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1812 and the Emergence of the Bessarabian : Province-Building under Russian Imperial Rule

by Victor Taki, King’s University College, Edmonton

Abstract This article addresses the policies of the Russian authorities in in the two decades that followed the annexation of this territory in 1812. It examines the process of discursive and adminis- trative construction of the Bessarabian province from the territories that existed for centuries under different political jurisdictions. The article argues that the early Russian accounts of Bessarabia re- described these territories into a single whole, a province, whose exotic nature and population dis- tinguished it from other parts of the . The article further claims that each of the three consecutive attempts to define the form of administration of Bessarabia undertaken by the Russian authorities in the years following 1812 reflected a different perception of the province’s place within the imperial space. Thus, the initial idea to use Bessarabia as a conduit of Russian influence in Eu- ropean Turkey gave place to the vision of this province as part of ’s self-governing Western borderlands and finally to the re-definition of Bessarabia as part of New Russia. Without fully negat- ing its predecessor, each new vision and the accompanying administrative changes consolidated the discursive and institutional identity of Bessarabia, which ultimately enabled this province to outlast the empire that created it.

ccording to the peace treaty existed as identifiable geographical units dur- Aconcluded between the ing the moment of conquest. However, the and Russia on May 16, 1812, the river Pruth early history of Bessarabia suggests that this “from the point of its entry into the Principal- is not always the case. This article uses the ity of to it confluence with the Dan- Bessarabian example to demonstrate that the ube as well as the left bank of the latter become imperial conquest sometimes contributes to a new border between the two empires.”1 the symbolic and administrative construction Having traced the new boundary, the treaty of new out of territories that had only nevertheless failed to provide a name for the been weakly connected to one another. territory that was to be incorporated into the The lands annexed by Russia in 1812 con- Russian Empire and it took several years be- sisted of three different types of territories. fore the annexed region came to be systemati- On the one hand, there were the eastern dis- cally identified as Bessarabia.2 Historians who tricts of the of Moldavia located describe territorial conquests or annexations in the central and northern parts of the - often assume that the territories in question interfluve. Populated primarily by the ethnically Romanian peasants, they had 1 See the text of the treaty published in a somewhat deficient social structure in com- Polnoie Sobranie Zakonov Rossiiskoi Imperii, ser. 1, vol. parison with the territories to the West of the 32, 316-322. Hereafter cited as PSZ. 2 the majority of modern historians trace Prut River, which constituted the historical the origins of the term “Bessarabia” to the Bassarab nucleus of the Moldavian principality. Few if dynasty of , who ruled over the territory any Moldavian resided east of the Prut, located between the lower courses of the Dniester, the Prut and the during the fourteenth even though many of them had their landed century, before it became part of the Principality of properties there. The eastern districts of pre- Moldavia.

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1812 Moldavia were also the least urbanized tion of the districts was thereby placed under and all of their twelve small towns were in the the authority of the Ottoman fortress gover- private ownership of boyars or monasteries. nors and became reaya - direct tax-paying This applied to the future capital of the Rus- subjects of the sultan. With time, this category sian Bessarabia – Chișinău, which was in the of the Islamic law came to designate not only possession of the Galata monastery in Con- the non-military inhabitants, but also, and ap- stantinople before 1812. The Galata monastery parently uniquely in the Ottoman world, the in turn was dedicated to Jerusalem’s Church territories on which they lived. The early mod- of Resurrection and thus administered by the ern period witnessed the alienation of more representative of the Orthodox Patriarch of Je- Moldavian territories to the east of the Prut rusalem. Overall, the peculiar social character into the reaya districts. In 1538, following Su- of the eastern districts of pre-1812 Moldavia leyman II’s campaign into Moldavia, the Ot- became reflected in their special administra- tomans constructed the Bender fortress on the tive status. While the districts to the West of Dniester, followed by Ismail (1595) and Reni the Prut were subordinated to the early mod- (1622) on the Danube and Hotin (1713), again ern Moldavian “ministers of interior” (vor- on the Dniester. Since the level of taxation in nici), the lands to the East were placed under the reaya districts could in fact be quite spar- the jurisdiction of special governors – serdari ing, the peasants had the possibility to escape - who reported directly to the Moldavian ho- from the mounting tax burdens in the remain- spodar.3 ing territories of the Moldavian principality The social and administrative peculiarity of east of Prut, which explained relative under- pre-1812 eastern Moldavia was reflected in population of these territories by 1812. its proximity to two other types of territory Another reason for the general scarcity of that composed the Prut-Dniester interfluve, population in Eastern Moldavia was the per- namely the Ottoman fortress districts and the manent presence of the Nogai hordes in the Bugeac . Although the Moldavian hosp- southern part of the Prut-Dniester interfluve. odar Petru Roman established his rule over the Shortly after the emergence of the Crimean entire territory from “the (Carpathian) moun- Khanate and its transformation into a vas- tains to the (Black) Sea” in the late fourteenth sal state of the Ottoman Empire in 1475, the century, his successors’ control over its south- khans positioned themselves as successors of ern part proved to be tenuous and short-lived. Genghis Khan. In this capacity, the Crimean Already in 1484, Stephan III (1456-1504) had Girays managed to win the allegiance of sev- to cede the fortresses of Akkerman and Kilia eral Nogai hordes. This offered the and their adjacent districts in the mouth of the the possibility to settle in the steppe lands Dniester and the Danubian delta respectively along the northern littoral of the . to the Ottoman sultan Bajezid II. The popula- One of these hordes settled in what the called Bugeac, or the Westernmost corner of 3 Chosen among the first-rank Moldavian the East European steppe (also known as the boyars, who were often the hospodar’s relatives, serdari were in charge of the , and Kipchak steppe) constituted by the confluence Lapușna districts of the Moldavian Principality of the Prut and the Danube. Located under and commanded a considerable paramilitary force the double suzerainty of the Crimean khans of 3000 cavalrymen. See P. P. Svin’in, “Opisanie Bessarabii,” Stratum plus, no. 6 (2000-2001): 381. and the Ottoman sultans, the Bugeac horde

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at times defied both (for example in the 1620s The first post-1812 decades were character- and the 1630s as well as at the beginning of ized by the persistence of the traditional to- the eighteenth century).4 At other times, its ponymies, as well as the economic and even lands constituted the powerbase of particular political ties to the Moldavian Principality. Crimean khans (such as Kyrym Giray, who Thus, the new border cut the old Iași district led the last Crimean raid into Russian territo- in two, separating the bulk of its territory on ries in the winter of 1768-69). The proximity the left bank of the Prut from its center in the of the Nogais and Tatars who had not entirely city of Iași (which was also the capital of the abandoned nomadic practices subjected the Moldavian Principality). Nevertheless, one of Romanian populated territories in the cen- Bessarabia’s districts retained the name of Iași tral and northern parts of the Prut-Dniester for years after the annexation. The same ap- interfluve to periodic devastations, the last of plied to the estates of the Moldavian boyars, which resulted in the burning of Chișinău in many of whom possessed land on both sides 1766.5 At the time of the Russian-Ottoman war of the Prut. In 1812, they were granted a three- of 1768-1774, the desire of the Bugeac horde year term, in the course of which they had to to maximize their independence led them to decide on their permanent place of residence enter into negotiations with the Russian gov- and sell their properties across the border. ernment, which sought to resettle the Nogais However, many of the boyars preferred to sit to the right bank of the Kuban river in order on the fence and secured several postpone- to weaken the . 6 However, ments of the deadline. Inasmuch as the export only part of the horde left Bugeac at that time. of sheep and to Istanbul constituted one Others stayed until the Russian-Ottoman war of the major sources of revenue in the region, of 1806-1812, when the military governor of the creation of the new border caused discon- Armand Emmanuel Duplessis, Duke tent among the local population, as reflected of Richelieu, mindful of security of his city, in smuggling that persisted throughout the organized their resettlement first into Russian period of the Russian rule. In the absence of interior and then into the Ottoman Empire. 7 a special border guard service, the border was Thereupon, the empty Bugeac steppe as well patrolled by Cossack regiments (which in- as the reaya districts were declared Russian cluded Muslims), whose unsuitability for this crown lands, and brought under the single function was the cause of concern for the first administration with the eastern districts of the Bessarabian Viceroy A. N. Bakhmetiev.8 Moldavian Principality. The new imperial border proved to be rather ephemeral at the time of the Greek uprising in 4 V. V. Trepavlov, Istoria Nogaiskoi ordy (Moscow: Vostochnaia literatura, 2002), 451. the Ottoman Empire. In early March 1821, de- 5 Judging by the number of cavalry men tachments of Philiki Etaireia crossed the Prut that the Horde was able to put in the field in the into neighbouring Moldavia. Several weeks second half of the seventeenth century, its total population could reach 250,000. See, ibid., 453. 8 “Vsepoddanneishii doklad 6 alan W. Fisher, The Russian Annexation polnomochnogo namestnika Bessarabskoi oblasti of the , 1772-1783 (Cambridge: Cambridge A. N. Bakhmetieva,” July 7, 1816, N. F. Dubrovin University Press, 1970), 34-37. (ed.) Sbornik istoricheskikh materialov izvlechennykh 7 Willard Sunderland, Taming the Wild Field: iz arkhiva Sobstvennoi Ego Imperatorskogo Colonization and Empire on Russian Steppe (Ithaca: Velichestva Kantseliarii. 14 vols. (St. Petersburg: Cornell University, 2004), 112. Gosudarstvenniatipografia, 1876-1913), 7: 302.

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later, the Moldavian boyars implicated in the rivers. The author mentioned the three com- the Greek movement fled to Chișinău in order ponents of the new Russian province, and yet to escape the Ottoman revenge. The Russian- argued that they “are not separated from each Ottoman war of 1828-1829 and the Russian other by rivers and mountains and besides are occupation of Moldavia and Wallachia, which united by common mores and customs of the lasted until 1834, practically abolished the bor- inhabitants, because both Bessarabia stricto der altogether. At the same time, the preserva- sensu and the Hotin reaya once belonged to tion of the quarantine line along the Dniester the Moldavian Principality.”10 The unity of the until 1830 sometimes made communication new province was thus asserted by means of between Bessarabia and the rest of the Rus- historical and geographical arguments. The sian Empire more difficult than communica- Russian annexation could be presented as the tion between Bessarabia and the neighbouring restoration of the historical unity of the Mol- . The situation changed only in davian lands that had been divided by the Ot- the mid-1830s, following the evacuation of the toman conquest. At the same time, the Russian Russian troops from Moldavia and Wallachia authors were equally interested in underscor- and the restoration of the Russian border on ing the historical distinctiveness of Bessarabia the Prut.9 However, even after that date, the from the rest of Moldavia as to underscore the border remained porous, as illustrated by the unity of the new province. Thus, Pavel Shabel- continued existence in Bessarabia of the so- skii, the author of another early description called dedicated monasteries that were under of Bessarabia, stressed the significance of the the jurisdiction of the Eastern Orthodox patri- province for the Ottomans, as well as its role archs. as the granary of Constantinople alongside The creation of the new border was paralleled Egypt. That is why Bessarabia, according to by the active construction of the new province Shabelskii, “has always been separate from on both the discursive and institutional level. Moldavia, [and was] placed under the direct Several statistical descriptions of Bessarabia, government of the Ottoman pashas.”11 which appeared after 1812, helped the read- Rather paradoxically, the discursive construc- ers to perceive this territory as a single region. tion of Bessarabia involved the affirmation of These descriptions downplayed the differenc- its difference from other Russian provinces. es between different parts of the Prut-Dniester The assimilationist rhetoric, which empha- interfluve and at the same time stressed the sized Bessarabia’s organic fusion with the characteristics that were common to the entire Russian empire, was more characteristic of the region. The first of these descriptions composed late nineteenth and early twentieth century. by Petr Kunitskii still used the term “Bessara- By contrast, in the first post-1812 decades, bia” in its original sense of the southern part the Russian authors focused on Bessarabia’s of the territory between the Prut, the Dniester exotic nature, which set it apart from the in- and the Danube, which comprised Bugeac and terior provinces of Russia. Although the em- employed the term “Trans-Dniestrean region” 10 Petr Kunitskii, Kratkoie statisticheskoie to designate all the lands between the three opisanie Zadnestrovskoi oblasti (St. Petersburg: Glazunov, 1813), 6. 11 Pavel Shabelskii, “Kratkoie istoricheskoie 9 Iulian Fruntaşu, O Istorie etnopolitică a obozrenie Bessarabii,” Syn Otechestva, no. 15 (1815): Basarabiei (Chişinău: Cartier, 2002), 32. 35.

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pire’s border had been moved to the Prut, the land for the inhabitants of snowy Moscow or Russian authors continued to consider Dnies- humid St. Petersburg.15 Exiting descriptions ter as the “actual boundary between civilized of this kind were paralleled by the rumours and semi-barbarous countries.”12 The civiliza- of unbearable heat, the steppe replete with tional boundary coincided with the climatic snakes, scorpions and tarantulas, as well as one, beyond which the found the plague and eternal fevers.16 Just like the glori- country, whose nature they deemed exotic in fication of the riches of Bessarabia, the stories comparison even with the Ukrainian steppe, of the dangers that it harboured constituted an let alone the stern climate of the Great Russian inalienable aspect of exoticization of the new plain. The floral and faunal riches of Bessara- province that explained its attractiveness. bia compensated the primitiveness of local The earliest measures on the administrative agriculture. Bessarabian fields covered with organization of Bessarabia reflected the rivalry flowers unknown in Russia and the murmur between Russia and the Napoleonic Empire in of millions of insects that filled the air of the the , which was one of the reasons for steppe at night greatly impressed the Rus- the outbreak of the Russian-Ottoman war of sian travellers. It was even easier to imagine 1806-1812. The creation of the Illyrian provinc- Bessarabia as a “promised land” for those es of the French Empire in 1809 put the French who undertook vicarious journeys by means authorities in direct contact with the nascent of reading “thick journals” in the two Russian Balkan national-liberation movements and capitals. The necessity to justify the losses in- threatened Russia’s traditional influence over curred in the previous Russian-Ottoman war the Orthodox coreligionists in the Ottoman explained the tendency to exaggerate the local Empire.17 Aware of this danger, the Russian riches, which is apparent in the references to diplomats and military men considered the Bessarabia as “the granary of Constantinople, possibility of an attack against French Illyria similar to Egypt.”13 The possession of Bessara- that would reconsolidate Russia’s standing bia was all the more precious since, in contrast in the region and pre-empt Napoleon’s im- to the southern Caucasian territories, which minent campaign against Russia. One of the “bordered on hostile and predatory peoples,” memoranda for this expedition was written by the region possessed “salubrious air, a healthy I. A. Capodistrias, a Greek diplomat who en- climate, abundance of southern fruits, numer- tered the Russian service after the destitution ous springs and waterfalls” and all that in the of the Russian-controlled Septinsular Repub- vicinity of tender and meek .”14 Ac- lic in 1807.18 counts of the “aromas of acacias, the singing of the nightingales, huge sturgeons in the riv- 15 Vel’tman, “Vospominania o Bessarabii,” ers and inexhaustible numbers of game in the 246. 16 Ibid., 227. marches” turned Bessarabia into a fairy tale 17 On this subject, see Frank J. Bundy, The 12 a. I. Mikhailovskii-Danilevskii, Administration of the Illyrian Provinces of the French “Vospominania za 1829 god,” Russkaia starina, Empire, 1809-1813 (New York and London: Taylor no. 8 (1893):182; A. F. Vel’tman, Vospominaia o and Francis, 1987). Bessarabii,” Sovremennik, no. 3 (1837): 229. 18 “Mémoire sur une diversion à opérer dans 13 Shabelskii, “Kratkoie istoricheskoie le Midi de l’ en cas de guerre entre la Russie obozrenie Bessarabii,” Syn Otechestva, no. 15 et la ,” Vienne, 1811, Archive of the Foreign (1815):35-36. Policy of the Russian Empire (AVPRI), Fond 133, op. 14 Ibid., no. 16 (1815):125. 468, file 11067, ll. 299-311.

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Despite its utopian character, the project ration of the “Rules for the Temporary Admin- sparked the enthusiasm of I. The istration of Bessarbia,” which was approved tsar appointed his Minister of the Navy P. V. by Alexander I in August 1812.20 In view of Chichagov as the commander-in-chief of the the negative experience of the Russian ad- Danubian army with a mandate to end the ministration in Moldavia and Wallachia dur- protracted war against the Ottoman Empire ing the war of 1806-1812, the “Rules” relieved and draw the sultan into an alliance against Bessarabia from state taxation for three years, Napoleon. Alexander I also instructed Chi- exempted the province from the military draft chagov to “excite the Slavic population” by for the next fifty years and presupposed the promising them “independence and the cre- formation of a “provincial government in ation of the Slavic kingdom.” The tsar also accordance with the local laws, mores and authorized “monetary rewards to the most customs.”21 The “Rules” also specified the use influential people among [the ] as well of the in administrative as decorations and titles to the leaders and the and judicial bodies, which were to be staffed soldiers.”19 However, Chichagov arrived in by the representatives of Moldavian nobility, Bucharest already after his predecessor M. I. who decided to settle in the region. Kutuzov signed the peace treaty with the Ot- Mindful of the Montesquieuian principle of tomans, which gave Bessarabia to Russia, but making the legislation conform to the mo- contained not a single word about an alliance res of the country, Chichagov, Capodistria between the tsar and the sultan. The crossing and the younger Sturdza also expected the of the Russian border by Napoleon’s Grande new government of Bessarabia to serve Rus- Armée and its rapid advance in the direction sia’s specific geopolitical goals in an on-going of Moscow soon forced the tsar and Chicha- struggle with Napoleon. Chichagov’s instruc- gov to scrap the project of the Balkan expedi- tion to Scarlat Sturdza called the first Bessara- tion and retreat from the Danube to the north. bian governor to “skilfully draw the attention Russia’s early policies with respect to Bessara- of the neighbouring peoples to this region.”22 bia should be seen in this context. They were According to the instruction, the Russian-Ot- largely the product of Capodistria, who be- toman war “commanded the minds and in- came the head of Chichagov’s diplomatic spired the hopes of Moldavians, Wallachians, chancellery. Both Capodistria and Chichagov , , Serbs and other peoples.” were friends of Scarlat Sturdza, a Moldavian Following the retreat of the Russian Army to who collaborated with the Russian au- the North, “their spirit could fall and our en- thorities during the occupation of Moldavia in 20 On Chichagov’s relations with the 1788-1792 and who immigrated to Russia soon Sturdza family and the younger Sturdza’s role in thereafter. This friendship explains both the the elaboration of the “Rules,” see Stella Ghervas, latter’s appointment as the first civil governor Réinventer la tradition. Alexandre Stourdza et l’Europe of Bessarabia and as well as the important role de la Sainte Alliance (Paris: Honoré Champion Editeur, 2008), 31, 62. that his young son and Capodistria’s secre- 21 See art. 11, of the “Rules for the Temporary tary, Alexander Sturdza, played in the elabo- Government of Bessarabia,” in A. N. Egunov (ed.) Zapiski Bessarabskogo Statisticheskogo Komiteta. 3 vols. (Chisinau: tipografia Oblastnogo Upravlenia, 19 Mémoires inédits de l’amiral Tchitchagoff 1868), 3:109-110. (Berlin: Scheneider et comp., 1855), 9. 22 Ibid., 111.

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emies could come to dominate them.” The task other, the situation on the ground deteriorat- of the Bessarabian governor was therefore to ed to the point of turning Bessarabia into the “preserve the attachment of these peoples to very antipode of the showcase province that Russia and protect them from the influence of Capodistria, Chichagov and Alexander I had our enemies.” Bulgarians, Serbs, Moldavians intended it to be. In particular, the mid- and Wallachians are looking for a fatherland, witnessed a conflict between the Bessarabian claimed the author of the instruction, and it landlords and the trans-Danubian Bulgar- was up the first Bessarabian governor to offer ian and Greek settlers, whom M. I. Kutuzov them one in the new province.23 invited to Bessarabia during the last year of The first administrative framework for the Russian-Ottoman war. To make matters Bessarabia introduced by Capodistria and worse, the Bessarabian peasants began to run Chichagov thus reflected their goal of retain- across the Prut due to rumours of the impend- ing the Russian influence over the Orthodox ing re-imposition of serfdom.24 When the news co-religionists in the Ottoman Empire, whose of administrative chaos in Bessarabia reached security was not fully guaranteed by the Bu- St. Petersburg in the wake of the defeat of Na- charest treaty. Bessarabia had to serve as the poleon and the conclusion of the Congress of refuge for those who had compromised them- Vienna, Alexander I and Capodistria, who had selves in the eyes of the Ottoman authorities in the meantime become the tsar’s secretary by their collaboration with the Russians dur- of state, responded by appointing a Bessara- ing the war. At the same time, Capodistria bian viceroy with the mission of elaborating envisioned Bessarabia as the Russian bridge- the definitive form of self-government for the head in the Balkans akin to the one that Na- province. poleon created in the Western part of the pen- The choice of the military governor of Podo- insula in the shape of the Illyrian provinces of lia, lieutenant-general A. N. Bakhmetiev, as the French Empire. To fulfil these functions, the first Bessarabian viceroy in April 1816 was Bessarabia had to be a showcase of the be- not accidental. was a region annexed nevolent Russian administration, which was by the Russian Empire in the context of the attentive to local cultural peculiarities. second partition of in 1793, in which These well-meaning plans soon foundered Polish or Polonized nobility remained domi- over Russia’s usual lack of effective admin- nant. During the first two decades of Russian istrators, which in the immediate post-1812 rule, the relations between St. Petersburg and years was exacerbated by imperial centre’s the Polish elites of the Western borderlands re- exclusive preoccupation with the struggle mained uncertain, in large part because of the against Napoleon. Soon after his appoint- influence of the French revolutionary ideas ment, Scarlat Sturdza was incapacitated by among the wider Polish nobility and partial a stroke, while major-general I. M. Garting, restoration of Polish statehood in the shape of who replaced him as the military governor of Napoleonic Duchy of Warsaw in 1807. In or- Bessarabia in 1813, failed to find a common der to win the allegiance of Polish elites, the language with the representatives of Moldavi- 24 for a more detailed discussion of these an nobility. While Garting and the Bessarabian issues, see Andrei Cușco, Victor Taki, with Oleg Grom, Bessarabia v sostave Rossiiskoi imperii, opposition spent their time denouncing each 1812-1917 (Moscow: Novoie Literaturnoie 23 Ibid., 112. Obozrenie, 2012), 162-172.

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Russian rulers had to demonstrate a measure which in its turn represented a response to the of respect to their historical rights. Although challenge of the revolutionary and Napole- Catherine II was determined to combat the onic France. The generic affinity between the “French pestilence” in Poland, the Lithu- Polish and the Bessarabian policy of the Rus- anian Statute of 1588 continued to be used in sian emperor was confirmed by the direct Pol- local administration together with the Polish ish involvement in the establishment of the language. Paul I went as far as to restore the Bessarabian self-government. Bakhmetiev ar- local assemblies of the nobility in the Polish rived in Chișinău with his Polish wife (who provinces, while Alexander I early in his reign belonged to the famous Potocki family) and entrusted important state offices to a number a suite of Polish secretaries, one of whom, N. of prominent and was ready to offer the A. Krinitskii, became the actual author of the Polish nobility far-reaching autonomy on the Statute for the Formation of the Bessarabian eve of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812. Province of 1818.26 Although the Poles of the Duchy of Warsaw The most important aspect of the Statute con- actively supported Napoleon in his cam- sisted in the creation of the Supreme Council paign, in 1815 the victorious Russian emperor of the province, most of whose members were secured the transformation of the Duchy of to be elected every three years by the Bessara- Warsaw into a Constitutional kingdom of Po- bian nobility. The Council functioned as the land, in personal union with Russia. He also highest administrative and judicial body and considered the possibility of including into the its decisions were to be implemented immedi- kingdom Podolia and other Polish territories ately.27 Bessarabian nobility also had the pos- that the Russian Empire acquired as a result sibility to elect the majority of members of the of the second and third partitions. By 1816, province’s criminal and civil courts as well as the policy of cooperation with the Polish elites their counterparts on the level of individual was thus in full swing and the appointment districts.28 Although the of the Podolian governor to the newly created was now to be used in the criminal court as position of the Bessarabian viceroy suggested well as in the administrative and fiscal de- that Alexander I viewed Bessarabian as part of partments of the provincial government, the Russia’s Western borderlands. civil court and the Supreme Council were sup- The instruction that Bakhmetiev received at posed to examine the civil affairs in Romanian the moment of his appointment indicated that and “in accordance with the Moldavian rules the emperor’s policy with respect to Bessara- and customs.”29 Just as the “Rules” of 1812, the bia was “fully in accordance with the ap- Bessarabian Statute of 1818 continued to de- proach that he had adopted with respect to fine the local traditions and customs as the ba- other territories acquired during his reign.”25 26 On Krinitskii’s role see F. F. Vigel, As a result, one can say that the administra- “Zamechania na nyneshnee sostoiane Bessarabskoi tive construction of Bessarabia in the second Oblasti,” in F. F. Vigel, Zapiski. 7 vols. (Moscow: half of the 1810s replicated the policy of Paul Universitetskaia tipografia, 1892), 6:4 (separate pagination). I and Alexander I with respect to Polish elites, 27 “Ustav obrazovania Bessarabskoi oblasti,” April 29, 1818, PSZ, ser. 1, no. 27357, vol. 23, 223- 25 See the instruction to Bakhmetiev in 224. Rossiiskii Gosudarstvennyi Istoricheskii Arkhiv (RGIA), 28 Ibid., 226, 228. Fond 1286, op. 2, file 70, ll. 25-26. 29 Ibid., 225-227.

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sis of Bessarabian autonomy. In line with this Bessarabian Statute was the first step towards approach, the Russian authorities established the realization of this intention, and can thus a special commission for the codification of be viewed as a manifestation of Alexander I’s Bessarabian law, headed by Petr Manega, a “constitutionalism.” The Statute did not have Paris-trained lawyer of Romanian origin.30 the character of a constitutional charter, but The Statute was approved by Alexander only confirmed to Moldavian political tradi- I during his visit to Chișinău in late April tion. Despite strong Polish influences, early 1818, following the emperor’s meeting with modern Moldavian politics offers no example the Bessarabian nobility. The Statute thereby of formal mutually-binding agreements be- acquired the character of an agreement be- tween the hospodars and the boyars similar tween the emperor and the local elites. The to the Polish pacta conventa. Relations with representatives of the latter were to enjoy a the Polish Sejm in the last years of Alexander wide participation in the provincial adminis- I’s reign demonstrated that the emperor did tration. In return, the emperor expected that not consider the Constitutional Charter that the Bessarabian nobles would not consider the he had granted to the Kingdom of Poland to “national character” of the Bessarabian prov- be equally binding for himself and the Pol- ince and its “special form of administration” ish nobility. Instead, the emperor viewed all as synonymous with the narrow interests of legislative acts that he had passed in order to their class. In his letter to Bakhmetiev, Alex- regulate relations with the regional elites to ander I stressed that “inhabitants of all classes be the products of his unilateral benevolence, should partake in an equitable measure of the regardless of the formal legal character that boundless good” that the Statute represented. these acts had. Since such an important innovation needed to Just like the reconfirmation of Bessarabia’s au- be tested “by time and experience,” the Statute tonomy in 1816-1828, its curtailment a decade was introduced provisionally, which likewise later was accompanied by the re-conceptual- testified to its contractual character and sug- ization of the province’s place in the symbolic gested that the Bessarabian “experiment” was and administrative geography of the Russian not over.31 Empire. This re-conceptualization was at least Remarkably, Alexander I approved the in part related to the resolution of the already Bessarabian Statute soon after the closure of mentioned conflict between the Bessarabian the first session of the Sejm of the Kingdom landlords and the trans-Danubian Bulgarian of Poland, where the emperor announced his and Greek colonists that erupted in 1814. Al- intention to spread the “liberal” (zakonno- though the temporary placement of Bessara- svobodnye) institutions on all domains that bia into the category of Western borderlands providence had placed under his sceptre.32 The of the Russian Empire seemed to strengthen the position of the landed noblemen, the colo- 30 On Manega, see L. A. Kasso, Petr Manega – nists were taken out of the jurisdiction of the zabytyi kodifikator bessarabskogo prava(St. Petersburg: Senatskaia tipografia, 1914). nobility-dominated Bessarabian government 31 Alexander I to Bakhmetiev, April 29, 1818, and subordinated to the Board of Foreign Col- PSZ, ser. 1, no. 27357, vol. 23, 223. onists of the in 1819. A year 32 Cited in S. V. Mironenko, Samoderzhavie i reformy. Politicheskaia bor’ba v Rossii v nachale XIX-go later, the head of this board, major-general I. veka (Moscow: Nauka, 1989), 157. N. Inzov, was appointed the Bessarabian vice-

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roy in place of Bakhmetiev, who had found Russia, Vorontsov “joined the rightful inheri- himself increasingly at odds with the Bessara- tance of sorts,” in the words of his one-time bian nobility. Inzov neutralized some of the subordinate, the famous Russian memoirist F. most outspoken oppositionists, yet the Statute F. Vigel.35 remained in place and only the replacement of Having taken a negative view of disorders in Inzov by M. S. Vorontsov in 1823 marked a real the Bessarabian administration, Vorontov at- turn in the Russian policy towards Bessarabia. tributed them to the excessive autonomy that With the appointment of Vorontsov as both the 1818 Statute granted to the local nobility the Bessarabian Viceroy and the governor of and became determined to curtail it. As a re- New Russia in 1823, Bessarabia was admin- sult, the Bessarabian nobility lost the right to istratively united with the region which for elect the heads of the district administration half a century constituted a space of state- in 1824. Four years later Vorontsov secured sponsored colonization.33 If the inclusion of the adoption of a new Statute, whereby the Bessarabia into the Western borderlands of the Bessarabian Supreme Council was replaced Russian Empire during the 1810s was accom- by the Council of the Province, with only one panied by a focus on its “historical rights” and elected representative of the Bessarabian no- local customs, the redefinition of the province bility among its members. The new Statute as part of New Russia during the 1820s result- drastically reduced the number of elected offi- ed in the tendency of the Russian policy-mak- cials in the provincial and district administra- ers to perceive Bessarabia through the prism tion in comparison to the Statute of 1818 (from of Russia’s “civilizing mission” in the south. 75 to 26).36 No less important was the general Vorontsov’s predecessors in Odessa, Armand redistribution of the elective positions, which Emmanuel Duplessis, Duke de Richelieu and did not leave any segments of the provincial Louis Alexandre Andrault de Langeron were administration beyond control of the Vice- rather typical enlightened administrators who roy.37 Within five years, Russian became the frequently resorted to the “civilizing” rheto- language of Bessarabia’s public institutions. ric.34 It is also noteworthy that Vorontsov’s The reduction of the role of the nobility in wife E. K. Branitskaia was a niece of G. A. Po- Bessarabian government was accompanied by temkin and the heiress of his fortune. With his an intensification of state-sponsored coloniza- appointment as the governor-general of New tion in the southern part of the province. In the second half of the 1820s, Vorontsov secured 33 for the general analysis of Vorontsov’s activities as the Bessarabian viceroy, see Anthony the adoption of decrees encouraging the set- Rhinelander, Prince Michael Vorontsov. Vice-Roy to tlement of Serbs, Trans-Danubian as the Tsar (Montreal: McGill University Press, 1990), 67-93. well as some 20,000 Russian state peasants from 34 None of them was directly involved into the inner provinces of the Russian Empire.38 the Bessarabian affairs. However, Richelieu played an important role in the of Nogais 35 Vigel, Zapiski, 6:91. from Bugeac in 1807, which opened the space for 36 “Ucherezhdenie dlia upravlenia Bulgarian, German and Russian colonists. As for Bessarabskoi oblastiu,” February 29, 1818, PSZ, ser. Langeron, his memoirs of the Russian-Ottoman 2, no. 1834, vol. 3, 197-204. wars of 1787-1792 and 1806-1812 represent one of 37 See “O razdelenii del po Bessarabskomu the most characteristic description of Moldavia and oblastnomu pravleniiu i kazennoi palate,” March Wallachia in terms of “barbarity” and “Oriental 11, 1828, PSZ, ser. 2, no. 1864, vol. 3, 236-239. despotism”, which could be overcome only by 38 See “O vodvorenii v Bessarabii serbov, means of a rational and enlightened government. February 9, 1826, Polnoie Sobranie Zakonov Rossiiskoi

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Vorontsov’s activities did not result in the of Bessarabia as a hitherto unprecedented po- transformation of Bessarabia into an ordinary litico-administrative unit. A product of Rus- Russian gubernia. Bessarabia continued to be sian imperial expansion, Bessarabia provided a distinct periphery of the Russian Empire institutional and mental framework to several for decades. However, the first years of Vo- alternative projects of nation-building in the rontsov’s governorship determined what type late nineteenth and early twentieth century. of periphery Bessarabia was going to be and thereby constituted the concluding stage of the process of province-building that began in About the Author 1812. In the early to mid-1800s, Capodistrias envisioned the new province as a Russian fa- Victor Taki received his doctoral degree from çade turned towards the Balkans. At the end of the Central European University (Budapest) in the decade, Alexander I for a moment viewed 2008. In 2008-2011, he held different teaching it as part of Russia’s self-governing Western positions at Carleton University (Ottawa), Uni- borderlands and an element of a more ambi- versity of Alberta (Edmonton), and Dalhousie tious project to spread the principle of self- University (Halifax). He currently teaches government to the rest of the Russian Empire. at King’s University College in Edmonton. By contrast, Vorontsov redefined Bessarabia Publications: “Between Polizeistaat and Cor- as part of New Russia and thus as a space of don Sanitaire: “Orientalism at the Margins: colonization policies that the Russian gov- The Ottoman Empire under Russian Eyes,” ernment pursued in that region since the late Kritika, no. 2 (2011), 321–51; Bessarabiia v eighteenth century. All three turning points in sostave rossiiskoi imperii, 1812–1917 [Bessara- the early history of Russian rule between the bia as Part of the Russian Empire], Moscow: Dniester, the Prut, the Danube and the Black Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie, 2012 (co-au- Sea thus reveal a close relation between the thored with Andrei Cușco); “Russian Protec- ways imperial policy-makers perceived the torate in the : Lega- newly annexed territory and the concrete mea- cies of the Eastern Question in Contemporary sures they adopted. Each new approach did Russian-Romanian Relations”; Lucien Frary not completely obliterate the perceptions and and Mara Kozelsky (eds.) Russian-Ottoman policies that had characterized the preceding Borderlands: The Eastern Question Recon- one, but rather contributed to the discursive sidered (Madison, WS: University of Wiscon- and administrative construction of the new sin Press, 2014), 35-72; and “Horrors of War: province. The cumulative result of three con- Representations of Violence in the Russian secutive attempts to integrate the new territo- Accounts of the European, Oriental and ‘Pa- rial acquisition into the political geography of triotic’ Wars,” Kritika: Exploration in Russian the Russian Empire resulted in the emergence and Eurasian History 15, no. 2 (2014), 263-292.

Imperii, Ser. 2, no. 132, vol. 1, 194-196; “O pereselenni E-mail: [email protected] krestian iz vnutrennikh gubernii v Bessarabskuiu ’,” September 21, 1826, PSZ, ser. 2, no. 592, vol. 1, 998-1000; “O vodvorennii Zaporozhskikh kazakov i drugikh zagranichnykh vykhodtsev v Bessarabskoi oblasti,” February 19, 1827, PSZ, ser. 2, no. 913, vol. 2, 190-192.

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