The Moldavian Progressive Party (, PPM, or Partidul Moldovenesc Progresist, , ) was a short-lived political organization advancing the political interests of Romanians and "Moldavians". It nominally represented the region of Bessarabia, but was primarily active in Odesa, in the Russian Provisional Government's Kherson Governorate. Its core constituency was a large group of Romanian-speaking soldiers in the Russian Army; it was also closely aligned with the older National Moldavian Party (PNM) of Chișinău, though it advanced some left-wing policies that were entirely its own.
The PPM was established some weeks after the February Revolution of 1917, after efforts made by Emanoil Catelli. The circumstances of its creation are debated, though, by all accounts, its creation involved networking with political leaders from Bessarabia and the Kingdom of Romania. Catelli served as the party's first and only chairman; Nicolae Ciornei was his right-hand man. Their commitment to progressivism, and economic focus on agrarianism, reflected the will of its constituency, made up of soldiers with a peasant background. As such, the group's advocacy of land reform was not fully welcomed by the PNM, which never included it in its (otherwise almost identical) statutes. Both groups took up Romanian nationalism, supporting ethnic autonomy within a democratic Russia, and also issuing a set of nativist demands. Catelli rejected the notion that Moldavians were anything more than a subgroup of the Romanians, and advocated concrete measures to overturn Russification.
The PPM became highly visible in Odesan society during the Labor Day celebrations, when, with support from the PNM, it reportedly became the largest of the factions marching at Kulykove Pole. In parallel, it began a process of merging into the PNM. It remained active as the latter's section inside the Ukrainian People's Republic, a regime which it rejected—advocating instead for continued union with the Russian Republic. The region's political future was left in question after the October Revolution; Catelli himself made his way back into Bessarabia, becoming a founding figure of a polity called "Moldavian Democratic Republic". In 1918, this state united with Romania, and Catelli emerged as a Romanian politician, aligned with the National Liberals.
History Creation The February Revolution created space for democratic self-rule, and for national emancipation among the various ethnic groups of the Russian Empire. As noted by journalist Hristea Dăscălescu, this reversed a trend toward Russification, which had been particularly intense in the Bessarabia Governorate; here, a Romanian population, colloquially known as "Moldavians", bordered the Romanian Kingdom, which was essentially a "free state".Hristea Dăscălescu, "Revoluția din Basarabia în 1917. Partidul Național Moldovenesc", in Gazeta Basarabiei, Vol. III, Issue 639, December 1937, p. 4 According to an overview by the scholar Vitalie Ciobanu, the instability of World War I and its patterns of mass conscription resulted in as many as 100,000 Bessarabian recruits being transferred to Odesa, just east of Bessarabia, whereas Chișinău, the Governorate's capital, was garrisoned by men from elsewhere in the Empire. As Ciobanu notes, this fact, coupled with the still-unchallenged ascendancy of Russian conservatism in Chișinău, made it more likely that a youthful political movement would be formed in Odesa, rather than inside Bessarabia.Ciobanu, pp. 41–42
The PPM was formed around Catelli, who was serving in Russian uniform on the Romanian Front. He had been elected a leader of Odesa's National Moldavian Committee, after helping to establish the first Moldavian soldiers-and-students' soviets.Cazacu, p. 205 From March 1917, he and some fifty comrades began meeting in Odesa as the party's initiative committee, also sending a letter to the Provisional Government in Petrograd, asking for the recognition of national rights in Bessarabia.Ciobanu, p. 42 Though he rejected accusations that he was fostering separatism,Cazacu, p. 205 Catelli had fully embraced the tenets of Romanian nationalism. His manifestos proclaimed that "Moldavian" was a degrading Russian exonym for the eastern Romanians, and that the time had come for those designated under this name to "take back what the rascals have stolen from us."Ion Constantin, Ion Negrei, Gheorghe Negru, "Schițe biografice", in Ion Pelivan, părinte al mișcării naționale din Basarabia, p. 244. Bucharest: Editura Biblioteca Bucureștilor, 2011.
Onisifor Ghibu, a doyen of the nationalist movement in both Bessarabia and Transylvania, spent early 1917 in Odesa, and met with Catelli, calling him "a very good Romanian man", though noting that his excessive enthusiasm got in the way of organizing things.Onisifor Ghibu, "Documentele continuității. În vîltoarea revoluției rusești (III)", in Vatra, Vol. XXI, Issue 6, June 1991, p. 10 Another figure of importance in the PPM's creation was Praporshchik Nicolae Ciornei. He had organized the Moldavian Committee of the 40th Infantry Reserve Regiment, and had signed on as a co-leader of the party.Cazacu, pp. 201–202, 205 By 23 March, the meetings involved Ion Păscăluță, on behalf of the soldiers' soviet, with Ghibu, Sergiu Victor Cujbă and Pan Halippa representing the wider nationalist movement. Joining them were three Odesa University students, namely Sebastian Ceapă, Maria Gheorghiu, and Anatolie Maimași.Ion Grozea, "Voluntarii români ardeleni și bucovineni și dezvoltarea conștiinței naționale a basarabenilor (II)", in Cuvântul Liber, 7 April 1995, p. 3 Păscăluță's memoirs claim that he was selected to preside over the sessions, and that he was the one to propose a massive rally of the Romanian nationalists in Odesa, initially scheduled for 3 May. The idea was endorsed by Catelli and Halippa, though they disagreed on how to involve the local churches. Catelli allegedly proposed that Ioan Levizor of Balta, who had created a breakaway Inochentist church, be employed as a propagandist; this notion irritated Halippa, who recommended a more conservative approach.
Labor Day rally Catelli won more support for his project to establish a Romanian-language printing enterprise and crash courses in literary Romanian, with the goal of creating a network of teachers. He was especially keen on printing a Romanian–Russian dictionary by Emanuil Grigorovitza, as well as nationalist propaganda songs, primarily those authored in Transylvania by George Coșbuc—he had picked these up from the Romanian Volunteer Corps in Russia. On 29 March, Ciornei visited all garrisons comprising Moldavian soldiers, addressing them in their native language about the political effort being undertaken.Cazacu, p. 205 Ciobanu argues that the PPM had its inaugural session on 30 March 1917, initially as the "Moldavian Progressive Party of the Bessarabian Officers and Soldiers" (Partidul Progresist Moldovenesc al Ofițerilor și Soldaților Basarabeni); Catelli was voted in as chairman of the Organizing Committee, which was headquartered at 95 Bolshaya Arnautskaya Street.Ciobanu, pp. 42–43 This account is backed by Ghibu, who notes that the PPM actually closely predated the PNM, at least as an intellectual project. Catelli received input from Ghibu himself, as well as from the senior Bessarabian Vasile Stroescu, and from Ioan Pangal, an envoy from Romania. Both Ghibu and Stroescu tried to persuade Catelli that he should label his group "simply 'national', and not 'progressive'". In his own narrative, the PNM's Petre Cazacu refers to the group as a "national Moldavian party in Odesa", reporting that its 18th-member executive committee, headed by Catelli, also included Vasile Gafencu, Constantin Osoianu, and Andrei Murafa.Cazacu, p. 206 At that time, the PPM had moved to a new address, namely 159 Nezhinskaya Street.Cazacu, pp. 201, 202
In Dăscălescu's version, the PPM was established as an Odesa offshoot of the PNM, during the Soldiers' Congress of 18 April (some nine days after the PNM's own establishment at Chișinău). This date was also the Old-Style version of Labor Day, which saw between 12,000 and 60,000Ciobanu, pp. 43–44 Bessarabians marching in celebration at Kulykove Pole. Participants demanded Bessarabian autonomy, and agreed on principle to support the PNM's platform.Ciobanu, pp. 43–44. See also Cazacu, pp. 206–207 As recounted by Cazacu, the march, personally handled by Catelli, impressed members of other political groups. These were small and "disorganized", waving various versions of the red flag, whereas the Bessarabians formed a single mass, carrying Romanian tricolorsCazacu, pp. 206–207 (also present on their lapels). The rally was partly instigated by the PNM, who sent in Matei Donici, a retired Russian army general, to help organize it; he was scheduled to speak in front of the soldiers, using a text drafted for him by Ghibu and Halippa.Onisifor Ghibu, "Documentele continuității. În vîltoarea revoluției rusești (VI)", in Vatra, Vol. XXI, Issue 10, October 1991, p. 11 Halippa eventually showed up instead, and spoke in front of the PPM crowds;Cazacu, p. 207 Donici, still associated with the movement, is believed to have joined the PPM itself during or after the demonstration.Ioan Răducea, "File de istorie. Românii din Bugeac", in Sud-Vest. Almanah Istorico-cultural în Limba Română pentru Cititorii din Sudul Basarabiei, Vol. I, Issue 2, September 2012, p. 3
Also on 19 April, a meeting of "all the [Romanian] national political organizations in Odesa" signed on to the PNM platform, during a session presided upon by Halippa and Gheorghe Buruiană.Cazacu, pp. 200–201 In the end, the PPM and the PNM publicized near-identical platforms, codified as ten points: popular sovereignty; political autonomy within Russia; the establishment of a Bessarabian parliament called Sfatul Țării; nativism and linguistic rights in the administration; language education; a "Moldavian"-centered Metropolis of Bessarabia; a ban on the migrations of Moldavians from Bessarabia; concurrently, a ban on other ethnicities being colonized into Bessarabia; protectionism and fiscal localism; full equality under the law for the Romanians in Ukraine. The PPM's version included various tweaks and additions—its program called for an imperative mandate for Sfatul members, for a democracy in the episcopal polity, for progressive tax, and, under point eight, for an extensive (if compensated) land reform, redistributing among the peasants all land above 100 dessiatins. The latter policy had been only vaguely supported by the PNM, which had qualms about alienating Romanian landowners. Ciobanu writes that "the Odesans were more radical on this issue"; some PPM cadres were pushing for the gentry to have all its land confiscated, with no compensation to them.Ciobanu, p. 44 Similarly, Cazacu recounts that the PPM could not help but be leftist on this issue, since most of its intended supporters were peasants in uniform. He reports that some of those witnessing the Labor Day rally were disappointed—some resented the "agrarian radicalism" on display, while others did not appreciate the PPM's nationalism.Cazacu, p. 207
PNM merger and posterity