Промени в етнодемографската структура на Бесарабия през XIX век (1794-1894)
Changes in the Ethnodemographic Structure of Besarabia in the Nineteenth Century (1794-1894)

Summary/Abstract: The second half of the eighteenth and the entire nineteenth century in Southeastern Europe were marked by two phenomena of wide impact, which brought to changes in the geopolitical, demographic, confessional, social, and cultural structure of this region. These phenomena had important consequences for the collective mentalities of the population in the region and, above all, for the consciousness of its own identity. The first phenomenon is the division of some territories between the three empires ruling in Eastern Europe – the Ottoman, the Russian, and the Austro-Hungarian. The second one refers to the mass migrations of groups of population between these three empires, which took place under political, military, or civic pressure, and that were aimed at emigration, immigration, or forceful resettling. As a part of the Moldavian principality, and especially of its Southern part (known as Budjak), Besarabia of the nineteenth (as well as of the twentieth century) was an object of influence and a context of realization of these two phenomena. From such a perspective, in the second half of the nineteenth century Besarabia turned into a multiethnic and cosmopolitan space with large groups of immigrants and manifold juridical, legislative, economic, and cultural problems. Our analysis focuses on Besarabia (and especially on the part in Budjak) and investigates at the ethnic, demographic, confessional, social, cultural, and identity transformations in it, as well as the changes that occurred in the collective mentalities as a result of the geopolitical and demographic processes.

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