POLITICAL AND CULTURAL EVOLUTION OF THE ROMANIANS IN THE ROMANIAN ANCESTRAL TERRITORIES OF BESSARABIA AND BUKOVINA OVER THE COURSE OF TIME

Abstract

This article deals mainly with the evolution of the consciousness of identity of the Romanians in Bessarabia during the long period of Tsarist domination, as well as the way this identity was perceived by several authors,Russians or of other origins. Moreover, it reviews the main methods and instruments of denationalisation, from the persecution against the Romanian language and its promoters to the colonisation of the territory between the Prut and the Dniester, especially of the towns and strategic areas in the south and north, with all sorts of foreign populations, attracted here with privileges at the expense of the natives. Basically, the Romanian character of the languagespoken in Bessarabia in the 19th century is not questioned by the Tsarist officials themselves, but numerous prestigious writers explicitly recognised this situation which was obvious even to the common people.