Implementation of the linguistic legislation in MSSR higher education. 1989-1991

The article deals with the problems associated with the process of implementing the linguistic legislation (1989) in the higher education system of the MSSR / Republic of Moldova. At the first stage (1989-1993) the higher school managed to switch to the Latin alphabet and initiate an irreversible process of transition to teaching in the Romanian language. But in the period that followed the coming to power of the “agrarians” and the establishment of the “Moldavian language” in the Constitution of Republic of Moldova, the implementation of the laws on language took second place. Since 1994, the Government promoted and virtually institutionalized the restoration of the Russian language in all spheres of communication. The phenomenon was also reflected in the higher school – the teaching of Russian-speaking students in the Romanian language was no longer conducted, they studied only the course of Romanian language for foreign-speaking students. The difficulties of the process of introducing language legislation into the practice of higher education institutions were due to a combination of both objective (the lack of scientific and methodological literature in the Romanian language, the impossibility to provide a qualified Romanian-speaking teaching staff, etc.) and subjective (resistance of Russian-speaking lecturers and students, frightened by the “imaginary dangers” of the officialization of the Romanian language, on the one hand, and indecision, timidity, and hypocrisy of Romanian-speaking lecturers and students, on the other hand) factors.