Why did Moldova change from the Cyrillic alphabet to the Latin alphabet in 1989?

During the Soviet era, the language of Moldova was officially referred to as "Moldavian" and was written in the Cyrillic alphabet. Soviet scholars maintained that this language was an independent Romance language distinct from Daco-Romanian, a position held primarily for political reasons.12

In 1989, as agitation against communist rule intensified, the script was changed to the Latin alphabet. This shift reflected a broader movement to reclaim cultural identity and acknowledged that the language spoken in Moldova is, in fact, identical to Romanian. Following this change, a debate emerged regarding whether the language should be officially termed Romanian or Moldovan, though there is now general agreement that they are the same language.1