Politica demografică a ţarismului în Basarabia (ultimul sfert al sec. al XVIII-lea – prima jumătate a sec. al XIX-lea) [Articol]

Abstract

The theme of the research has remained topical. Two opposite views have developed so far: the national historiography maintains that the tsarist carried a blamable demographic policy, whereas the tsarist and the soviet historical school emphasize the “progressive” character of the alterations in the domain. Approaching this phenomenon diachronically we ascertain an intensive colonization of Bugeac on account of the South Slavs, ethnic Turanian Gagauz, the Eastern Slavs and other nations. Romanians across the Prut were allowed to live in this region only for geopolitical reasons; for those settled in other counties there were special interdictions. Simultaneously, the oblasti and county administration was completed with officers from the internal gubernias of the Empire. Gradually, urban preponderant population was made of Russians and Ukrainians. This served as basis for the idea of the “multinational” structure of the territory between the Dniester and the Prut. Additionally, the impostor authorities permanently forged the demographic statistics disfavoring the native population component.