Nation-Building and Contested Identities: Romanian & Hungarian ...

Contrasting/Conflicting Identities19 It was the 1905 Revolution that gave some impulse to the more radical students,who started to organize themselves and succeeded in convincing a numberof aristocrats to finance newspapers that spread national ideas among thepoor peasantry. This group, which included people who were to become keypolitical figures, such as Ion Pelivan or Pantelimon Halippa, founded, in 1905,the Society for Moldovan National Culture. Beginning in May 1906, they publishedthe first newspaper in Romanian, Basarabia, which formulated the programfor national emancipation, including the autonomy of Bessarabia, theintroduction of the Moldovan language in schools and administration, and theland reform. After less than one year, in March 1907, the newspaper wasbanned. It was followed, for a short period, by a more moderate one, ViaþaBasarabiei, which eventually met the same fate. Only in 1913 it became possibleto found another newspaper, entitled Cuvântul moldovenesc, destined toenlighten the Romanians from Bessarabia. See King, The Moldovans, pp. 28-31.20 A very interesting subject, but completely overlooked, is the crucial influenceplayed by Romanians from Transylvania in counseling the Bessarabian elitehow to initiate the national awakening movement. Above all, Onisifor Ghibu,a school inspector who held a doctoral degree in philosophy and educationfrom the University of Jena, was instrumental in convincing the Bessarabiansto establish a political party. It is interesting to note the tremendous differencebetween the Transylvanians, who had political experience, and the Bessarabians,who hardly understood the importance of having a political party. The followingstory is telling in this respect. Vasile Stroescu, a wealthy Bessarabianboyar who financed the Romanian-language newspapers, was asked by Ghibuto contribute to the organization of a political party that would militate for thenational cause. Stroescu replied that he was ready to give as much as he had,but only for cultural enterprises, because politics, he said, was a dirty activity.Nevertheless, later on, he would become one of the main supporters of theMoldovan National Party. See Onisifor Ghibu, Pe baricadele vieþii: În Basarabiarevoluþionarã, 1917-1918 (On the barricades of life: In revolutionaryBessarabia, 1917-1918) (Chiºinãu: Universitas, 1990), pp. 83-84 and 90-92.21 For an interesting account of the debates over the future of Bessarabia, thatmobilized the intelectual circles of Chiºinãu during the 1917-1918 period, seeVasile Harea, Basarabia pe drumul unirii: Amintiri ºi comentarii (Bessarabia onits way to unification: Memories and comments) (Bucharest: Eminescu, 1995).22 Regarding the political currents within the Sfatul Þãrii, see King, TheMoldovans, pp. 32-35.23 Actually, it is not very clear whether the Romanian government used the army inorder to manipulate the unification. Yet it is known that although by mid-Januarythe Romanian army had pushed the Bolshevik contingents east of the riverDnestr, it remained in Bessarabia, enraging the local population who started tosee it as an occupying force. Therefore, the Sfatul Þãrii had to take some positionand to declare that the Romanian troops came as a fraternal army to help restoringorder, and not to occupy the new republic. For the behavior of the Romaniantroops in Bessarabia, see ªtefan Ciobanu, Unirea Basarabiei (The Union ofBessarabia) (Chiºinãu: Universitas, 1993), pp. 224-231. See also CatherineDurandin, Histoire des Roumains, pp. 213-221.169