Vladimir Vladimirovich Tsyganko (; ; also Țâganco, Tziganco, Tziganko or Țiganco; 1886/1887 – January 26, 1938) Ленинградский мартиролог том 12. Цыганко Владимир Владимирович, National Library of RussiaBasciani, p. 128 was a Bessarabian, and later Soviet, politician. The son of a distinguished architect, and himself an engineer by vocation, Tsyganko entered politics shortly before the proclamation of a Moldavian Democratic Republic, when he earned a seat in the republican legislature (Sfatul Țării). He sided with the parliamentary Peasants' Faction, which supported left-wing ideals and pushed for land reform, being generally, and radically, opposed to the more right-wing Moldavian Bloc. Tsyganko was skeptical of the Bloc's plan to unite Bessarabia with Romania, although he possibly supported a federation. His uncompromising stance divided his Faction and led the Romanian Kingdom's authorities to identify him as a major obstruction to the unionist cause.
In November 1918, as the Bloc switched its support to unconditional unification and dissolved the regional government bodies, Tsyganko rejected the new regime and moved to Odessa. Allying himself to members of the White movement, with whom he set up a Committee for the Salvation of Bessarabia, attending the Paris Peace Conference to campaign for the reversal of the union. He later settled in Soviet territory, where he helped create a Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Other members of his family opted to stay behind in Greater Romania—where his brother Nikolai was marginally active in the Bessarabian regionalist caucus. Vladimir eventually left politics and returned to his first profession, holding a technical position at Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works. He was persecuted during the imposition of Stalinism and, in 1937, fell victim to the Great Purge.
Biography Early career Tsyganko's paternal grandfather was a Don Cossack, Afanasy or Afanasie, who had reportedly deserted his post and made his way to the western reaches of the Russian Empire, in Bessarabian Governorate.Vizer & Bordeiu, p. 36 Vladimir was born in Kishinev (Chișinău), regional capital of Bessarabia, and was a graduate of Riga Polytechnicum. "Fără clădirile arhitectului Țiganco Chișinăul ar arăta mult mai sărac", in Construcții și Dezvoltare Regională, Issue 1/2010, pp. 36–37 He returned to his native city where his father Vladimir Sr (? – 1919), an architect, designed such landmarks as the Ethnography Museum and Saint Nicholas Church; his brother Nikolai (Nicolai) Vladimirovich (born 1882) was the zemstvo engineer in Orhei, and from 1909 in Kishinev itself. By 1904, their father was the Director of Monastery Estates in Bessarabia, in which capacity he testified against Russian police after the Kishinev pogrom, accusing them of passivity.Isidore Singer, Russia at the Bar of the American People: a Memorial of Kishinef, p. 263. New York City & London: Funk & Wagnalls, 1904
In 1916, the Bessarabian journalist Alexis Nour described Tsyganko Sr. as a "much esteemed [...] Bessarabian intellectual of a Moldavian nationalist hue, but not a separatist [in respect to Russia]" (see Moldovenism). Also according to Nour, Nikolai, whom he met personally, could speak only Russian.Alexis Nour, "Ce este Basarabia?", in Viața Romînească, Issues 1–3/1916, p. 251 Romanian politician Duiliu Zamfirescu, who met and debated with Vladimir Vladimirovich in 1918, claimed that the Tsygankos were "Ruthenian". He and his adversary talked in French, as Tsyganko "could not speak a word of Romanian".Zamfirescu & Adam, pp. 39, 57. See also Codreanu, p. 34 The same year, Tsyganko's political adversaries suggested that he was in fact of Bulgarian heritage, though mixed with "some other nation".Vrabie, p. 300 Some ten years later, geographer Eugeniu Giurgea referred to Tsyganko Jr as Ukrainian.Giurgea, pp. 75, 90
According to notes left by Gherman Pântea, Tsyganko spent much of his youth in the United States, working as an engineer.Gherman Pântea, "Memorii, corespondență, însemnări. Mărturii ale unui participant la conferința româno–sovietică de la Viena (1924) (II)", in Revista Istorică, Vol. I, Issue 5, 1990, p. 524 He had returned to Bessarabia by the time World War I, and reached political prominence after the October Revolution, which had left the region to administer itself independently, as a "Moldavian Democratic Republic". According to recollections published in 1937 by Elena Alistar, Tsyganko was directly involved in the soldiers' congress and the November 1917 elections, which formed a regional assembly, or Sfatul Țării. Alistar and Tsyganko both took seats during that race—the former as a Romanian nationalist, the latter as an affiliate of the Peasants' Faction, which was strictly about social and economic reform. According to Alistar, Tsyganko was a "smart boy", but his anti-Romanian sentiment was strong, second only to that espoused by another female deputy, Nadejda Grinfeld.Elena Alistar, "Acum 20 de ani. Amintiri dela 'Congresul Ostășesc' care a votat autonomia Basarabiei", in Gazeta Basarabiei, October 21, 1937, p. 2
In January 1918, the local Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies began to override Sfatul Țării and attempted to bring about Bolshevik rule. This move was swiftly suppressed by a punitive expedition of the Romanian Army. The 3rd Peasants' Congress, assembled few days after the occupation of Chișinău, adopted an anti-secessionist position, dismissed the Moldavian prime-minister Pantelimon Erhan from the position of President of the Peasants' Soviet, and elected a new leadership from among the most vocal opponents of the Romanian intervention. According to the Rumcherod's newspaper, during the opening session, Tsyganko's message on behalf of the local Socialist Revolutionary branch was met with applause and calls to support the Russian Revolution. The following day, after demanding the withdrawal of Romanian troops within 24 hours, and negotiating on the issue with the Romanian military, the Congress' Presidium was put under arrest. General Ernest Broșteanu dismissed the immunity of those Peasants' representatives who were also members of Sfatul, and issued a strong warning against further anti-Romanian agitation. Consequently, the following days the Congress selected a new list of Sfatul representatives, headed by Tsyganko, which comprised mostly moderates.Levit, pp. 257–263
Clashes with the unionists Tsyganko, who was counted among the representatives of the Russian minority,Cazacu, pp. 242, 296, 320 remained with the left-wing Peasants' Faction, which stood in opposition to the Moldavian Bloc of Romanian nationalists. Constantin Stere, who helped with organizing the latter group after returning from his Romanian exile, was proposing a platform of both unionism and land reform. Alistar reports that Tsyganko had not opposed this compromise, telling his Faction colleagues that they should "each vote as you please." This in turn empowered Romanian peasant deputies such as Nicolae Mămăligă to openly support unification with Romania. Stere himself still viewed Tsyganko as a leading obstacle in reconciling the agrarian and nationalist agendas: "As for the Moldavian peasants, those whom I found united as a bloc under Țiganco, those who had seized the great estates with a revolution, they displayed strong feelings of fear and suspicion. They cast their leery sights across the Prut [into Romania], which they believed was a feudal country, where peasants had no rights, not even voting rights, and no land of their own".Codreanu, p. 34
During the debates on land reform, Tsyganko suggested postponing the discussion until a new government, "representative of the people's will", would be approved by a Moldavian Constituent Assembly. Presumably, he feared that pressure from the Romanian troops would affect the extent of the reform.Levit, pp. 282–283 Nevertheless, he became the first chairman of Sfatuls Agrarian Commission,Basciani, p. 128; Giurgea, p. 90; Suveică (2010), p. 140 and in parallel presided upon the Peasants' Soviet.Clark, p. 200 According to Giurgea, during his tenure at the Commission, he "always sided with the Russians, blatantly so."Giurgea, p. 90 Despite being involved in left-wing politics, Tsyganko would gradually develop a working relationship with A. N. Krupensky, the Polono-Bessarabian landowner and ex-Marshal of Nobility, and Alexandr K. Schmidt, who stood for the conservative side of anti-Romanian agitation; between 1918 and 1920 the three men issued calls for the end of Romanian occupation, and began popularizing their cause in Europe.
When Romanian Premier Alexandru Marghiloman made his way into Bessarabia to canvass for the unionist cause, he found the Peasant Faction divided between followers of Ion Inculeț, who endorsed the Romanian viewpoint, and deputies who sided with Tsyganko.Marghiloman 3, p. 456 Zamfirescu, who traveled with Marghiloman, recalls that Tsyganko "thrice in one month" attempted to recall the Republic's Directorate, his moves resisted by Inculeț.Zamfirescu & Adam, pp. 57–58 He also protested the selection of pro-Romanian students from Kiev and Odessa as representatives of the Transnistrian Moldavians, in which he saw efforts to shake the balance of power inside the Sfatul.Levit, pp. 340–341 Zamfirescu claims to have saved Tsyganko from an undisclosed mortal danger, and then to have conversed with him, trying to gain insight into his political motivations. The latter, he concluded, were "most phantasmagorical socialist ideas", not dissuaded by the prospect of "death, suffering, military disaster, sheer destitution, or degeneracy". He adds: "It was late at night, I was experiencing chills, and so I believe I have insulted the convictions of this visionary youth, reassuring him that all opinions lead to a ministerial chair, provided one makes sure to discard them on cue."Zamfirescu & Adam, pp. 46–47, 58
Despite proclaiming its independence in late February 1918, the Moldavian Republic was still seen in various circles as subordinate to the neighboring Ukrainian People's Republic. Its Central Rada wished to represent Bessarabia in the preliminary negotiation of the Bucharest peace treaty, imposed by the Central Powers on Romania. Sfatul reacted by reaffirming its independence and rejecting the division of Bessarabia—against the Akkerman and Khotin zemstva, which had proclaimed their accession to Ukraine. A Moldavian delegation was therefore selected to head to Kiev and obtain from the Central Rada official recognition of Moldavia's independence. The delegation, which included the interior minister Vladimir Cristi, nationalists Nicolae Secară and Teodor Neaga, and Tsyganko as representative of the Peasants' Faction, was prevented from leaving. According to the unionist Gheorghe Andronachi, it was Daniel Ciugureanu, the Republic's pro-Romanian prime minister, who intervened with the Romanian Army to hamper the departure, fearing that an international recognition of independence would hinder nationalist plans for union with Romania.Levit, pp. 355–361. See also Giurgea, pp. 75–76
March union vote