Map of the raions of Ukraine where Romanians are the main ethnic group in dark blue, where they are the second biggest in lighter blue, and where they are the third in even lighter blue.
Because of the Soviet policies of artificial division of the Romanian speakers, and the continuation of those practices by the Ukrainian authorities, there is an undergoing identity controversy among the Romanophones of Ukraine. All of those living in the former territories of Bukovina consider themselves to be Romanians, but among those living in the lands of the historical Bessarabia, there is still division as a large part of them still consider themselves to be Moldovans, while many others identify as Romanians. This problem is considered to have worsened due to the poverty, the lack of proper education and the decades long disinformation of the inhabitants.
History
Middle Ages
Beginning with the 10th century, the territory was slowly infiltrated by Slavic tribes (Ulichs and Tivertsy) from the north, by Romanians (Vlachs) from the west, as well as by Turkic nomads such as Pechenegs, Cumans and (later) Tatars from the east.
Vlachs and Brodniks are mentioned in the area in the 12th and 13th century. As characterised by contemporary sources, the area between the Southern Bug and Dniester had never been populated by a single ethnicity, or totally controlled by Kievan Rus' or other rulers. Ukrainian historian Volodymyr Antonovych writes: "Neither the right bank, nor the left bank of the Dniester have ever belonged to Galician or other Ruthenian princes."
The end of the 18th century marked Imperial Russia's colonization of the region, as a result of which large migrations into the region were encouraged, including people of Ukrainian, Russian, and German ethnicity. The process of Russification and colonization of this territory started to be carried out by representatives of other ethnic groups of the Russian Empire.
While the Ruthenian ethnic element is fundamental for Cossacks, some [who?] have claimed a considerable number of Romanians among the hetmans of the Cossacks (i.e. Ioan Potcoavă, Grigore Lobodă (Hryhoriy Loboda), who ruled in 1593–1596), Ioan Sârcu (Ivan Sirko), who ruled in 1659–1660, Dănilă Apostol (Danylo Apostol), who ruled in 1727–1734, Alexander Potcoavă, Constantin Potcoavă, Petre Lungu, Petre Cazacu, Tihon Baibuza, Samoilă Chişcă, Opară, Trofim Voloşanin, Ion Şărpilă, Timotei Sgură, Dumitru Hunu), and other high-ranking Cossacks (Polkovnyks Toader Lobădă and Dumitraşcu Raicea in Pereiaslav, Martin Puşcariu in Poltava, Burlă in Gdańsk, Pavel Apostol in Myrhorod, Eremie Gânju and Dimitrie Băncescu in Uman, Varlam Buhăţel, Grigore Gămălie in Lubensk, Grigore Cristofor, Ion Ursu, Petru Apostol in Lubensk).[citation needed]
After 1812, the Russian Empire annexed Bessarabia from the Ottoman Empire. Romanians under Russian rule enjoyed privileges well, the language of Moldavians was established as an official language in the governmental institutions of Bessarabia, used along with Russian,[2] as 95% of the population was Romanian.[3][4]
The publishing works established by Archbishop Gavril Bănulescu-Bodoni were able to produce books and liturgical works in Moldovan between 1815 and 1820,[5] until the period from 1871 to 1905, when Russification policies were implemented that all public use of Romanian was phased out, and substituted with Russian. Romanian continued to be used as the colloquial language of home and family, mostly spoken by Romanians, either first or second language.[citation needed]
Many Romanians changed their family names to Russian. This was the era of the highest level of assimilation in the Russian Empire.[6] In 1872, the priest Pavel Lebedev ordered that all church documents be written in Russian, and, in 1882, the press at Chișinău was closed by order of the Holy Synod.
The very term "Ukrainians" was prohibited from the official usage and some populations of disputable Ukrainian ethnicity were rather called the "citizens of Romania who forgot their native language" and were forced to change their last names to Romanian-sounding ones.[7] Among those who were Romanianized were descendants of Romanians who were assimilated to Ukrainian society in the past.
As such, according to the Romanian census, of the total population of 805,000, 74% were Romanians;[citation needed] the number included the Ukrainians and other possibly related Ukrainian ethnic groups Hutsuls referred to as "Romanians who forgot their native language"[8] Among Russians who were Romanianized in Bessarabia were descendants of Romanians who underwent Russification policies during Russian rule.
The geopolitical concept of an autonomous Transnistrian region was born in 1924, when Bessarabian-Russian military leader Grigory Kotovsky[citation needed] founded, under the auspices of Moscow, the Moldavian Autonomous Oblast, which on 12 October 1924 became the Moldavian ASSR of the Ukrainian SSR.
The intention of Soviet policy was to promote Communism in recently lost Bessarabia and surroundings, and eventually to regain the former province from Romania. (Soviet authorities declared the "temporarily occupied city of Chişinău" as de jure capital of the ASSR.) The area was 8,100km2 (3,100sqmi) and included 11 raions by the left bank of Dniester.
Romania occupied (August 19, 1941 - January 29, 1944) the "Transnistrian" region between Dniester, Southern Bug rivers and Black Sea coast.
In 1940, under duress from a Soviet ultimatum issued to the Romanian ambassador in Moscow and under pressure from Italy and Germany, Romania ceded Bessarabia and Bukovina to the USSR. As many as 90,000 died as the Red Army entered and occupied the territory on June 28. The official Soviet press declared that the "peaceful policy of the USSR" had "liquidated the [Bessarabian] Soviet-Romanian conflict".
The Moldavian SSR was created from Bessarabia and the western part of the Moldavian ASSR. Bessarabian territory along the Black Sea and Danube, where Romanians were in the minority, was merged into the Ukrainian SSR to ensure its control by a stable Soviet republic.[9] The Romanian population of Ukraine was persecuted by Soviet authorities on ethnic grounds, especially in the years following the annexation until 1956;[citation needed] because of this, Russification laws were imposed again on Romanian population.[citation needed] In neighboring Bessarabia the same persecution did not have a predominantly ethnic orientation, being based mostly on social, educational, and political grounds.
Transnistria (WWII)
Having allied with Nazi Germany, and having recaptured the territories occupied by the Soviets in 1940, Romanian dictator Antonescu did not heed the counsel of his advisers and continued to wage war on the Soviets beyond Romania's pre-war boundaries, invading parts of Ukraine and occupying the territory between Dniester and Southern Buh rivers. During this period the Romanian and German authorities and units deported to this region 147,000 Bessarabian and Bukovinian Jews, 30,000 Romanian Roma, and exterminated the largest part of the local Jewish population of this region. In 1944, the Soviets re-conquered the area.
In post-Soviet times, Ukrainian, the language of the historical ethnic/linguistic majority, is constitutionally the sole state language, and the state system of higher education has been switched to Ukrainian.[10]
In June 1997 Romania and Ukraine signed a bilateral treaty which included addressing territorial and minority issues.[11] By the terms of the agreement, Ukraine guaranteed the rights of Romanians in Ukraine and Romania guaranteed the rights of Ukrainians in Romania. There are schools teaching Romanian as a primary language, along with newspapers, TV, and radio broadcasting in Romanian.[12]
In 2015, several news websites published a report claiming that the Romanians of Northern Bukovina had formed a "Assembly of the Romanians of Bukovina" and demanded the territorial autonomy of the region from Ukraine. However, they were claimed to be fake and a product of pro-Russian anti-Ukrainian websites.[13][14]
Since 2014, the Romanians of Ukraine have been subject to forced Ukrainization by the Ukrainian authorities, despite constant objection of the Romanian authorities,[15][16][17] with some Romanian organizations in Ukraine even calling it a cultural genocide.[18][19]
In 2022 and 2023, the Ukrainian Parliament adopted and amended laws that enshrined the rights of "national minorities" and allowed "holding public and cultural events and publishing advertisements fully in the language of national minorities within the given community."[20]
Modern mass media of the Romanians in Ukraine include the newspapers Zorile Bucovinei, Concordia, Libertatea Cuvântului, Gazeta de Herța and several more, as well as some TV and radio channels.[21]
Language and demographics
According to the Soviet 1989 census, Romanian speakers accounted for just under one percent of Ukraine's total population: 134,825 Romanians, and 324,525 Moldovans with the largest minority in Chernivtsi (approximately one fifth of the region's population). According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2015, there were 1,438 ethnic Romanians born in Ukraine living in the United States of America.[22] By comparison, there were also 237,809 ethnic Ukrainians born in Ukraine living in the U.S. in that year.[23]
Romanian speakers are not, as of 28 September 2017, allowed to learn exclusively in the Romanian language in the Ukrainian state education system after four years of education, with Romanian language instruction being restricted to separate Romanian language and literature classes.[24] Whereas, the Ukrainian migrants, as well as the ethnic Ukrainians who have lived in Romania for centuries, benefit from Ukrainian language classes in Romania and their state tv is broadcast on Romanian state's television at a chosen prefixed time slot.
114,555 (12.5%) in 2001, with 67,225 self-identifying as Moldovans (7.3%), out of which 61,598 declared their native language as Moldovan, and 2,657 who declared it to be Romanian[26] Among the Moldovans whose native language was not Moldovan, 1,672 declared that they knew Romanian, and 1,391 that they knew Moldovan.[27]
32,152 mainly living in Tiachiv Raion with 21,300 (12.4% of the rayon population) and Rahiv with 10,300 (11.6% of the rayon population). Some 10,000–15,000 also live in the northern part of the oblast, far from other Romanian communities, and are referred to as volohi in Romanian. They are also controversially referred to as țigani albi ("White Gypsies") by some researchers.[28][29]
724, with 123,751 self-identifying as Moldovans[30]
Total
150,989, with 258,619 self-identifying as Moldovans, out of which 181,124 declared Moldovan as their native language, and 2,790 declared Romanian as their native language[31]
Raions with significant Romanian population (2001)[32]
32,316, including 29,554 Romanians (91.5%) and 1616 who declared themselves Ukrainians (5%), and 756 Moldovans (2.3%), out of which 511 declared their language Moldovan and of which 237 called their language Romanian[33]
72,676, of which: Ukrainians: 34,025, Romanians: 32,923, Moldovans, including 3,882 who declared their native language to be Moldovan and 56 who stated that it was Romanian: 4,425, Russians: 877, and other: 426[34]
87,461, of which: 50,329 Moldovans (out of which 47,585 self-identified their language as Moldovan and 2,264 as Romanian), 29,703 Ukrainians, 5,904 Romanians, 1,235 Russians, 290 other[35]
In 2001, population was 236,691, of which 189,021 (79.9%) are Ukrainians; 26,733 (11.3%) Russians; 10,553 (4.5%) Romanians; 3,829 (1.6%) Moldovans; 1,408 (0.6%) Polish; 1,308 (0.6%) Jews; 2,868 (1.2%) other nationalities.[36]
Bukovina is a historical region, variously described as part of either Central or Eastern Europe. The region is located on the northern slopes of the central Eastern Carpathians and the adjoining plains, today divided between Romania and Ukraine.
Chernivtsi Oblast, also referred to as Chernivechchyna (Чернівеччина), is an oblast (province) in western Ukraine, consisting of the northern parts of the historical regions of Bukovina and Bessarabia. It has an international border with Romania and Moldova. The region spans 8,100 square kilometres (3,100 sq mi). The oblast is the smallest in Ukraine both by area and population. It has a population of 890,457, and its administrative center is the city of Chernivtsi.
The Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic or Moldavian SSR, also known as the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic, Moldovan SSR, or simply Moldavia or Moldova, was one of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union which existed from 1940 to 1991. The republic was formed on 2 August 1940 from parts of Bessarabia, a region annexed from Romania on 28 June of that year, and parts of the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, an autonomous Soviet republic within the Ukrainian SSR.
Hertsa Raion or Hertza Raion was an administrative raion (district) in the southern part of Chernivtsi Oblast in western Ukraine, on the Romanian border. The region had an area of 308.7 square kilometres (119.2 sq mi) and the administrative center in the city of Hertsa. It was one of the three raions of Ukraine with the majority of ethnic Romanian population. The raion was abolished on 18 July 2020 as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Chernivtsi Oblast to three. The area of Hertsa Raion was merged into Chernivtsi Raion. The last estimate of the raion population was 33,175
The Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, shortened to Moldavian ASSR, was an autonomous republic of the Ukrainian SSR between 12 October 1924 and 2 August 1940, encompassing the modern territory of Transnistria as well as much of the present-day Podilsk Raion of Ukraine. It was an artificial political creation inspired by the Bolshevik nationalities policy in the context of the loss of larger Bessarabia to Romania in April 1918. In such a manner, the Bolshevik leadership tried to radicalize pro-Soviet feelings in Bessarabia with a goal to return it in the presence of favorable conditions and creation of geopolitical "place d'armes" (bridgehead) to execute a breakthrough in the Balkan direction by projecting influence upon Romanian Bessarabia, which was eventually occupied and annexed in 1940 after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.
Moldovans, sometimes referred to as Moldavians, are a Romanian-speaking ethnic group and the largest ethnic group of the Republic of Moldova and a significant minority in Ukraine and Russia. There is an ongoing controversy, in part involving the linguisitic definition of ethnicity, over whether Moldovans' self-identification constitutes an ethnic group distinct and separate from Romanians, or a subset. The extent of self-identification as Romanians in the Republic of Moldova varies.
The Hertsa region, also known as the Hertza region, is a region around the town of Hertsa within Chernivtsi Raion in the southern part of Chernivtsi Oblast in southwestern Ukraine, near the border with Romania. With an area of around 304 km2 (117 sq mi), it has a population of about 32,300 people, 93% of whom are ethnic Romanians.
Hotin County was a county in the Principality of Moldavia (1359–1812), the Governorate of Bessarabia (1812–1917), the Moldavian Democratic Republic (1917–1918), and the Kingdom of Romania.
The Fântâna Albă massacre took place on 1 April 1941 in Northern Bukovina when up to 3,000 civilians were killed when their attempt to cross the border from the Soviet Union to Romania, near the village of Fântâna Albă, now Staryi Vovchynets in Chernivtsi Oblast, Ukraine, was met with open fire by the Soviet Border Troops. Although according to Soviet official reports no more than 44 civilians were killed, local witnesses assert a much higher toll, stating that survivors were tortured, killed, or buried in mass graves. Other survivors were taken away to be tortured and killed at the hands of the NKVD, the Soviet secret police. Some sources refer to this massacre as "the Romanian Katyn".
The Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina took place from 28 June to 3 July 1940, as a result of an ultimatum by the Soviet Union to Romania on 26 June 1940, that threatened the use of force. Those regions, with a total area of 50,762 km2 (19,599 sq mi) and a population of 3,776,309 inhabitants, were incorporated into the Soviet Union. On October 26, 1940, six Romanian islands on the Chilia branch of the Danube, with an area of 23.75 km2 (9.17 sq mi), were also occupied by the Soviet Army.
Novoselytsia Raion was a raion in Chernivtsi Oblast, (province) in the west of Ukraine. The western part of its territory lied in the historical region of Bukovina, the eastern part in Bessarabia, while one village (Boianivka) was part of the Hertsa region. The center of the raion was the city of Novoselytsia. The raion was abolished on 18 July 2020 as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Chernivtsi Oblast to three. The area of Novoselytsia Raion was split between Chernivtsi and Dnistrovskyi Raions. The last estimate of the raion population was 76,744
Anti-Romanian sentiment, also known as Romanophobia is hostility, hatred towards, or prejudice against Romanians as an ethnic, linguistic, religious, or perceived ethnic group, and it can range from personal feelings of hatred to institutionalized, violent persecution.
Sfatul Țării was a council that united political, public, cultural, and professional organizations in the greater part of the territory of the Governorate of Bessarabia in the disintegrating Russian Empire, which was transformed into a legislative body and proclaimed the Moldavian Democratic Republic as part of the Russian Federative Republic in December 1917, and then union with Romania in April [O.S. March] 1918.
Bălți is the second largest city in Moldova. It is located in the northern part of the country, within the historical region of Bessarabia, with which the city's own history is closely intertwined.
The National Moldavian Party was a political party in Bessarabia.
Elena Alistar-Romanescu was a Bessarabian physician and politician who was part of Sfatul Țării from Bessarabia.
Moldovans in Ukraine are the third biggest minority recorded in the 2001 All Ukrainian Census after Russians and Belarusians. Unlike many other minorities, Moldovans often live in the countryside (71.5%) rather than in a city (28.5%), the majority in the northern and southern historical region of Bessarabia.
Greater Moldova or Greater Moldavia is an irredentist concept today used for the credence that the Republic of Moldova should be expanded with lands that used to belong to the Principality of Moldavia or were once inside its political orbit. Historically, it also meant the unification of the lands of the former principality under either Romania or the Soviet Union. Territories cited in such proposals always include Western Moldavia and the whole of Bessarabia, as well as Bukovina and the Hertsa region; some versions also feature parts of Transylvania, while still others include areas of Podolia, or Pokuttia in its entirety. In its most post-Soviet iterations, "Greater Moldova" is associated with a belief that Moldovans are a distinct people from Romanians, and that they inhabit parts of Romania and Ukraine. It is a marginal position within the Moldovan identity disputes, corresponding to radical forms of an ideology polemically known as "Moldovenism".
Zorile Bucovinei is a Romanian-language newspaper published in Chernivtsi, Ukraine. It is one of the oldest Romanian publications in Chernivtsi Oblast.
Alexandrina Cernov is a Ukrainian academic, literary historian and philologist of Romanian ethnicity. An honorary member of the Romanian Academy, she has been lecturer at the Chernivtsi University. Cernov is a relevant figure of the Romanian minority of Ukraine and an advocate for their minority rights. She has apported significant contributions to Romanian cultural life in Ukraine and has published studies regarding the Romanians in Ukraine as well as handbooks for use in their schools.
References
↑ Ion Popescu and Constantin Ungureanu, Romanii dn Ucraina - intre trecut si viitor, vol. 1 (Romanii din Regiunea Cernauti), Cernauti, 2005, p. 24, with the figure from the 2001 Ukrainian census. An additional 258,619 people identified themselves as Moldovans.
↑ (in Russian)Charter for the organization of the Bessarabian Oblast, April 29, 1818, in "Печатается по изданию: Полное собрание законов Российской империи. Собрание первое.", Vol 35. 1818, Sankt Petersburg, 1830, pg. 222–227. Available online at hrono.info
↑ Ciobanu, Ștefan (1923). Cultura românească în Basarabia sub stăpânirea rusă. Chișinău: Editura Asociației Uniunea Culturală Bisericească. p.20.
↑ Colesnic-Codreanca, Lidia. Limba Română în Basarabia. Studiu sociolingvistic pe baza materialelor de arhivă (1812–1918) ("The Romanian language in Bessarabia. A sociolinguistic study based on archival materials (1812–1918)"). Chișinău: Editorial Museum, 2003.
↑ Oleksandr Derhachov (editor), "Ukrainian Statehood in the Twentieth Century: Historical and Political Analysis", Chapter: "Ukraine in Romanian concepts of the foreign policy", 1996, Kiev ISBN966-543-040-8
↑ Harvard Ukrainian Studies, Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, 1988, p.191
↑ INCONSISTENT LANGUAGE POLICY CREATES PROBLEMS IN UKRAINE, Oleg Varfolomeyev, EURASIA DAILY MONITOR, Volume 3, Issue 101 (May 24, 2006), available online at "The Jamestown Foundation". Archived from the original on 22 August 2006. Retrieved 29 August 2006.
↑ Dominique Arel, "Interpreting 'Nationality' and 'Language' in the 2001 Ukrainian Census," Post-Soviet Affairs, Vol. 18 No. 3, July–September 2002, pp. 213–249, available online in JRL #6535 at
↑ Center for the Prevention of Conflicts and Early Warning, Nr. 704R/June 19, 2004
↑ Ion Popescu and Constantin Ungureanu, Romanii dn Ucraina - intre trecut si viitor, vol. 1 (Romanii din Regiunea Cernauti), Cernauti, 2005, p. 242, 266, with the figures from the 2001 Ukrainian census.
↑ Ion Popescu and Constantin Ungureanu, Romanii dn Ucraina - intre trecut si viitor, vol. 1 (Romanii din Regiunea Cernauti), Cernauti, 2005, p. 266, with the figures from the 2001 Ukrainian census.
↑ Ion Popescu and Constantin Ungureanu, Romanii dn Ucraina - intre trecut si viitor, vol. 1 (Romanii din Regiunea Cernauti), Cernauti, 2005, p. 42, with the figures from the 2001 Ukrainian census.
↑ Ion Popescu and Constantin Ungureanu, Romanii dn Ucraina - intre trecut si viitor, vol. 1 (Romanii din Regiunea Cernauti), Cernauti, 2005, p. 33, 45, with the figures from the 2001 Ukrainian census.
↑ Ion Popescu and Constantin Ungureanu, Romanii dn Ucraina - intre trecut si viitor, vol. 1 (Romanii din Regiunea Cernauti), Cernauti, 2005, p. 24, 266, with the figures from the 2001 Ukrainian census.
↑ Ion Popescu and Constantin Ungureanu, Romanii dn Ucraina - intre trecut si viitor, vol. 1 (Romanii din Regiunea Cernauti), Cernauti, 2005, p. 260-261, with the figures from the 2001 Ukrainian census.
↑ Ion Popescu and Constantin Ungureanu, Romanii dn Ucraina - intre trecut si viitor, vol. 1 (Romanii din Regiunea Cernauti), Cernauti, 2005, p. 257, 258, with the figures from the 2001 Ukrainian census.
↑ Ion Popescu and Constantin Ungureanu, Romanii dn Ucraina - intre trecut si viitor, vol. 1 (Romanii din Regiunea Cernauti), Cernauti, 2005, p. 259, 260, with the figures from the 2001 Ukrainian census.
↑ Ion Popescu and Constantin Ungureanu, Romanii dn Ucraina - intre trecut si viitor, vol. 1 (Romanii din Regiunea Cernauti), Cernauti, 2005, p. 246, with the figures from the 2001 Ukrainian census.
Ion Nistor. The History of Romanians in Transnistria
The Romanian Minority in Ukraine, Ionas Aurelian Rus, Center for Prevention of Conflicts and Early Warning, Policy Paper Nr. 704R, Bucharest, June 2004
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