The article investigates the evolution of political situation in Moldova in the last years of the Soviet Union. It pays a special attention to the issues of destruction of the Soviet system and transfer of power in Moldova to the Romanian nationalists which established the national Popular Front. It provides a detailed analysis of the new government’s political initiatives. It describes the interethnic relations in the Soviet Moldova and explains why the republic was abandoned by Gagauzia and Transnistria and lost its territorial integrity. It recreates the course of events at the initial stage of the Gagauzian and Transnistrian conflicts.