Abstract:
In the present study, based on a rich and varied documentary material found
from various archive funds from the Russian Federation, Ukraine and the Republic of
Moldova, the author takes a general look at the demographic, social and economic
situation of Bessarabia compared to the three Gubernyas of Novorossia - Herson, Tau-
rida and Ekaterinoslav.
The archive data show an obvious trend of population growth in Bessarabia and the
three gubernyas of Novorossia, although this trend, for some gubernyas, is not constant.
If for the region of Bessarabia and gubernyas of Ekaterinoslav and Taurida, this tendency
is positive and evident for the entire period of time, then for the Herson gubernya this
trend, for the year 1854, is negative, the diminution being related to the disaster caused
to the population by the Crimean war. The increase in the population of the Taurida gu-
bernya, directly involved in the Crimean War events, which naturally should had a neg-
ative evolution, was due to the immigration from the Russian internal gubernyas of the
serf peasants, who hoped to escape from the serfdom by participating in the war.
The rhythms of population growth in Bessarabia, the three gubernyas of Novorossia, depended on multiple factors, the natural ones being the colonization with Transdanubian colonists, Germans, etc. and emigrants from Russian internal gubernyas.
From a social and economic point of view, both Bessarabia and the gubernyas of
Novorossia, where serfdom did not exist or had a weaker influence, where the products from held the character of commodities, as agricultural farms, both of landowners and peasants, involved in the market relations, attesting a the large number of
guild merchants, especially of the fi rst two guilds, who maintained close ties with the
foreign markets through the ports on the Black Sea coast, the Azov Sea, on the Danube, the place of Bessarabia being quite important, especially in the export of cereals.
