Societăţile naţional-culturale şi cauza naţională a românilor basarabeni în primele decenii ale secolului al XX-lea
The National-Cultural Societies and the National Cause of the Bessarabian Romanians in the first decades of the 20th century

Summary/Abstract: The subject of the activity of national-cultural societies of Romanians from Bessarabia is less studied in the historical literature. The documents from the national archive of Chişinău confirm the existence of some powerful cultural and political bonds between the main cultural centers from Romania and Bessarabia, the eastern part of the Moldavian principality, annexed to the Russian Empire in 1812. At the beginning of the XX century numerous young men from Bessarabia studied in different institutions from Iaşi, Bucureşti and other cities. Due to the Tzarist Regime, during the Russian revolutions, numerous people had to emigrate across Prut River. The majority of Romanians from Bessarabia located in Romania established the social base of the national-cultural societies of Romanians from Bessarabia especially at the beginning of the XX century: The society “The Bessarabian”, “The cultural confederation of Romanians from Bessarabia” having subsidiaries in Iaşi and Bucureşti, “The Bessarabian Circle of the National Philharmonic Institute”. In 1905, in Chişinău, was created the Moldovan Society from Bessarabia in order to sustain the education and the study of the national territory which was named in 1917 as “The cultural Society of Romanians from Bessarabia”. An important part of the “Union” generation passed the cultural and political schools in the cultural national societies through the contest of big patriots as Bogdan P. Hasdeu, Zamfir R. Arbore and C. Stere etc. The tsarist police and gendarmerie created a diabolical system of secret surveillance not only in Bessarabia but also in many cities from Romania such as Bucureşti, Iaşi, Ploieşti and Galaţi. Even if drastic measures has been taken against many people who were arrested, locked in prisons, deported from Bessarabia outside, interdicted to enter on the territory of the Russian empire, the national revival of Romanians living between Prut and Nistru Rivers took place and the idea of the Romanian unity achieved strong roots in the national conscience of the Romanians from Bessarabia.

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