Soviet Moldavia Also Declares Its Sovereignty

The Parliament of Soviet Moldavia on Saturday approved a declaration of sovereignty, following the Baltic republics and Russia with the contention that its laws supersede those of the Soviet Union, the official news agency Tass reported.

In the Ukraine, the republic’s Communist Party congress voted Saturday to support calls for a sovereignty resolution, Tass said. The Ukraine is the second-largest of the Soviet Union’s 15 republics and its agricultural and industrial heartland.

Similar statements of sovereignty two years ago began the gradual march toward independence by Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Earlier last week, the Central Asian republic of Uzbekistan passed a declaration of sovereignty, and the republic of Georgia formed a commission to begin working toward independence.

The Russian Parliament adopted a sovereignty resolution two weeks ago, setting the stage for a confrontation with the government of Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev. Russia contains half the population and three-fourths of the land mass of the Soviet Union.

Gorbachev has suggested creating a looser federation of “sovereign states” to defuse the crisis of local demands for sovereignty.

The Moldavian sovereignty resolution also declares that all natural resources and land in Moldavia belong to the republic and not the Soviet Union, Tass said.

Moldavia’s Parliament also agreed to stop celebrating the anniversary of the republic’s annexation by the Soviet Union a half century ago. Moldavia had previously been part of Romania, and some activists have expressed to desire to reunify with that country.