Monografia (document PDF) - Asociatia Tinerilor Istorici din Moldova

Presă şi cenzură în Basarabia. Documente şi comentarii
permission to publish in Chisinau, under it reaction, of daily political and cultural newspaper with
title “Bessarabskii vestnik”. By this, the Main department for press issues informs citizen Gheorghe
Gore that his request was not approved”. Quoted document is a singular one, in studied collection.
Other data known about Gh. Gore does not suggest any details about this case. It seems that
the bessarabian publicist who had previous experience as a redactor of gubernial bulletin (1866-
1868) tried to exercise the status of owner and chief-editor of periodicals. Also, we have to pay
attention to a fact that historian Al. Boldur considered that Gh. Gore tried to publish a romanian
newspaper in 1863, ‘the year of polish riot” (?). Anyway, documents we have do not offer more
details regarding this.
First publication in Romanian language: Eparchial Newsletter – an ephemeral victory.
First magazine of bessarabian clericals – Eparchial Newsletter (Kişinevskie Epahial’nye Vedomosti)
appears at July 1, 1867. It appeared twice per month under redaction of archimandrite
Varlaam, Rector of Theological Seminar in Chişinău. It became a tradition that this position was
fulfilled by the representatives of this institution (usually, russians) during the entire period of
publication of this magazine (1867-1917).
The appearance of bilingual edition of Kišiniovskie Eparchial’nye Vedomosti (1867-1872) can
be considered an ephemeris success of bessarabian clergy. Although we have to notice that this
event is set into a much larger context of historical investigation. The fact that clergy was that
social category in Bessarabia of XIXth century who succeed to publish a Romanian language publication
also has another historical explanation. This phenomenon is grounded in a cultural tradition
– publishing of liturgical books in Romanian language, which began on May, 31, 1814 when
the Eparchial Typography in Chisinau was opened under care of Bishop Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni.
This is the typography where Kišiniovskie Eparchial’nye Vedomosti was published. However, we
have to mention that from the middle of XIXth century bessarabian clergy didn’t insist on promoting
and supporting Romanian language on the pages of this edition as they did before. Both official
board and Romanian translators of the magazine showed no interest in continuing bilingual
edition of Kišiniovskie Eparchial’nye Vedomosti .
Initially, the magazine was bilingual – romanian and russian – and romanian version was translated
from russian one with a lot of lexical errors. It is very strange, but bessarabian clericals obtain
this right exactly when Romanian language is suspended as a educational discipline in Bessarabia.
After four years, in 1872, when Romanian language was absolutely interdicted in bessarabian
school (after February 3 it was prohibited in rural schools), the romanian language version of
newspaper was suspended.
From the fourth decade of XIXth century, during five decades, tsarists censorship stopped
about 7-8 attempts of bessarabian nobles to found a national press. These efforts – even if they
look modest – kept the belief in romanian values in Bessarabia and were valuable for next generations.
At the beginning of XXth century, romanian press became a decisive factor in the struggle
for liberation from despotic regime of russian autocracy. Based on actual investigation of this
issue we outline some considerations.
• Kišiniovskie Eparchial’nye Vedomosti (1867-1917) was the one and only magazine of Romanian
language edited in Bessarabia during XIXth century. But bilingual edition has appeared
intermittently between 1867-1872.
• Based on our investigation we can affirm that magazine was bilingual only during first 2
years from apparition (1867-1869). Starting with Nr. 3-4 some texts lack Romanian translation.
By year 1872, only few texts have Romanian translation.
• Kišiniovskie Eparchial’nye Vedomosti is the second official publication of our province (after
13 years from apparition of the first bessarabian publication – Bessarabskie Oblastnye Vedomosti,
1854 ); this fact confirms that censorship in Bessarabia was very strict. Morover,
tsarist’s censorship system annihilated from the beginnings other private initiatives of creating
of Romanian language press.
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