Sfatul Țării ("Council of the Country"; ) was a council of political, public, cultural, and professional organizations in the Governorate of Bessarabia in Tsarist Russia. This became a legislative body which established the Moldavian Democratic Republic as part of the Russian Federative Republic in December 1917. and then union with Romania in .Andrei Brezianu, Vlad Spânu, Historical Dictionary of Moldova; Historical Dictionaries of Europe, Edition 2, Scarecrow Press, 2007, , p. 327.
Prelude and organization
Russian participation in World War I In August 1914, the First World War started, and 300,000 Bessarabians were mobilized and enrolled in the army of the Russian Empire, the majority in the immediate wake of Russian defeat. By March 1917, the military actions on the Eastern Front came to a stalemate. Conferences of soldiers in the rear of the front line dominated. Many called for a Republic; the Tsar had abdicated in March 1917, but the Russian Provisional Government that took his place had not yet proclaimed the Empire a Republic until September 1917. They wanted social and economic changes, such as annulment of the privileges of the nobility, and an agrarian reform that would give the peasants the land they worked on.Ion Nistor, Istoria Basarabiei, Cernăuți, 1923, reprinted Chișinău, Cartea Moldovenească, 1991, p. 274
Despite the bad situation, the Army of the Russian Empire did not disband. Soldiers continued to form units, but often officers were replaced by new, elected ones. Units continued to be stationed as before and would not move without the consent of the general command. The soldiers also started making political claims, such as land reform, permission to use the national language in administration and courts, as well as education and church services in the national language. Some Bessarabian soldiers had numerous occasions to interact with soldiers of the Kingdom of Romania, and with ethnic Romanians from Transylvania and Bukovina, many of the latter taken prisoners from the Austrian army, and organized in regiments now fighting on the Entente side.
Contacts between Romanian intelligentsia in Austria-Hungary and in Russia were quite strong already before 1914, as many saw a common goal: building a national homeland for all Romanians. There were many divergent visions on how this could be achieved: some wanted all lands inhabited by Romanians to be reunited under the Austrian crown, others wanted an independent Romanian state, which might be closer either to the Central powers or to the Entente. At the time, less than half of all Romanians lived within the borders of what was then the Kingdom of Romania, and due to its small size, it had almost no influence over the two big neighboring empires. As a result, the Romanian intelligentsia in Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia had to seek political empowerment by itself, exchanging methods and tactics with each other. Transylvanian newspapers in Romanian, such as Ardealul of Onisifor Ghibu were widespread in Bessarabia before World War I, where local newspapers such as Cuvânt moldovenesc and Viața Basarabiei, although not completely outlawed, were targets of Russian authorities. With the overall recruitment for World War I, many representatives of Romanian intelligentsia found themselves as low-rank officers in Austrian and Russian armies.
In 1917, after the February Revolution in Petrograd, "Moldavian Revolutionary Committees of Soldiers" were organized in the major Russian cities where recruits from Bessarabia were concentrated: Odessa, Kiev, Sevastopol, Kherson, Novogeorgievsk, Moroski (Minsk gubernia) in Russia, as well as in Iași, Roman, and Bârlad on the Romanian Front, plus smaller ones. Among the main calls on their banners were "Land and liberty", "Down with the war", and "Peoples's right to self-determination". April 1917 was the month with most such gatherings in the Russian Empire. On , a huge meeting was held in Odessa, where more than 10,000 Bessarabian soldiers participated. The resolution adopted by the meeting demanded (a) political autonomy for Bessarabia, (b) organization in Bessarabia of Moldavian military units (cohorts) in order to stop the violence to the population produced by the deserting irregulars of the partially disintegrating Russian Army, news of which had reached the soldiers, making them feel very worried for the fate of their families.Pantelimon Halippa, Anatolie Moraru, Testament pentru urmași, Munich, 1967, reprinted Chișinău, Hyperion, 1991, p. 143 This "congress" was also attended by a number of Bessarabian students, who obtained from the Russian authorities the permission to hold for those interested Romanian history and literature courses at the University of Odessa, as well as a number of Bessarabian intellectuals, such as Emanoil Catelli, Baluță, and others, who were most probably the authors of the resolution passed.Nistor, p.275
Local congresses Following the February Revolution and the cessation of World War I hostilities, various meetings and congresses were organized throughout Bessarabia, discussing the future of the country. Led by teachers and intellectuals, meetings were held and committees were set up in virtually every village, after which county-wide and Bessarabia-wide congresses of professional corporations – peasants, teachers, cooperators, clergy – were held. On –, a congress of the representatives of the village cooperatives ("The First Congress of Cooperatives of Bessarabia") was held in Chișinău and voted a motion demanding political, administrative, educational, religious, and economic autonomy for Bessarabia and the formation of a legislative assembly "Sfatul Țării" (literally The Council of the Country).
This was followed by other congresses, including those of soldiers, priests, students and teachers, all demanding self-rule. On –, 1917, a Congress of Clergy and representatives of parish committees was held in Chişinău, demanding a Moldavian archbishop to head the Church in Bessarabia, political autonomy of Bessarabia, and the setting of a High Council as a national legislative and executive body.Halipa, Moraru, pag 143 Similar motions were passed in all nine counties of Bessarabia.
A "General Congress of Bessarabian Teachers" was held in Chișinău, and passed a motion to switch the primary language used in teaching from Russian to Romanian, to use the Latin alphabet, and supporting the demands of the other three congresses.Nistor, p.275-276 On –, the Congress of Moldavian Teachers decided to switch to the Latin alphabet. Among the notable speeches at that congress were the ones given by Alexei Mateevici, who asked that Bessarabians identify as "Romanians" rather than "Moldavians", and of Iulie Frățiman, who asked that the areas beyond the Dniester inhabited by Romanians be administered by Bessarabia.Ciachir, p.94 These opinions weren't unanimous, as several protested being called "Romanians", affirming they were "not Romanian", but "Moldavian".Stuart J. Kaufman, Modern Hatreds: The Symbolic Politics of Ethnic War, Cornell University Press, 2001, , pg. 134
During April, May and June 1917, a series of Peasant Congresses were held at local levels, demanding land, administrative, and social reform, and the autonomy of Bessarabia.Halipa, Moraru, p. 143 On –, the First General Congress of Peasants of All Bessarabia took place in Chișinău. The Congress claimed that from the report of all the regions of Bessarabia, the land was taken over by an anarchic and public disorder current, which the Kerensky administration could not control. The Congress decided to found a Provisional Council of 100 members, 70 of which were Moldavians and 30 were representatives of minority groups. To this end, the Congress made up an organization commission, but little came of it.Halipa, Moraru, p. 144-145
Legal situation When the February Revolution took place in Petrograd in 1917, the governor of Bessarabia stepped down and passed his legal powers to Constantin Mimi, the President of the Gubernial Zemstvo, who was named the Commissar of the Provisional Government in Bessarabia, with Vladimir Criste his deputy. Similar procedures took place in all regions of the Russian Empire; the chiefs of the Tsarist administrations passed their legal powers to the chiefs of the County and Governorate Zemstvos, which were then called County/Governorate Commissars.Ion Nistor, p. 279
Security situation Officers started to disband their troops, and soldiers tried to form groups of people from the same regions to return home. The sheer number of soldiers retreating put a strain on resources along their path home. As a consequence, on , general Dmitriy Shcherbachov, the Supreme Commander of the Russian Armies on the Romanian Front, by order 156370 agreed to form 16 cohorts exclusively of Moldavian soldiers, and commanded by Moldavian officers. He distributed them to all nine counties of Bessarabia.Halipa, Moraru, p. 144Nistor, p. 275
Central Soldiers' Committee On June 22, 1917, delegates of the Moldavian soldiers from all Russian Fronts and major reserve units formed a "Moldavian Central Soldiers' Committee for All of Bessarabia", with headquarters in Chişinău. On , the representatives of Moldavian soldiers in the Russian Army units located on the Romanian Front gathered in Iaşi, and proposed a commission of jurists in Chişinău who would create a Declaration of national and territorial autonomy of Bessarabia, while respecting the rights of ethnic minorities of Bessarabia.Halipa, Moraru, pag 144 On , the Moldavian soldiers' central committee in Chișinău called for the creation of a council of the province, which would create a Proposed Law for National and Territorial Autonomy. On , the same committee started its own newspaper, called Soldatul român and edited by Iorgu Tudor.
At the suggestion of P. Varzar, P. Harea, and lieutenant Gherman Pântea, leaders of the Central Soldiers Committee, the meeting set up elections for a provincial assembly, Sfatul Țării.Nistor, p.276 Organizing elections was difficult due to the security situation, and because most able-bodied men between 19 and 48 were recruited into the Russian army, and stationed on the Romanian front (which saw action until December 1917), in Odessa and other Black Sea ports.
National Moldavian Party
Prior to 1917, Bessarabian intelligentsia was divided between noblemen, conservatives, democrats, and socialists. Vasile Stroescu, a rich boyar, managed to persuade all major factions to leave their internal fights and join. In April 1917, the National Moldavian Party was created, headed by Vasile Stroescu, having among its members Paul Gore (a renowned conservative), Vladimir Herța, Pan Halippa (a renowned socialist), Onisifor Ghibu, Daniel Ciugureanu, Ion Pelivan. The party, which demanded autonomy, had a newspaper called Cuvânt moldovenesc, to which some refugees from Bukovina and Transylvania also contributed.Nistor, p.279 The cornerstone of the Moldavian National Party program was to obtain political, administrative, church, school, and economic autonomy for Bessarabia. They did not hesitate to send members of the respective professions to the various congresses held in Bessarabia throughout 1917, and became very influential.
Ghibu and George Tofan were part of a group of Transylvanian and Bukovinian intellectuals which arrived in Bessarabia in the wake of the February Revolution to help organize schools in Romanian, to print books and newspapers, and to help the Bessarabians reorganize political and cultural life. Intellectuals from Bukovina, Transylvania, and the Romanian Old Kingdom fleeing the war to Bessarabia, helped with the printing of Cuvânt moldovenesc, started various language, history, culture, and sciences courses, and set up a People's University () in Chişinău.
Relationship with Ukraine