeated troops loyal to Colonel Eliava had little interest in fighting their fellow Georgians, Shevardnadze stunned his countrymen by ordering his forces to attack the now totally demoralized and defeated Georgian army.
“Many of the troops who fled Sukhumi were openly were hostile to Colonel Eliava and probably would have ousted him themselves once they reached Tbilisi,” the politician said, “but the vast majority of them were Zviadists and would have installed former President Zviad Gamsakhurdia as President. Needless to say, for the Shevardists this was unacceptable.”
However, the defeat of Zviadist forces proved to be a pyrrhic victory for Shevardnadze.
“Many Georgians saw him as a puppet of Moscow after that,” the politician added, “and although his troops easily overthrew the Eliava regime days after the battle of Sukhumi, the Georgian military was so badly damaged by the failed invasion of Abkhazia and the subsequent purge that they could do little to stop the Russians from overrunning Abkhazia and tearing it away from Georgia.”
Borders of the Caucasus Republics of the UIS in March of 1994
Romanian President stuns NATO by entering into “Bessarabian partnership” with Moldova counterpart; Russian Prime Minister calls move ‘unacceptable”
By Richard Roundtree
Economist
May 03, 1994
In another sign that the UIS may be on its last legs, Romanian President Gheorghe Funar stunned leaders in Western Europe by announcing that Romania will be signing the “Romanian-Bessarabian Friendship Treaty” with the UIS republic of Moldova next month. The move is seen as nothing short of a provocation by many in the West, with Italian Prime Minister Carlo Azeglio Ciampi condemning the planned partnership, calling it a “dangerous unilateral move that threatens the stability of all of Europe.”
Romanian President Funar dismissed fears in the West, promising that the “Romanian-Bessarabian Friendship Treaty” does little more than create a “free trade zone” between the two Republics.
“Our Moldovan brothers are suffering under crippling sanctions,” Funar said on Romanian television shortly after announcing the planned treaty, “every country in the UIS is suffering thanks to the political isolation of Russia. But why should Moldovans suffer because of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a man they despise and never had the opportunity to vote against?”
However, the move was quickly condemned in the Russian Duma, with newly appointed Russian Prime Minister Gennady Burbulis calling it “completely unacceptable.” Burbulis condemned sections of the planned treaty that would allow Moldovan citizens to obtain Romanian passports as well as a planned unified Romanian-Moldovan currency that would replace that UIS Ruble.
“Nearly a third of the citizens of Moldova are not Moldovan and do not want to be treated like second class citizens in a Greater Romania,” he said, “and considering Funar’s track record in Hungarian Szeklerland, can anyone blame them?”
Funar claims that the “unified passport” is simply an attempt to allow Moldovan citizens to “pull themselves out from the crippling international sanctions imposed on the UIS” and dismisses the fears over a unified currency.
“The UIS Ruble is in freefall,” he said dismissively, “inflation is at over 500% right now and there is no end in sight. But Moldovans have no say in the economic and political policies of Moscow and it is these policies that have led to this economic catastrophe.”
Russian President Vladimir Zhirinovsky also came out in opposition to the planned treaty and was even harsher in his criticism of it.
“Why doesn’t President Kerrey come out and call this what it is, a cheap Romanian anschluss?” he said at a press conference. “It is because the West doesn’t care! Anschluss is acceptable to them as long as the victims of a new Anschluss are Russian!”
The rehabilitation of General Alexander Lebed: A UIS soldier recounts the brief conflict in Moldova in April of 1994
Foreign Affairs (5/10/2004)
by William Hason
(Tiraspol, UIS)- Oleksiy Pylypenko remembers the day that the disgraced former Marshal of the UIS stepped off the helicopter in Tiraspol like it was yesterday.
“We heard that we were being appointed a new commander,” the Ukrainian soldier said with a chuckle, “a man named Colonel Gusev. Well, none of us ever heard of Colonel Gusev. We assumed they were really scrapping the bottom of the barrel with our new commander. None of us realized it was a code name for General Lebed.”
Pylypenko saluted the General as he stepped off the helicopter, still believing he was the mysterious Colonel Gusev. But one look at the medals on his uniform and the rank on his shoulder stunned the young soldier.
“I couldn’t hide my shock,” he recounted, “I wasn’t sure if I was suppose to call him Colonel Gusev or General Lebed or Marshal Lebed or what. I couldn’t believe the one time Marshal of the UIS was now here in Tiraspol!”
The rehabilitation of the future President of the UIS began that day in the rebellious republic of Moldova. As the UIS was collapsing, Moldova seemed to be the next republic to kick dirt in the face of the federal government. The Moldovans already nationalized their armed forces, and looked poised to move on the loyalist stronghold of Tiraspol.
“All of the Slavs in Moldova fled to the east, to what we referred to as Transnistria and what the Moldovans sarcastically called the East Bank.”
“We watched the Moldovan news broadcast and it kept calling Transnistria the ‘Russian occupied East Bank’” Pylypenko recalled, “and they talking about how the Moldovan military would soon ‘liberate’ the East Bank and drive the Slavs back to Russia. But most of us grew up in Moldova. We lived our whole lives here. We were deeply troubled by the rhetoric coming out of Chisinau.”
The morale in Tiraspol was further complicated by the lack of leadership in the 14th Army. General G. I. Yakovlev, the former commander of the UIS 14th Army in Tiraspol, had been reassigned to the Serbian Republic of Krajina in late 1992 and for much of the fourteen months since his departure the 14th Army saw a revolving door of various commanding officers. Almost all of them saw Moldova as little more than a spring board to bigger and better things.
“Many of these officers had come from somewhere else and had little interest in anything other than getting appointed to the 16-man Committee for State Security and Defense,” Pylypenko said, “They would ultimately do little in Tiraspol except make our lives a living hell.”
The officers often believed that creating a well disciplined Army involved beating the troops and ‘whipping’ them into shape. However, this emphasis on discipline often was coupled with a lack of guidance or leadership.
“They would yell at us over the smallest things and even invent reasons to beat us,” Pylypenko recalled, “but they had no idea how we were supposed to deal with the growing problem in Chisinau.”
The Colonel who commanded the 14th Army in November of 1993 was a man who had a history with General Lebed, and who was determined to attract the attention of the 16-man Committee for State Security and Defense.
“Colonel Zakharik served under General Lebed in Azerbaijan in 1988,” Pylypenko recalled, “and was severely reprimanded by the General. But he was a political appointee and he complained to the Communist Party leadership after that. He tried to get General Lebed in trouble.”
Neither Lebed nor Zakharik forgot the incident and upon Lebed’s appointment as Marshal of the UDR, he saw to it that Zakharik was stationed in Siberia.
“Unfortunately for us UIS President Lukyanov wanted to give Zakharik more authority,” Pylypenko said, “he considered Zakharik a potential ally because of his strong ties to the Communist Party. So he made secret arrangements to have him transferred to Tiraspol in November of 1993. General Lebed never had time to correct the move since he was ousted as Marshal of the UIS just seven days after Zakharik’s appointment.”
The arrival of Zakharik came just as Moldovan President Gheorghe Ghimpu imposed his own version of the Zhirinovsky Act and ordered the nationalization of all Moldovan forces. The brash Colonel saw this as an opportunity to make a mark with UIS President Lukyanov.
“He ordered us to attack Chisinau and seize Ghimpu,” Pylypenko recalled, “but it was insanity! We numbered less than 11,000 and this newly nationalized Moldovan Army numbered nearly 30,000!”
Many in the 14th Army also resented the fact that the foreign born Zakharik was clearly ignorant about the unique ethnic makeup of the Army he commanded. The vast majority of the 14th Army was made up of local Transnistrians, while the rest were mostly Ukrainian.
“He had no idea how to deal with the Ukrainians,” Pylypenko said, “he kept beating us and berating us if we dared to speak Ukrainian to each other. Well, many of my fellow Ukrainians were fed up with this little officer from St. Petersburg. They just went home, back to the Ukraine. They didn’t need to put up with this, and they certainly didn’t need to take part in a suicide mission against the Moldovans.”
Colonel Zakharik became enraged at the mass defections and he ordered his troops to shoot any Ukrainian who abandoned their post. By then the 14th Army was on the verge of a full scale mutiny.
“We actually plotted out independence,” Pylypenko said with a laugh, “I know it sounds crazy to you, an independent Republic of Transnistria, but that was the plan. We would kill this Colonel and then declare our separation from Moldova and form the Transnistrian Army. That’s how fed up we were with Moscow.”
The UIS constitutional crisis in late 1993, which led to the overthrow of UIS President Lukyanov, also had the unintended effect of postponing the planned invasion of Bessarabia. When the reformists emerged in control of the UIS after the end of the crisis, a deadly purge of officers and politicians sent shivers down the back of the unpopular Colonel. Although the anti-Communist purges were only happening in Russia and not in the Ukraine Colonel Zakharik was justifiably terrified.
“He was in grave danger,” Pylypenko said with a chuckle, “for one thing there was no question he was a communist. Second, there was no question we were all looking for an excuse to kill him. As soon as Vladimir Zhirinovsky emerged as the victor of the Constitutional Crisis, Colonel Zakharik fled to the one place where communists were safe: Belarus.”
The Colonel’s disappearance had the unexpected effect of boosting morale and the defections soon ended as the remaining Ukrainians elected to stay with the 14th Army. However, when the report came in that the mysterious Colonel Gusev would be coming in to take over two months later, morale again dropped.
“We assumed they were going to send some other ambitious officer who had no qualms about using us as pawns in his quest to become promoted,” Pylypenko said, “that’s why we were so shocked when one of the most powerful men in the country stepped off the helicopter and announced he was taking over command of the 14th Army.”
General Lebed’s first act was to restore confidence in the UIS military, a difficult task as the men of the 14th Army had seen the disastrous conflict in Chechnya explode into a deadly and bloody civil war.
“When General Lebed saw the condition we were in he demanded to know who was in command,” Pylypenko recalled, “we assumed the commander would be publically berated in front of us. Our uniforms had become torn and Colonel Zakharik had used a strange punishment against us, of tearing off of rank insignias when he became angry with us and screaming that we were being demoted to the rank of private. As a result many of us didn’t have ranks or guard pins on our uniform. We looked somewhat unprofessional.”
A young Captain stepped forward and announced that he was acting commander of the 14th Army due to Colonel Zakharik’s defection. General Lebed demanded to know why the men were wearing guard pins made out of cardboard and rank insignias written on white tape which many of the men wore on their sleeves.
“The young captain explained what Colonel Zakharik had done,” Pylypenko said, “and how Zakharik never ordered new supplies before he fled. He also explained how nobody in Moscow would accept an order for supplies made by a mere captain and as a result he was unable to order new guard pins.”
What followed next stunned the young Ukrainian, and all of the men of the 14th Army.
“General Lebed told this captain that he would not have that problem anymore,” Pylypenko recalled, “he was now being promoted to major. He then thanked him for holding the 14th Army together under such difficult circumstances and saluted him.”
The move immediately won over many of the soldiers in the 14th Army.
“You have to realize that prior to that promotions were based on political connections,” Pylypenko said, “and as a result we would get these officers shipped in from Moscow who were worthless but well connected. Most of them couldn’t pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel. But General Lebed’s move to promote from within showed us that we were not going to be Moscow’s dumping ground for bad officers anymore!”
General Lebed also won the loyalty of his troops by promising them that they would not be required to launch an operation unless they were attacked first.
“He put a lot of our fears at ease on the first day when he told us that he was not interested in forcing an invasion of Moldova,” Pylypenko recalled. “He didn’t need to impress anyone in Moscow! He often promised us that he would never call on us to attack…only to counterattack!”
Over the next eight weeks the 14th Army began to regain much of the cohesiveness that made them one of the most feared units in the former Soviet Union. So much so that for many soldiers, there emerged a hope that the Moldovans would attack.
“Remember this was our home,” Pylypenko said, “many of us were driven out of Chisinau and once it became clear that General Lebed was not using us as a weapon to carry out Zhirinovsky’s dream of a Greater Russia we started to see the conflict for what it really was: a fight for our homeland!”
Unlike all of the other officers that preceded him, General Lebed also encouraged his men to watch the Romanian and Moldovan television networks. As the increasingly nationalistic rhetoric flowed from Chisinau and Bucharest, the men of the 14th Army began to realize that the attack would soon be coming.”
“He would sit and watch these reports from Chechnya with us,” Pylypenko recalled, “but rather then get angry he would tell us ‘that is what a man can do when he is defending his home, and soon enough you will be defending your homes as well.’ Then as if on cue the news would switch to some report from Romanian President Funar calling for Bessarabia to be ‘liberated’ from Russia and to be ‘free’. We knew what ‘free’ meant to Funar though. It meant free of Slavs!”
On May 2nd, 1994 the moment the men of the UIS 14th Army knew would come finally arrived. The Romanian and Moldovan presidents announced that they would be signing a “friendship treaty” that would all but eliminate the border between the two countries. Pylypenko knew what it would mean not only to Transnistria, but also to the UIS.
“If Moldova and Romania unified while Moldova was part of the UIS it would turn the UIS into the Holy Roman Empire,” Pylypenko recalled, “our borders would become some meaningless line on a map.”
The announcement was quickly followed by a devastating assault on the tiny autonomous republic of Gagauzia. Moldovan president Ghimpu was determined to eliminate the de facto independence of the two breakaway regions in his country and moved on the lightly armed Gagauzians, perhaps erroneously believing that the Russians would never come to the aid of the Turkic minorities.
“It was a gross miscalculation on his part,” Pylypenko said, “perhaps Vladimir Zhirinovsky had a problem with Turkic peoples. But General Lebed saw them as countrymen persecuted by a fascist regime in Bucharest. For him, and for all of us, they were not Turkic but Transnistrians and we all now were under attack.”
The assault on Gagauzia prompted General Lebed to order his troops to prepare an assault, much to the delight of most of the troops in the 14th Army. Despite being outnumbered nearly two to one, General Lebed had a secret weapon up his sleeve.
“Many Moldovans resented President Ghimpu and deeply disliked Romanian President Funar,” Pylypenko, “they were prepared to fight for an independent Moldova but not Greater Romania.”
The lightning assault against the “West Bank” as many in the 14th Army sarcastically called it began on May 7th and was over in less than 24-hours. Seizing territory around Transnistria and liberating Gagauzia, the Moldovans began to pull back to Chisinau in preparation for the eventual assault on their capital city, an assault that would not come.
“They were so certain that we would march on Chisinau that they never stopped to recognize that we carved out a liberated Transnistria-Gagauzia,” Pylypenko said with a laugh. “Once we secured the borders, General Lebed called President Ghimpu and told him that if he went forward and signed the “friendship treaty with Funar,” or if he declared an independent Moldova that the UIS would admit “Transnistria y Gagauzia” as a full fledged Republic and would allow it to leave Moldova. Ghimpu screamed at Lebed, claiming such a move was illegal and the UN would never stand for such a thing, but Lebed just laughed and said ‘you really want to put all your cards in the United Nations? You realize the UIS sits on the Security Council don’t you?’”
For both Funar and Ghimpu, the gamble had failed. Neither side could agree to a union if it meant nearly 20% of Moldova would be severed from the country, and both quietly agreed to cancel the proposed “friendship treaty the following month.”
“At that point President Ghimpu realized his dream of a Greater Romania was over,” Pylypenko said, “He could declare independence and give up Transnistria or he could quietly try and buy his time and hope for the future. Little did he know that time was on our side and not his.”
Map of Gagauzi in Febrary of 1994
__________________________________________________________________
Areas controlled by the UIS 14th Army after ceasefire signed with Moldova in May of 1994.
Last edited:
Sort of a breakdown on the timeline in regards to Romania and Moldova:
Spetember 27, 1992: Elections in Romania (day UIS troops enter Romania as well)
Spetember 28, 1992: Romanian President Ion Illiescu defeated in election. Runoff election to be held in October 1992
October 11, 1992: Romanians go to polls to choose between top two candidates in Spetember election.
October 11, 1992: Zhirinovsky comes out in support of pro-NATO candidate Emil Constantinescu.
October 11, 1992: Gheorge Funar wins with less that 5,000 votes.
November 01, 1992: Funar outlaws pro-Hungarian party. Protests follow.
November 2, 1992: Sniper kills protesters in Targu Mares. Riots follow.
November 03, 1992: Szekely Liberation Front seizes the town of Borsec. Widely seen as start of Romanian civil war.
November 13, 1993: Moldovan president enacts own version of Zhirinovsky Act and nationalizes military.
May 03, 1994: Moldovan and Romanian President announce Friendship Treaty.
Later in May 1994: Moldovan assault on Gagauzia leads to UIS 14th army counteroffensive.
From what we can tell, 1992-1994 Romania is still dealing with the Hungarian SLF, but move on Moldova due in part to the belief that the UIS is imploding.
MarshalBraginsky
Banned
Do we get any news on what will happen in Bulgaria? Also in Georgia, what would Saakashvili's role in this one?
Orville_third
Banned
A totally different point. Aum Shinrikyo was trying to get stuff from Russia in the 1990's. Would they do better or worse with Zhirinovsky running Russia?