Contacts between the Romanians from Bessarabia and those from the Principality of Moldova during the period of Russian government (1828-1834)

Contacts between the Romanians from Bessarabia and those from the Principality of Moldova during the period of Russian government (1828-1834)

 

Author: Dionisie LIBONI
Keywords: border, cordon, boyars, sanctions, press, estates.

The present article tries to elucidate the eventful and documentary facts of the manifestation of the relations between Bessarabian Romanians and those from the Principality of Moldova from an integrative perspective. Denying the possibility of absolutely general circumscription within certain typologies, the study highlights the individuality of the established aims and the people involved. The degree of opening the border on the river Prut, during 1828-1834, produced a debate within the historiography of the Republic of Moldova, the research being receptive to provided evidence within supporting both hypotheses. However, analyzing the available documentary material, this interstice is characterized by a reduction of the frequency of trips and common business, a policy initiated by the imperial centre in order to protect its strategic interests at the political and military level. The obvious measures of securing the border have produced as a result the bureaucratization of the procedure, a stricter control of people with these goals, the introduction of tougher sanctions against the breach of the sanitary-customs cordon regime. At the same time the investigation continues by reporting the maintenance of contacts between some boyar families with the purpose of the management of real estate and of land properties and the decrease in the number of those with familiar (private ceremonies presence) or commercial purpose manifested at peasants.