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Theunion of Bessarabia with Romania was proclaimed on April 9 [O.S. March 27] 1918 bySfatul Țării, the legislative body of theMoldavian Democratic Republic. This state had the same borders of the region ofBessarabia, which was annexed by theRussian Empire following theTreaty of Bucharest of 1812 and organized first as anOblast (autonomous until 1828) and later as aGovernorate. Under Russian rule, many of the nativeTatars were expelled from parts of Bessarabia and replaced withMoldavians,Wallachians,Bulgarians,Ukrainians,Greeks,[1]Russians,Lipovans,Cossacks,Gagauzes and other peoples, although colonization was not limited to formerly Tatar-inhabited lands. Russia also tried to integrate the region by imposing the Russian language in administration and restricting education in other languages, notably by later banning the use of Romanian in schools and print.[2]
The beginning ofWorld War I saw an increase in national awareness among the Bessarabians, and, following the beginning of theRussian Revolution in 1917, Bessarabia proclaimed its own parliament, theSfatul Țării, which declared theMoldavian Democratic Republic. Following aRomanian military intervention, with the Romanian Army firmly in control of the region, theSfatul Țării voted for independence and later proclaimed, on April 9 [O.S. March 27] 1918, its union with theKingdom of Romania. Although the unification was made under various conditions, all of these except the promise of anagrarian reform, which was carried out, were later abandoned by a minority of the Sfatul. Later, the Romanian administration swiftly dissolved the assembly and rejected the protests of the former deputies. In the peace talks after World War I, the European powers awarded Bessarabia to Romania, although the newly formedRussian SSR, and theUnited States never recognized this.
However, the situation in Bessarabia would change after the signing of theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact between theSoviet Union (USSR) andNazi Germany, in which the latter expressed its disinterest in the region. This allowed the USSR to send anultimatum to Romania, which was now diplomatically isolated following the capitulation of France, the guarantor of its borders, on 26 June 1940 in which it demanded Bessarabia and alsoNorthern Bukovina (which had not been agreed upon with Germany). After Romania accepted it, the USSRinvaded these territories, ending Romanian administration of the zone (excepting a brief interruption from 1941-1944, when Romania reacquired these territories). Bessarabia was organized and split between theUkrainian SSR and the newMoldavian SSR, which gained independence in 1991 as Moldova. Ever since, there has been a growingmovement to reunite the region with Romania, with supporters inRomania and Moldova commemorating the day of the union, 27 March, on theDay of the Union of Bessarabia with Romania.
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The1812 Treaty of Bucharest between theOttoman Empire and theRussian Empires provided for Russianannexation of the eastern part of the territory of thePrincipality of Moldavia, as well as the Turkish-ruled regions ofKhotyn and Budjak (Southern Bessarabia). At first, the Russians used the name "Oblast of Moldova and Bessarabia", allowing a large degree of autonomy, but in 1828 Russia suspended the self-administration and called it theGovernorate of Bessarabia, or simply Bessarabia. While the northeastern part of Moldavia, calledBukovina, was similarly annexed by theAustrian Empire, the western part of Moldavia remained an autonomous principality, and in 1859,united withWallachia to form theKingdom of Romania. In 1856, the Treaty of Paris returned the south of Bessarabia to Moldavia, but in 1878, the Kingdom of Romania returned them to the Russian Empire as a result of theTreaty of Berlin.
At the time of annexation, Moldavian[3] population predominated in Bessarabia.[4] Thecolonization of the region in the 19th century led to a large increase in theRussian,Ukrainian,Lipovan, andCossack population in the region; this together with a large influx ofBulgarian immigrants increased theSlavic population to more than a fifth of the total population by 1920.[5] Other groups, such asGagauz,Jews, andGermans also settled in the region during the Russian rule.
The Tsarist policy in Bessarabia was in part aimed atdenationalization of the Moldavian element by forbidding after the 1860s education andLiturgy in Romanian. However, the effect was an extremely low literacy rate (in 1897, 18% for males and 4% for females) rather than denationalization.[6] Some Romanian historians claimed that a strong sentiment of frustration and resentment to the Russian control had started to appear before the beginning of World War I.[7]
World War I brought a rise in political, cultural and national awareness in the population, as 300,000 Bessarabians enrolled in the Russian Army formed in 1917, within bigger units several "Moldavian Soldiers' Committees". Following theRussian Revolution of 1917, Bessarabia elected its own parliament,Sfatul Țării (October–November 1917), which opened on December 3 [O.S. November 21] 1917, proclaimed theMoldavian Democratic Republic (December 15 [O.S. December 2] 1917), formed its government (December 21 [O.S. December 8] 1917), proclaimed independence from Russia (February 6 [O.S. January 24] 1918).
On April 9 [O.S. March 27] 1918, Sfatul Țării decided with 86 votes for, 3 against and 36 abstaining (mostly non-Romanians), for union with the Kingdom of Romania, conditional upon the fulfillment of agrarian reform, local autonomy, and respect for universal human rights.[8][9][10][11] This was in spite of the fact that the national referendum necessary under the law had not taken place.
Fearing a radical land reform, the county councils of Bălți, Soroca and Orhei, dominated by large landowners, were the earliest to ask for unification with the Kingdom of Romania, deeming the royal government preferable to the Sfatul Țării, dominated by left-wing populists. On April 9 [O.S. March 27] 1918, Sfatul Țării voted in favour of the union, with the following conditions:
There were 86 votes for, 3 votes against and 36 deputies abstained. The first condition for agrarian reform was debated and approved in November 1918, and following this, Sfatul Țării voted a motion which removed all the other conditions, trusting that Romania would be a democratic country. The vote, which renounced Bessarabia's autonomy, has been judged illegitimate, since there was no quorum: only 44 of the 125 members took part in it (all voted "for").[12]
The historianBernard Newman, who traveled by bicycle through the whole ofGreater Romania, claimed there is little doubt that the vote represented the prevailing wish in Bessarabia and that the events leading to the unification indicate there was no question of a "seizure", but a voluntary act on the part of its people.[13]
The Romanian prime-minister at the time,Alexandru Marghiloman, was to admit however that the unification was decided in Romania, as the Moldavian leadersDaniel Ciugureanu andIon Inculeț, aware of the widespread distrust of Romanian rule, feared an overt annexation would lead to a revolutionary situation.[14]
In the autumn of 1919, general elections were held in Bessarabia to elect 90 deputies and 35 senators to the Romanian parliament – the Constituent Assembly. On 20 December 1919, the elected representatives ratified, along with their colleagues from the other historic provinces, the unification acts that had been approved bySfatul Țării and the National Congresses inTransylvania andBukovina.
During the peace talks between the Great Powers and Romania, on 1 February 1919, British Prime MinisterDavid Lloyd George talked withIon I. C. Brătianu and, after the withdrawal of the Romanian government's delegation, Lloyd George proposed that Romania's claims be analyzed by a territorial commission that would examine historical, ethnographic, geographic, strategic, but not political facts.[15] The Territorial Commission on Romanian Affairs was formed, by which the representatives of the Big Four Powers presented their proposals and decided Romanian's territorial future. The commission was formed byClive Day andCharles Seymour (USA),Sir Eyre Crowe andAlan Leeper (United Kingdom),André Tardieu and Guy Laroche (France), andGiacomo De Martino andCount Luigi Vannutelli-Rey (Italy). During the debates the only issue related to Romania on which the representatives agreed was that Bessarabia should belong to Romania.[16] However, the United States refused to sign the Treaty on the grounds that Russia was not represented at the conference.[17] The newly communist Russia did not recognize Romanian rule over Bessarabia,[17] a stand that was tacitly accepted by many other countries such as the United States.
The union was recognized by the United Kingdom, France and Italy in theTreaty of Paris (1920). The treaty did not, however, come into force as Japan, one of the signatories, failed to ratify it. Soviet Russia was not represented as a party at the treaty conference.[17] A mutual treaty between the Soviets and Romania was not signed due to the former's claims over Bessarabia. In theKellogg-Briand Treaty of 1928 and theTreaty of London of July 1933, the Soviet Union and Romania subscribed to the principle of non-violent resolution of territorial disputes.Transnistria, at the time part of theUkrainian SSR, itself part of theSoviet Union, was formed into theMoldavian ASSR (1924–1940) after the failure of theTatarbunar uprising.
Theland reform legislated bySfatul Țării in 1918–1919 resulted in the redistribution of land among the rural population of the region, which constituted 80%. The actual process dragged out until the early 1930s, with the average allotted land falling short of the prescribed 6 hectares per eligible individual. The law was notable among Romanian controlled territories as it expropriated land not only from the large landowners, but also from the peasants who gained land byad-hoc divisions of the agricultural lands during theRussian Revolution. The reform was further marred by corruption and preferential allotment to Romanian state functionaries and officers, as well as to the deputies who voted for union with Romania in 1918 (the latter were allotted 50 hectares each). Under pressure from the large landowners in the original territories of Romania, the land reform required compensations to the former owners, in contrast with the earlier declarations of theSfatul Țării which proposedexpropriation of property or evensocialization. In a bid to gain legal recognition of the union, Romanian also concluded inter-governmental accords which offered preferential compensations to deposed owners ofBritish,French andItalian citizenship. The literacy rate grew to over 40% by 1930; however, the region continued to lag educationally.
In 1924,Pan Halippa, a strong supporter of the Union in 1918, criticized the Romanian government for transforming Bessarabia into an "inferno", where the "Moldavian people suffers and bleeds more than under theTsarist regime".[18]
Thestatus quo was changed 22 years later, when, as a result of theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact (Article 4 of theSecret Annex to the Treaty),Nazi Germany agreed that it had no interest in Bessarabia, effectively yielding it to the Soviet Union. On June 26, 1940, after theFall of France, Romania's ally, Romania received an ultimatum from the Soviet Union demanding the evacuation of the Romanian military and administration from Bessarabia and from the northern part of Bukovina, with an implied threat of invasion in the event of noncompliance.[19] Under pressure from Moscow and Berlin, the Romanian administration and the army were forced to retreat from Bessarabia and fromNorthern Bukovina to avoid war.[20] On June 28, 1940, these territories were occupied by the Soviet Union. During the retreat, the Romanian Army was attacked by the Soviet Army, which entered Bessarabia before the Romanian administration finished retreating. Some 48,888 Romanian soldiers and officers were unaccounted for after the retreat, including 53 casualties. In the case of several army divisions, more than half of the personnel had deserted, choosing to remain in Bessarabia.[21]
The southern and northern parts, whose population was just over half ethnic minorities (Ukrainians,Bessarabian Bulgarians,Bessarabian Germans, andLipovans), were transferred to the Ukrainian SSR asIzmail Oblast and as part ofChernivtsi Oblast. At the same time, the Moldavian ASSR, where ethnicRomanians were aplurality, was disbanded, and just under half of its territory was joined with the remaining territory of Bessarabia to form theMoldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, coterminous with the present-dayMoldova. Although Soviet troops were forced out in 1941 by theinvasion of Axis forces, and Romania re-established its administration, the Soviet Union reconquered and reannexed the area in February–August 1944.
The official Soviet policy (1940–1941, 1944–1989) also stated thatRomanian andMoldovan were two different languages and, to emphasize the distinction, Moldovan was written using a special Cyrillic alphabet (theMoldovan Cyrillic alphabet) – unlike Romanian, in whichRomanian Cyrillic alphabet was replaced byRomanian Latin alphabet in 1860s.[22]
Moldova became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991. Since then, there has beena movement to unite again the region with Romania.[12] Furthermore, the union of Bessarabia with Romania is now commemorated on theDay of the Union of Bessarabia with Romania, celebrated every 27 March. In Romania, this holiday is official since 2017.[23] It is not official in Moldova despite attempts at doing so,[24] but some Moldovan unionists celebrate it anyway.[25][26] The same situation occurs in Transnistria.[27]
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