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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
At the Treaty of Bucharest in 1812, Russia annexed the eastern half of Moldavia, the territory between the Dnestr and Prut Rivers, which it called “Bessarabia.” One historian argues that this was an effort to circumvent the Tilsit agreement with Napoleon in which Russia had agreed to vacate both Romanian principalities. Since Tilsit “did not mention ‘Bessarabia’ the Russian troops could remain there.”
* I would like to thank IREX, the Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad Program, Centre College, Michael Impey, Charles King, and Wim van Meurs for their help in preparing this essay.Google Scholar
1. Dima, Nicholas, Bessarabia and Bukovina. The Soviet–Romanian Territorial Dispute (New York: East European Monographs, 1982), p. 13.Google Scholar
2. Zhukov, V. I., Goroda Bessarabii 1812–1861 godov (Kishinev: Kartia Moldoveniaskè, 1964), p. 48; Skal'kovskii, A., Bolgarskoe kolonii v Bessarabii i Novorossiiskom krae (Odessa, 1848).Google Scholar
3. Bessarabiia k’ stoletiiu prisoedineniia k’ Rossii, 1812–1912 (Kishinev: Bessarabskoe gubernskoe pravlenie, 1912), pp. 60–61.Google Scholar
4. Pascu, Ştefan, “Momente Din Luptă Poporului Roman Pentru Formarea Statului National Unitar,” Magazin istoric, February 1976, p. 3. Pascu cites Russian data for this figure.Google Scholar
5. Trudy Bessarabskoi gubernskoi uchenoi arkhivnoi komissii, Vol. 2, 1902, p. 64.Google Scholar
6. Zhukov, , 1812–1861, p. 64; Grosul, Ia. S. and Budak, I. G., Ocherki istorii narodnogo khoziaistva Bessarabii (1861–1905 gg.) (Kishinev: Kartia Moldoveniaskè, 1972), p. 63. The extent to which serfdom was introduced remains controversial. Grosul and Budak (p. 69), estimate that as many as 70% of Bessarabia's peasants were enserfed by the Russian government.Google Scholar
7. Ciobanu, Ştefan, Chişinăul (Editura Comişiunii Monumentelor Istorice, Sectia din Basarabia, 1925), p. 16. Zhukov, V. I., Goroda Bessarabii (1861–1905 gg.) (Kishinev: Ştiinţă, 1975), p. 21, points out that archival evidence for the study of Kishinev is scarce.Google Scholar
8. Kishinevskii gosudarstvennyi universitet. Kafedra istorii SSSR, Istoriia Kishineva (Kishinev: Kartia Moldoveniaskè, 1966), p. 36. Ciobanu, Chişinăul, p. 32, provides the larger estimate and the figure for the number of houses.Google Scholar
9. Ciobanu, , Chişonăul, p. 35. Whether Jews could serve on this council is unclear, but I could find no evidence specifically excluding them.Google Scholar
10. Zhukov, , 1812–1861, pp. 94, 105–111, 117, 127. Knotted woolen rugs, common in Bessarabia, appear not to have been made in Kishinev.Google Scholar
11. Istoriia Kishineva, p. 39.Google Scholar
12. Zhukov, , 1812–1861, pp. 202–204, 209.Google Scholar
13. Zhukov, , 1812–1861, p. 182, table 14. See also Rozhkov, M. K., “Torgovlia,” Ocherki ekonomicheskoi istorii Rossii pervoi poloviny XIX v., AN SSSR (Moscow, 1960), p. 252. In 1861 Bessarabia had 31 fairs, some of them located in the countryside. Beltsy had a large cattle market, and Izmail had larger fairs than Kishinev.Google Scholar
14. Zhukov 1812–1861, pp. 88–91; Bessarabiia k’ stoletiiu 1812–1912, pp. 64–65.Google Scholar
15. Zhukov, , 1861–1900, pp. 140–141. Istoriia Kishineva, pp. 89–90, states that the rail line came to Kishinev in 1869.Google Scholar
16. These figures are taken from the Ezhegodnik Ministerstva Finansov. See Budak, Grosul and, Ocherki, pp. 33–36. Of the other Bessarabian districts, Orgeev District also had significant forests.Google Scholar
17. Urussov, Prince Serge Dmitriyevich, Memoirs of a Russian Governor, Trans. Herman Rosenthal (London and New York: Harper & Brothers, 1908), pp. 14, 97.Google Scholar
18. Zhukov, , 1861–1917, pp. 71, 98, 106, table 19.Google Scholar
19. Vospominaniia F. F. Vigelia IV (Moscow: Katkov, 1865), pp. 114–116.Google Scholar
20. Zhukov, , 1812–1861, p. 69. Prior to 1839, Jews were not included in the data because their births and deaths were not recorded in the metric books.Google Scholar
21. Iochim Vuica in 1840, as cited by Ciobanu, Chişinăul, pp. 53–54.Google Scholar
22. Ciobanu, , Chisinăul, p. 59. In addition to Kishinev, the Moldavian towns of Akkerman, Bendery, Khotin, and Soroki were allowed to form self-governing institutions under the 1870 legislation. Beltsy and Orgeev were still privately owned and were given a simplified form of public administration in 1877.Google Scholar
23. “Finansovoe znachenie gorodskikh predpriatii,” Gorodskoe delo, Vol. 2, 1914, pp. 79–80; Istoriia Kishineva, pp. 103–110; Grosul and Budak, Ocherki, pp. 31–36.Google Scholar
24. Ivanov, Iu. G., Uchastie Moldavskago naroda vo vserossiiskom revoliutsionnom dvizhenii (Kishinev: Kartia Moldoveniaskè, 1968), pp. 13–14.Google Scholar
25. According to Bessarabskaia zhizn', 22 October 1906, 4,823 of the 7,555 babies born in 1905 failed to survive infancy.Google Scholar
26. Boga, Leon, Luptă pentru limbă Romănească şi ideea Unirii la Romanii din Basarabia după 1812 (Chişinău: Universitas, 1993), p. 209; Istoriia Kishineva, pp. 68–69, 79; Ciobanu, , Chişinăul, p. 91. Cyrillic was used throughout Romania until the mid-nineteenth century and in Bessarabia until 1918.Google Scholar
27. Cited in Ciobanu, , Chisinăul, p. 52.Google Scholar
28. Zhukov, , 1812–1861 godov, p. 62.Google Scholar
29. Istoriia Kishineva, pp. 165–167.Google Scholar
30. Hitchins, Keith, Rumania, 1866–1947 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994), p. 245.Google Scholar
31. Budak, I. G., Obshchestvenno-politicheskoe dvizhenie v Bessarabii v poreformennom periode (Kishinev: Kartia Moldoveniaskè, 1959), p. 363.Google Scholar
32. Arbure, Zamfir, Liberarea Basarabiei (reprinted Chişinău: Universitas, 1993), pp. 176–177. This book was originally published in Bucharest in 1915.Google Scholar
33. Budak, , Obshchestvenno-politicheskoe dvizhenie, pp. 368–369. How often such perfomances were staged in Kishinev after the 1865 ruling is not known.Google Scholar
34. Bagalei, D. I. and Miller, D. P., Istoriia goroda Khar'kova za 250 let ego sushchestvovaniia (1655–1905) II (Khar'kov: Zil'berberg, 1912), p. 131.Google Scholar
35. See Hamm, Michael F., Kiev: A Portrait, 1800–1917 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), especially ch. IV, for a discussion of ethnic and linguistic blending.Google Scholar
36. Zhukov, , 1812–1861, pp. 46–47; Istoriia Kishineva, p. 48. These figures probably include Ukrainians (or Little Russians as they were called).Google Scholar
37. Pervaia vseobshchaia perepis’ naseleniia Rossiiskoi imperii 1897 g., Bessarabskaia gubernaia, Vol. III, No. 2 (St. Petersburg: Tsentral'nyi statisticheskii komitet, 1905), pp. 36–38. This census breaks down populations by language and religion.Google Scholar
38. Ibid., pp. 101–102, 112–117.Google Scholar
39. Ciobanu, , Chişinăul, pp. 59, 102–103.Google Scholar
40. Ibid., p. 35.Google Scholar
41. Vospominaniia F. F. Vigelia, pp. 98–99.Google Scholar
42. Urussov, , Memoirs, pp. 17, 66–68, 98. For a brief discussion of Moldavia's special categories, see Istoriia Kishineva, p. 49.Google Scholar
43. “Kishinevskii bomond,” Kievskaia gazeta, 7 July 1903. Also cited in Hamm, Kiev: A Portrait, p. 163.Google Scholar
44. Ciobanu, , Chişinăul, p. 29. Thirty-two were Moldavians, two were Greek, one was a Serb, and one a Bulgarian.Google Scholar
45. Klier, John D., Russia Gathers her Jews (DeKalb: Northern Illinois Press, 1986), p. 170.Google Scholar
46. Ciobanu, , Chişinăul, pp. 25, 28, 35–36; Bessarabia k stoletiiu 1812–1912, p. 59. Bulgarians also had their own street. Istoriia Kishineva, p. 48, notes that 700 Armenians lived in Kishinev in 1841, as well as 247 Greek families.Google Scholar
47. Bessarabia k stoletiiu, p. 210; Istoriia Kishineva, pp. 42, 70. On 5 August 1839, the Imperial Senate denied Russian citizenship to foreign Jews.Google Scholar
48. In his Memoirs, pp. 159, 162, Urussov describes Jewish-Christian relations as generally calm. Documents 464/10 and 464/16–21 of the Partiia Sotsialistov-revoliutsionerov collection in the International Institute of Social History (Amsterdam), which record reports from Jewish leaders, include similar conclusions. For a study of Kishinev's pogrom, see Judge, Edward H., Easter in Kishinev. Anatomy of a Pogrom (New York: New York University Press, 1992).Google Scholar
49. Berg, L. S., Naselenie Bessarabii (Petrograd, 1923), p. 10.Google Scholar
50. Cazacu, Petre, Moldova dintre Prut şi Nistru 1812–1918 (Chişinău: Ştiinţă, 1992), p. 164.Google Scholar
51. Budak, Grosul and, Ocherki, p. 464; Zhukov, 1861–1905, pp. 200–201.Google Scholar
52. Pervaia vseobshchaia perepis', Vol. III, pp. 116–118.Google Scholar
53. Budak, , Obshchestvenno-politicheskoe dvizhenie, p. 108.Google Scholar
54. Ibid., p. 187.Google Scholar
55. Ibid., p. 279. Of the 32 arrested, seven were said to be Moldavians (ibid., p. 280).Google Scholar
56. Ivanov, Iu and Shemiakov, D., Revoliutsionnoe dvizhenie v Moldavii v 1905–1907 gg. (Kishinev: Moldaviia, 1955), p. 31.Google Scholar
57. Ivanov, , Uchastie Moldavskogo naroda, p. 40; Shemiakov, Ivanov and, Revoliutsionnoe dvizhenie, pp. 46, 53–54.Google Scholar
58. TsGIA, fond OP 00, delo 4, chasf 70, pp. 2–4; Budak, , Obshchestvenno-politicheskoe dvizhenie, p. 343.Google Scholar
59. Boga, , Luptă pentru limbă Romănească, pp. 217–220. See also St., P. T., “Contribiţiuni noua pentru istoria evolutiei naţionalismului dintre Prut şi Nistru,” Viaţa Basarabiei, Vols. 7–8, 1937, pp. 471–473, cited in Budak, I. G., Obshchestvenno-politicheskoe dvizhenie, p. 15.Google Scholar
60. Ionescu, T., La Politique étrangère de la Roumanie (Bucharest, 1891), p. 13, cited in van Meurs, Wim P., The Bessarabian Question in Communist Historiography (New York: East European Monographs, 1994), p. 53.Google Scholar
61. Mogilianskii, N. K., Materialy dlia geografii i statistiki Bessarabii (Kishinev: Bessarabskoe gubernskoe upravlenie, 1913), p. 81.Google Scholar
62. See, for example, Budak, , Obshchestvenno-politicheskoe dvizhenie, p. 187. Of the 5,000 volunteers, about 1,500 were ethnic Bulgarians, some of them from Bessarabia, and the rest came from all over the empire.Google Scholar
63. Budak, , Obshchestvenno-politicheskoe dvizhenie, pp. 378–382. A student group with separatist ideals did form at Derpt (Iur'ev, now Tartu) University in Estonia in 1899, and some Romanian circles encouraged separatism.Google Scholar
64. Urussov, , Memoirs, p. 112. See also Budak, , Obshchestvenno-politicheskoe dvizhenie, p. 395.Google Scholar
65. Hitchins, , Rumania, p. 242.Google Scholar
66. Boga, , Luptă pentru limbă Romănească, p. 217; See also Petre V. Hanes, Scriitorii basarabeni (Bucharest, 1942), p. 18; Ciobanu, , Chişinăul, p. 89.Google Scholar
67. Ciobanu, , Chişinăul, p. 90.Google Scholar
68. One report written by local Jews stressed the role of the paper in inciting the pogrom, noting that its inflammatory stories had been widely circulated in the city's taverns and tearooms prior to the pogrom (PSR 464/10, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam). Bessarabets, whose windows were broken during the pogrom, initially said very little about the pogrom. It failed to publish editions at all on 7, 8, and 9 April. On 10 April, it blamed the pogrom “on drunken bur'ian [roughnecks], teenagers, and boys.” On 15 April it acknowledged that the pogrom had been “terrible.” On 29 April it published casualty figures and stated that the violence had resulted from the spreading of false rumors accusing Jews of ritual murders in Kiev, Kishinev, and elsewhere. On 30 April 1903, it criticized the national Russian press, stating that “90 percent of what is written by Kishinev correspondents is lies.”Google Scholar
69. Ciobanu, , Chişinăul, p. 61.Google Scholar
70. Cazacu, , Moldova dintre Prut şi Nistru, pp. 214, 220–225. Other papers to appear briefly were Viaţa Noua (New Life) and Lumina (Light). See pp. 226–227 for the ruckus over Bishop Vladimir. See Drug (Kishinev) 6 January 1906, for the position of the influential Rightist Pavolachi Krushevan; and Judge, Easter in Kishinev, ch. 3, for background on the city's Rightists.Google Scholar
71. One Romanian source, Arbore, , Liberarea Basarabiei, p. 189, contends that demands for autonomy had given way to demands for liberation by 1915.Google Scholar
72. Meurs, van, The Bessarabian Question, p. 56.Google Scholar
73. Ibid., pp. 66–69; Hitchins, , Rumania, p. 277.Google Scholar
74. Meurs, van, The Bessarabian Question, p. 71.Google Scholar
75. Dima, , Bessarabia and Bukovina, p. 22.Google Scholar
76. Simmons, Ernest J., Pushkin (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1937), pp. 118–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
77. Ibid., p. 156.Google Scholar
78. Urussov, , Memoirs, p. 1.Google Scholar
79. Livezeanu, Irina, Cultural Politics in Greater Romania (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995), pp. 96–97. See also p. 100.Google Scholar
80. Ibid., p. 116. Private schools could continue to teach in languages other than Romanian.Google Scholar
81. Ciobanu, , Chişinăul, p. 91.Google Scholar
82. Livezeanu, , Cultural Politics, p. 120.Google Scholar
83. Clark, Charles Upson, Bessarabia: Russia and Roumania on the Black Sea (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1927), p. 221.Google Scholar
84. Ciobanu, , Chişinăul, p. 84.Google Scholar
85. This seems to be Ciobanu's conclusion as well. See, for example, p. 76.Google Scholar
