The Bessarabian Peasants' Party (, PȚB or PȚ-Bas; also Partidul Țărănesc Basarabean, Partidul Țărănist Basarabean)Desa et al., pp. 855, 1024; Poștarencu et al., p. 84; Suveică, p. 85 or Moldavian National Democratic Party (Partidul Național-Democrat Moldovenesc) was an agrarian political party, active in the Kingdom of Romania and, more specifically, the region of Bessarabia. Comprising various pro-Romanian and regionalist factions that had existed within the Moldavian Democratic Republic, it was brought together by shared opposition to Bolshevik Russia and communism. The PȚB, founded in August 1918, was led by Pan Halippa and Ion Inculeț, originally representing, respectively, its right and left wings; Ion Pelivan was the co-chair.
Effectively the government party of Bessarabia in the wake of its formal union with Romania, the PȚB scored a major victory in the 1919 election, when it emerged as the third most popular party in Greater Romania, and an essential partner in government. It was therefore co-opted by the Parliamentary Bloc, formed around the Romanian National Party, until the latter's government was brought down by the People's Party. Although losing several of its chapters before the 1920 elections, it still won Bessarabia by a significant margin, openly embracing the cause of decentralization and regional autonomy.
Rallied with the national opposition by 1921, the PȚB was effectively split over merging into a caucus formed by Ion Mihalache's Peasants' Party and the independent agrarian faction led by Constantin Stere. Halippa supported such a fusion, and took his supporters out of the PȚB; Inculeț reclaimed for himself the party leadership, and, in 1922, formed an alliance with the governing National Liberals. Marginally defeating Halippa and Stere in the election of 1922, the PȚB was again co-opted into government. Inculeț and his supporters entered the National Liberal Party in early 1923, leaving the surviving rump party, led by Ion Pelivan, to merge with the Romanian National Party in September.
History
Origins The PȚB was officially founded in Chișinău on August 23, 1918,Poștarencu et al., p. 82; Suveică, p. 66 some months after Bessarabia's union with Romania. It was the fusion of two groups that has previously existed in the Moldavian Democratic Republic. Many cadres, including Halippa, had belonged to the "Moldavian Bloc", which represented Romanian nationalism faction within Sfatul Țării, the republican legislature. The Bloc itself was a relic of the National Moldavian Party (PNM), which had existed after the February Revolution—when Bessarabia was still part of the Russian Republic.Cemârtan, p. 126; Suveică, p. 66 According to historian Andrei Cemârtan: "The [PȚB] members themselves made no effort to conceal that only the name had changed, meaning more precisely that the National Moldavian Party had become the Peasants' Party, as circumstances had changed."Cemârtan, p. 126
On its left, the PȚB also incorporated ethnic Romanians who had caucused with Sfatul Țăriis "Peasant Faction" (Fracția Țărănească).Suveică, pp. 62, 66 The latter's notable members were Inculeț (its nominal leader), Pantelimon Erhan, and Vladimir Tsyganko.Constantin et al., pp. 89–90, 265 References to a "Bessarabian Peasants' Party" date back to the era before World War I. A faction of that name existed in the Russian State Duma after the 1907 election. Centered on Dionisy Gulikin, it campaigned for the recognition of Romanian as a state language of Russia.Clark, p. 90 The same title was later used in common parlance for the Peasants' Faction of Sfatul Țării.Constantin et al., p. 89
Various Peasant Faction affiliates, like other future PȚB cadres, had belonged to left-wing parties in Russia. Inculeț and Daniel Ciugureanu had been Esers, and had for long maintained links with the Russian Provisional Government.Brătianu, p. 64; Clark, pp. 131–132, 144–145, 148–151, 175–176, 192; Constantin et al., pp. 89–90, 93–94, 169, 250–251, 265; Suveică, p. 68 More to the left, Ion Buzdugan and Gherman Pântea had caucused with the Bolsheviks.Suveică, p. 68 In November 1917, almost a year before the PȚB's formal registration, a party of the same name had participated in the ill-fated election for the Constituent Assembly. Its list included, among others, Inculeț, Pântea, and Halippa. While the election results "were never fully tabulated",Clark, pp. 144–145 later counts indicated the Peasants' Soviet as one of the most important political players, winning between 35% and 37% of the accounted votes, with strong support from the Romanian-speaking rural population. The results would have allowed the party to hold 5 of the 13 Bessarabian deputy seats, as many as the local Esers; in contrast, the PNM, only gathering 2–3% of the vote, would have failed to win any.Ionaș Aurelian Rus, "The Roots and Early Development of Moldovan-Romanian Nationalism in Bessarabia (1900–1917)" in Romanian Review of Political Sciences and International Relations, Vol. VI, Issue 2, 2009, pp. 18–19
During the same month, Inculeț was elected the Moldavian Republic's President by his colleagues in Sfatul. According to scholar Charles Upson Clark, his collaboration with the Moldavian Bloc was purely pragmatic: since the October Revolution had toppled the Esers, he switched from supporting Russian federalism to preserving his republic as an independent state, and needed the nationalists' backing.Constantin et al., pp. 89–95, 111, 250–251, 265; Clark, pp. 148–151, 172–173 Pelivan was always suspicious of the President's true motivations, and later went on record with allegations that Inculeț was unreliable and not in fact devoted to his country, but "belonged to the Russian nation."Constantin et al., pp. 169–170 Inculeț defended himself against such charges. In his account, he had merely passed himself off for a revolutionary, in hopes of dissuading radicals from toppling his government, and "hide his [patriotic] sentiments".Constantin et al., pp. 168–169
In his tenure as president, Inculeț reluctantly allowed the Romanian Land Forces to assume effective control of the country, hoping to use them against the Bolshevik insurgents.Clark, pp. 172–177; Constantin et al., pp. 98, 109, 113–125, 251, 265 Urged on by Inculeț, Ciugureanu and Pantelimon Erhan,Clark, pp. 175–177 Sfatul declared the republic's full independence on January 23, 1918. In March, this was reversed by a new vote on union, with Inculeț and Ciugureanu becoming Ministers for Bessarabia in the Romanian cabinet of Alexandru Marghiloman.Cemârtan, pp. 125, 131; Clark, pp. 195–203; Suveică, pp. 85, 204–205 Both of them, together with Pelivan, were elected to the Assembly of Deputies for Romanian colleges in the summer 1918 race.Constantin et al., pp. 160–162
Early goals According to Cemârtan, the new party's creation reflected Bessarabian suspicion of Marghiloman's politics, and in particular their fear that his Conservative Party was against their desired agrarian reform. In its first session of 1918, the PȚB elected Halippa as chairman; Pelivan and Ștefan Holban were Vice Presidents.Cemârtan, p. 125; Constantin et al., p. 162 The first-ever Central Committee (CC) included Halippa, Holban, Inculeț, Ciugureanu, Teofil Ioncu, Gheorghe Stârcea, and several members of the autonomous Bessarabian Directorate: Petru Cazacu (the Director-in-Chief), Nicolae Bivol, Ștefan Ciobanu, Ion Costin.Cemârtan, pp. 125–126
The new nationalist–agrarian alliance stood for a radical platform, demanding land reform with full expropriation, and the preservation of regional autonomy within Greater Romania.Constantin et al., p. 162; Suveică, p. 67 Other main proposals were universal suffrage (including for women), incentives for cooperative farming, and the introduction of free primary education.Constantin et al., p. 162 It chose the name of "Bessarabian Peasants' Party" only at the last minute: Halippa and Ciugureanu had proposed the name of "National Democratic Party",Suveică, p. 66 which continued to be used as an alternative for months after the party's establishment.Constantin et al., pp. 60, 162–163 That name had been used by Pelivan and Halippa around 1906, when they first associated with Constantin Stere and Emanuil Gavriliță in putting out the newspaper Basarabia.Constantin et al., pp. 61–65
In November 1918, various of its Sfatul deputies—including Tsyganko, Vladimir Cristi, Mihail Minciună and Teodor Nichitiuc—joined a protest alongside delegates from the Moldavian Bloc, the ethnic minorities, and the trade unions. They demanded the reversal of Romania's martial law and elections for a new regional assembly.Clark, pp. 209–214 The party helped to push through its land reform project during the very last session of the Bessarabian legislature (November 27).Suveică, pp. 66, 67. See also Constantin et al., p. 162 By then, however, the PȚB as a whole had switched to a more moderate land reform project (with compensation) and an acceptance of centralism.Suveică, p. 67 Ciugureanu served as Minister for Bessarabia in the government team of Constantin Coandă, and obtained that he and other members of the regional administration be allowed to stand in elections without renouncing their offices.Poștarencu et al., p. 75 On November 17, the PȚB absorbed the Bessarabian People's League (LPB), which had existed since September. On December 6, former LPB leader Vasile Bârcă was made PȚB Vice President, alongside Ciobanu, while Holban became the Cashier.Poștarencu et al., p. 82
The arrival to power in Romania of a National Liberal Party (PNL) cabinet maintained PȚB leaders into the ranks of Bessarabia's administration. At a regional level, the PȚB soon found itself confronted by another nationalist group, called "Romanian League". Formed by Cazacu and Vladimir Herța in March 1919, it was explicitly dedicated to tackling the Bessarabian Peasantists' "absolutism and exclusivity". It accused Halippa of having dismantled the old network of administrative autonomy and civil liberties, in particular the zemstva.Suveică, pp. 66–67 While the PȚB caucused with the PNL at a central level, the League joined up with the opposition Conservative-Democratic Party. Pelivan, who lobbied for Bessarabia at the Paris Peace Conference, wrote back to Inculeț complaining that the Romanian administration was being vilified by "the Russians and the Jews".Constantin et al., p. 145 When the Esers' Bessarabian envoy, Mark Slonim, alleged that the region actually resisted incorporation into Romania, Inculeț called him "idiotic".Constantin et al., p. 148
The PȚB soon began organizing itself locally. Its first newspaper was Cuvânt Moldovenesc, the old PNM tribune, which it relaunched in a new edition in 1918. Other political tribunes appeared only in 1919, with the Cahul-based weekly Cuvântul Țăranului (1919).Desa et al., p. 248 In 1918, Haralambie Vizanti had already set the Peasants' Party of Cahul County, which aimed to be recognized as a PȚB section. This recognition never arrived: in January 1919, the PȚB informed Vizanti and his followers that a team under Ion Balbărău represented it locally.Poștarencu et al., p. 63 As a result, Vizanti joined the Romanian League in forming a "conservative nationalist" caucus, directly competing with the PȚB.Poștarencu et al., pp. 64–66