The World - News from Aug. 21, 1989

Moldavian nationalists threatened to go on strike unless their mother tongue replaces Russian as the Soviet republic’s official language. At an outdoor meeting in Kishnev, the capital, attended by several thousand people, speakers from the Moldavian Popular Front said a draft law protecting their language had been watered down and would be of little benefit. They demanded that the republic’s Parliament, when it meets Aug. 29, modify the law to deny any official status to the Russian language. “If Parliament passes the law as it is, then we have no alternative but to strike,” said Valery Mathei, a local writer. “The Russian language cannot continue being the official language here.”