The protests against the communist government in power in Moldova arose sympathy in neighbor Romania as well as calls for reunification of the two Romanian states. At least one student was killed in Chisinau in what was called a “twitter revolution” as youngsters used social media to spread their message and gather for protests in a flash-mob style.
Thousands of students study in Romania and are supported by the local population among which the idea of reunification is gaining popularity. Moldova is a historic part of Romania, now divided into two parts. The Ribbentrop-Molotov pact signed in 1939 between foreign affairs ministers of Hitler and Stalin included the territory of East Moldova, popularly known as Basarabia, among the land that was to be divided among the two powers. This communist-nazi treaty decided the division of Poland between the two and attributed Basarabia and the North of Bukovina to the Soviet Union. Though Romania reconquered those lands during the second wold war, it finally lost the war, being occupied by the Soviet Union. A puppet government was imposed in Romania, while Bukovina was included in the socialist republic of Ukraine and Basarabia formed the Socialist Republic of Moldova.
With the fall of the Soviet Union, the hope of reunification reignited again on the two banks of river Prut. Moldova is now an independent republic and a candidate to the European Union. In Romania the conscience of a common history grew especially among young people. The two countries speak the same language, Romanian, and even have the same flag colors – red, yellow and blue. The conflict in Transnistria, the eastern part of Moldova, where Russia still has a large army stationed and the numerous politicians who were pro Moscow in both countries in the last two decades stopped for the moment a logical reunification of the two Romanian speaking countries.