COVER N. 202 - MOLDOVA

Postmark: Posta Moldovei Chişinǎu MD-2012 - 10.01.2023 

Posted on the 8th January; Received on the 19th January 2023
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On his journey through Moldova, Alex also stopped at the post office in Chişinşǎu, the capital, to send some covers to fellow collectors, I being one of them. Again, thank you so much, Alex. Your generous contribution to my blog is  nothing short of amazing.

Present day Republic of Moldova became independent in 1991, after the collapse of the USSR,  its territory corresponding to what use to be the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, established in 1940 following the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, in the wake of which Romania was forced to cede what was known as Bessarabia and Bukovina to Soviet Russia.  

Reading about the history of Central and Eastern Europe since the beginning of the 20th century suddenly makes me think that countries are in some way governed by what I'd describe as tectonic forces....in fact, much as what happens with continental plates, they enjoy a period of rest and evolution only to accumulate tensions that erupt in sometimes tremendously massive confrontations that, in time, dictate geo-political (as opposed to geo-physical, in the case of the plates) shifts and changes... that will then know a period of rest and evolution....

The first world-war...Versailles treaty...the second world war...West and East blocks....collapse of the Eastern block... emergence of Russian imperialism...Ukraine war.... what next....???

and what for? so much destruction, suffering, hate sowing... wounds that will only heal in hundreds of years, if ever..., 

There has to be a better way of  affirming our capacity to deal with our own shit as rational, conscious beings or else poppies will continue to grow and the world will eventually turn into a sad huge Flanders field....

Ties between Moldova and Romania have always been strong,  the more so since both countries were at a time, between the end of  the  first world war and the early stages of the second, part of the same unified state. Today, 80% of the population speaks Moldovan which is virtually the same language as Romanian, and reunification in the future is not to be completely set aside as there are supporters of this idea on both sides of the borders.

This state of affairs makes it perhaps more understandable that a sovereign state should issue a stamp celebrating the centenary of the coronation of the last sovereigns of the neighbouring state, of which it was also, at the time, part of (a bit confusing, but true nonetheless....).

Ferdinand I became king of Romania on October 1910. During the first world war, Ferdinand sided with the triple entente powers and it seems that the influence of his wife Mary, of British origins, was instrumental for this. Upon the end of the war, Ferdinand was rewarded with the unification into Romania of Bessarabia, Bukovina (both now part of Moldova) and Transylvania, and on the 15th October 1922, he and  Mary were crowned  sovereigns of this enlarged Romania.

Celebrating this fact, Posta Moldovei issued on 15OCT2022 a souvenir sheet with one 9,50 Lei stamp with the effigies of both sovereigns  and their coat of arms, under the legend 100 de ani de la incoronare, in the sheet frame, which must be read in conjunction with the legend in the stamp itself - Suverani Ai Românei Mari, these translating into "100 years past the coronation of the Sovereigns of  Greater Romania".

The stamp is obliterated with a beautiful and quite clear postmark of a post office in the capital of the country, the city of  Chişinǎu.    

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