Russian Gold Reserves have crossed the 1,000-tonne mark

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Moscow insisted that Romania edit the historical record to remove any references to the fact that most of the territory then comprising the Moldavian SSR had once been part of Romania, that “Moldavians” had once been recognized as Romanians – even by Soviet authorities, and that the “Moldavian” and Romanian languages were one in the same (Document 1, Document 2, Document 3, Document 7)[2]. Soviet authorities maintained that the issue was more important politically than historically, and that failure to conform to the Soviet approach, which “corresponds to the objective conditions of a class approach to history as science,” was in fact an assertion of territorial claims against the USSR (Document 3, Document 7). As the Soviet CC deputy secretary for Liaison with Socialist Countries stated to his Romanian interlocutor:

"You affirm that it is an issue of historical scientific study consecrated entirely to the past. We declare to you categorically that it is an issue that has a greater importance as political principle than as history. The Soviet side considers inadmissible the fact that territorial questions long resolved become, under any form – directly or obliquely – the object of discussion "(Document 3).

The Romanian side adamantly maintained that it could “in no case accept the thesis which flagrantly contravenes historical truth, that the Romanians and the Moldavians are two different nations [peoples], that the Romanian and Moldavian languages are two different languages.” (Document 1, Document 2, Document 3, Document 4,Document 7). At one point an exasperated Brezhnev insisted that Ceauşescu himself had the opportunity to see that the Moldavians existed as a separate people with a separate language during his 1976 visit. "Yes",Ceausescu replied,"I did,but they spoke with me in Romanian" Document 1)[3]

The Soviet-Romanian Clash over History, Identity and Dominion | Wilson Center