Abstract:
The aim of the article is to examine the circumstances that shaped the feelings
and attitudes of the Bessarabian political and economic elite, who experienced
the disintegration of the Russian empire, but did not show readiness to embrace
the Romanian-nation state perspective in 1918. I claim that the 1917-1918
political changes in the region deeply affected the economic and social status
of the former elite, influenced its identity and belonging, forced new survival
strategies, shaped mobility patterns, as well encouraged the development of
alternative political scenarios for the future of the region, namely the return
of Bessarabia back to Russia. Romania’s protection of Bessarabia from the
Bolsheviks did not ensure the expected support for the new regime of those
who cared about the preservation of their economic and social status; the
metamorphoses experienced by those who served the empire were shaped,
besides the feeling of loss and nostalgia for the tsar, by the frustration and
disappointment for the failure to switch loyalty to the Romanian king. Besides
that, the abolition of Bessarabian autonomy that lasted for six months led
towards merging of a common anti-Romanian front of the former and the
acting regional elite that once supported the union of Bessarabia with Romania.
