Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / Today, political scientists working with international organizations seek to resolve internal conflicts in Bosnia- Herzegovina, Cyprus, and Kashmir. To solve such crises, political scientists have mostly tried to apply domestic comparative politics approaches. These techniques emphasize agreements among internal actors and have not been successful in most cases. In the case of the Transdniestrian conflict in the Republic of Moldova, mediators have found it difficult to achieve internal agreement because external factors also have played a significant role during the conflict. Therefore, even if an internal agreement is achieved, it will remain fragile due to the vulnerable geographic location of the Republic of Moldova and to the limited state capacity to counter influential external actors. For the purpose of solving the Transdniestrian conflict in the long run, this thesis analyzes the possibilities of creating regional complex interdependence around the Republic of Moldova, which would strengthen an internal agreement to resolve the conflict. Regional complex interdependence inter-connects the countries interested in the region around the Republic of Moldova: Romania, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine. This solution presumes external and internal interconnections based on the complex interdependence theory of neo-liberalism. The main potential drawback is that any asymmetrical dependencies in the initial stage of cooperation will imbalance the proposed complex interdependence causing unilateral dependence (most likely on Russia) leading other actors to take countermeasures. In fact, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe as a neutral party has been being a legal umbrella for mediation since all parties consider it an appropriate organization for the negotiations. Nevertheless, creating such an arrangement requires an initial role of the United States of America and the European Union to balance Russian influence until the region becomes interdependent. At that moment, the continuation of the Transdniestrian conflict will become irrelevant because the pre-conditions for conflict will be eliminated. / Major, Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Moldova

Cette thèse a pour objet les significations produites par la propagande soviétique au moyen du documentaire historique réalisé entre les années 1960 et 1980 à la station de télévision de la République Soviétique Socialiste Moldave. À partir d’un corpus de base de 32 documentaires, la thèse vise trois types de représentations filmiques investies d’une forte connotation idéologique : les figures du temps historique, les métaphores de l’espace et l’image du héros soviétique. Nous considérons également les représentations connexes qui constituent le contexte narratif et filmique des trois catégories principales d’images de manière à révéler le réseau entier de significations de l’idéologie soviétique. Notre étude s’inscrit dans la lignée des études des sociétés communistes en même temps qu’elle appartient au domaine théorique de l’histoire de l’imaginaire et des idées. Elle répond à une triple problématique. Premièrement, elle explique la portée et les usages politiques et idéologiques des représentations véhiculées par la propagande télévisée. La recherche rend compte des objectifs et des stratégies propagandistes en Moldavie, alors en cours de soviétisation. Elle révèle notamment les normes officielles de représentation, leurs variations à la suite des changements politiques et dresse un inventaire des moyens discursifs mis en œuvre dans l’élaboration des symboles clés de la propagande de Parti. Ensuite, la recherche montre les différents degrés d’implication des cinéastes et des historiens dans la construction des codes de l’idéologie soviétique. Elle cerne les rapports entre le pouvoir soviétique et les intellectuels, contraints d’être des idéologues et des propagandistes professionnels. L’étude constate une tendance épisodique parmi les producteurs culturels à échapper au registre propagandiste afin d’exprimer une vision hétérodoxe. Enfin, nous sondons l’ancrage des représentations propagandistes dans les structures durables de l’imaginaire. La recherche puise ses données empiriques dans la presse soviétique écrite, dans des documents d’archives visant le fonctionnement institutionnel de la télévision moldave, et dans une série de 16 entretiens de cinéastes et de responsables administratifs et idéologiques. Elle recourt à une ample contextualisation historique afin de montrer l’évolution des structures archétypales à travers les différents systèmes de représentations et leur adaptation aux réalités culturelles changeantes. / The work presented in this thesis investigates the contents of Soviet propaganda as it appeared in historical documentaries produced from 1960 through 1990 by the local television broadcaster of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. From a base corpus containing 36 documentaries, it centers itself on three types of filmic representations with high ideological connotation: the figures of historic time, the metaphors of space and the soviet hero's image. It also considers the related representations that create the narrative and cinematic context of the three main categories of images in order to reveal the entire network of meanings of Soviet ideology. Our study falls in line with soviet studies research while also belonging to the theoretical field of the history of imagination and ideas. It addresses three problems. First, it reveals the scope and the political and ideological purpose of the representations conveyed by television propaganda. The research reflects the objectives and strategies of official propaganda in Moldova, a territory under sovietization. It unearths the official standards of representation, their variations due to political changes and makes an inventory of discursive means used in the development of the key symbols of Party propaganda. Second, the research shows the different degrees of involvement of filmmakers and historians in the construction of the codes of Soviet ideology. It identifies the relationships between Soviet power and intellectuals, reduced to the rank of ideologists and professional propagandists. The study finds an occasional tendency among cultural producers to escape the mandatory propagandist registry and express an unorthodox view. Finally, we survey the rooting of propagandist representations in the lasting structures of the imagination. The research draws its empirical data from Soviet print media, from archive documents related to the institutional inner workings of Moldovan television, and from a series of 16 interviews with filmmakers and administrative and ideological executives. It makes use of the long historical detour to show the evolution of archetypal structures across various systems of representation and their adaptation to changing cultural realities.