Pyotr Zakharovich Bazhbeuk-Melikov, also Bachbeouk-Melikoff, Bazhbeuk-Melikyan or Bazhbeuk-Melikishvili (, Bedros Bažbeuk-Melikyan; ; , Bajbeug-Melicov, Bajbeuc-Melichian, or Basbeuc-Melikisvilli; February 27, 1872 – September 27, 1944), was an ethnic Armenian politician and agronomist in Bessarabia. Educated in Tiflis Governorate and then in France, he had various administrative offices in the Russian Empire and the Russian Republic. He presented himself in the November 1917 election for the Russian Constituent Assembly as an affiliate of the Constitutional Democratic Party. Failing in this bid, Bazhbeuk was instead welcomed as an Armenian delegate by the Bessarabian assembly, or Sfatul Țării, just before the proclamation of a Moldavian Democratic Republic. Loyal toward the latter, he spoke out against Bolshevik infiltration, and asked for an intervention by the neighboring Kingdom of Romania. Though he welcomed the Romanian military expedition of early 1918, he found himself opposed to the subsequent union between Bessarabia and Romania, reverting to Russian monarchism.
In 1919, Bazhbeuk joined the Odessa-based Committee for the Salvation of Bessarabia, and, through it, also the White movement. The Committee sent him on a mission to the General Command of the Armed Forces of South Russia in Rostov-on-Don, where he spoke about reintegrating Bessarabia with a future Russian state. Fleeing the region altogether during the later stages of the Russian Civil War, Bazhbeuk publicized the White émigré cause in the Kingdom of Bulgaria, but finally returned to Bessarabia and served Romania's monarchy. He joined the National Peasants' Party in the early 1930s, chaired a local agricultural chamber, and was the Mayor of Orhei for a few months in 1933. Again escaping Bessarabia following the Soviet occupation of 1940, he settled deeper in Romania, dying four years later in Ploiești.
Biography Career and political debut Though described by researcher Simion Tavitian as an immigrant from the Caucasus,Tavitian, p. 365 Bazhbeuk was in fact born to Armenian parents in Bender (Tighina), Bessarabia Governorate.Figuri contemporane din Basarabia, p. 10. Chișinău: Editura Arpid, 1939Gumenâi & Prisac, p. 192 Scholars Ion Gumenâi and Lidia Prisac argue that the Bazhbeuks were a wealthy family: though Pyotr Zakharovich never acknowledged that he was a landowner, he probably held to his name townhouses in both Orhei and Chișinău. Likewise, historian Ion Țurcanu describes Bazhbeuk as a "petty landowner".Țurcanu, Sfatul Țării. Istoria zbuciumată..., p. 40 Pyotr completed his secondary education at the Classical Gymnasium in Tiflis (Tbilisi), then took university studies in France—successively at the Commercial School of Écully, the Catholic University of Lyon, and the Montpellier School of Agriculture, where he took a degree in agricultural engineering. He was thereafter charged with opening model farms on the Russian Crown Estates. During the February Revolution of 1917, when he was recruited by the Russian Provisional Government as its representative for Orgeyevsky Uyezd, Bazhbeuk was also leader of Orhei's local government body, the Zemstvo.Gheorghe G. Bezviconi, "Patruzeci de ani din viața Basarabiei 1877–1917. Insemnări pe marginea amintirilor tatălui meu. Guvernatorul prinț Urusov", in Din Trecutul Nostru, Vol. VII, August–September 1939, p. 59
Bazhbeuk ran in the legislative election of November 1917, seventh on a Constitutional DemocraticCazacu, p. 226 or "People's Party" list headlined by the Prince Urusov. On December 8, he was sent to Sfatul Țării, the regional assembly of Bessarabia, as the first and sole Armenian representative.Cazacu, pp. 241, 243; Gumenâi & Prisac, pp. 189–192 His comparatively late appointment was due to the belated formation of a National Committee of Armenians from Bessarabia (NAKOBA), under Mitridat Muratov; he was probably proposed to NAKOBA by a Romanian landowner, Vladimir Herța.Gumenâi & Prisac, pp. 189–192 Days after Bazhbeuk's induction by Sfatul, the legislature voted to organize Bessarabia into an autonomous "Moldavian Democratic Republic" (RDM). Upon being sworn in, Bazhbeuk gave a speech outlining his support for the RDM, his loyalty to the Armenian national liberation movement, and also his enduring commitment to the Russian Constituent Assembly. Additionally, he declared that the Armenians would help to defend RDM territory against devastation by Rumcherod soldiers and the spread of Bolshevik influence.Gumenâi & Prisac, p. 193
Bazhbeuk was one of a "handful" of Sfatul people who could be considered wealthy—on par with Vladimir Bodescu, Vladimir Cristi, Nadejda Grinfeld, Eugen Kenigschatz, and a few others; the vast majority of delegates were peasants or low-income professionals, dependent on their state salaries which ran at no more than 600 Kerenkas per month.Țurcanu, Sfatul Țării. Istoria zbuciumată..., pp. 40–41 Bazhbeuk's standing as a "bourgeois" figure was one of the issues which antagonized far-left deputies. In a Sfatul session of December 28, Ioan Panțâr tried but failed to obtain Bazhbeuk's removal; the session finally ended with a group of leftists boycotting Sfatul meetings.Cazacu, pp. 268–269 During the proceedings, Bazhbeuk insisted that Bolshevik revolts be put down at any cost, and even asked for the Romanian Army to occupy Bessarabia—though he considered this a provisional solution to a temporary problem.Gumenâi & Prisac, p. 194 Soon after, the RDM was subject to a Romanian military intervention. Bazhbeuk attended a banquet at the Assembly of the Nobility in Chișinău, delivering a welcome speech, in French, for the Romanian commander Ernest Broșteanu; as a Zemstvo delegate, he greeted Romanian troops outside Bălți. He also found common ground with the National Moldavian Party (PNM), which mainly embodied Romanian nationalism. His reported home at 81 Viilor Street served as a meeting spot for activists of the "Moldavian Bloc", which reunited the PNM and its various partners.
In one Sfatul session of March 1917, Bazhbeuk condemned the Ukrainian People's Republic for its promise to annex Bessarabia, and criticized the RDM Directorate for its "unlawful" lassitude on the issue, and for not sending representatives to the Bucharest peace conference.Cazacu, pp. 312–313 He was joined in this by other members of the non-Romanian communities, including Samuel Lichtmann, Krste Misirkov, and Arkadi Osmolovski. Their interventions annoyed the President of the Council of Directors, Daniel Ciugureanu, who reminded the speakers of their ethnic status: Deputy Bajbeuc-Melicov, whose opinion I hold in the highest regard, describes [our] actions [...] as criminal lassitude. This is a serious accusation and I wish to make it clear that Deputy Bajbeuc-Melicov does not have a point. I do not doubt that he suffers for this country, for its misfortunes, nor that he speaks with anything but the utmost sincerity. But I myself love my country no less than you gentlemen who represent the national minorities. What are you, after all? You are guests, guests who receive shelter and hospitality in this country.Mihail Tașcă, "Daniel Ciugureanu – prim-ministru al independenței și al Unirii Basarabiei cu România", in Revista Română, Vol. XXIV, Issues 1–2, Spring–Summer 2018, pp. 21–22
White spokesman From early April, as Bessarabia embarked on a conditional union with Romania which preserved some of its autonomy, Bazhbeuk, who was registered as absent during the actual vote, greatly reduced his participation in Sfatul sessions—he was present only three times before November 1918.Gumenâi & Prisac, pp. 194–195 Instead, he was integrated as a civil servant on the legislative committee which decided on the RDM's official languages (February 1918), also appearing on boards for financial regulation and land reform (March–May 1918).Gumenâi & Prisac, p. 195 In May 1918, he was also appointed to Vladimir Tsyganko's commission on land reform, but did not attend its inaugural session.Țurcanu, Sfatul Țării: Documente. II, pp. 33, 74, 237, 448 He was finally removed, and replaced with Guttman Landau, after failing to show up for five consecutive sessions.Țurcanu, Sfatul Țării: Documente. II, pp. 91, 138, 237, 448 Gumenâi and Prisac argue that he took the time to reflect on his political stances. Increasingly aware that Broșteanu had no orders to vacate Bessarabia, he came to reconsider his "apparent loyalty" toward Romania.Gumenâi & Prisac, pp. 194–195, 202–203
By early 1919, Bazhbeuk had left Romania and was in Odessa, a port city that was then under direct administration by the Allied powers; a Russian loyalist, he had joined A. N. Krupensky and Alexandr K. Schmidt's Committee for the Salvation of Bessarabia. Still counting himself a Zemstvo representative, in February 1919 he contributed to a memorandum received by the foreign consulates in Odessa. It referred to Romania as an "Asian" country whose intervention had degraded the former RDM, describing the actions of Broșteanu and others as "horror" and "vandalism".Suveică, pp. 151–152 Before September, Bazhbeuk and V. I. Yaroshevich were delegated by the Committee to the All-Russian National Center, formed by the White movement (and more specifically the VSYuR) in Rostov-on-Don. Though they were both admitted on the body, it was not as official representatives of Bessarabia, since the VSYuR's Anton Denikin had no intention of antagonizing Romania.Suveică, pp. 158–159 In his Rostov appearances, Bazhbeuk described "Greater Romania" as concocted by Sfatul against the wishes of its electorate.Suveică, pp. 165–166 Overall, however, he agreed with Denikin that no plebiscite was to be held regarding the rejoining of Bessarabia to a reconstructed Russia.Suveică, p. 159
As Bolshevist Russia recovered to win the Civil War, Bazhbeuk withdrew into exile. In 1925, he published in Sofia, Kingdom of Bulgaria the Russian monarchist tract Сборник Высочайших актов и исторических материалов ("Collection of Imperial Acts and Historical Materials"). It documented the execution of the Romanov family, presenting Bazhbeuk's own allegiance to Grand Duke Kirill as the "Emperor of Russia".Suveică, p. 165 The author eventually reconciled with the Romanian government, and returned to Bessarabia. In later years, Bazhbeuk was recovered as an agriculturalist by the Romanian Crown Estate in Orhei County, and served terms as president, and chief agronomist, of the agricultural chamber (a consultative body of experts and landowners, formed in succession to the Zemstvo)"Desființarea camerelor agricole, o lovitură grea data economiei naționale. Incătușarea inițiativei particulare în momente când aceasta putea să activeze rodnic. Discursul d-lui Virgil Potârcă, la Cameră", in Dreptatea, April 21, 1934, p. 6 in that same district. In this capacity, he published a number of scientific works detailing agricultural and geographic issues. From 1931, he was a staff writer for the agriculturalist monthly Buletinul Agricol din Basarabia.Ileana-Stanca Desa, Elena Ioana Mălușanu, Cornelia Luminița Radu, Iliana Sulică, Publicațiile periodice românești (ziare, gazete, reviste). Vol. V, 1: Catalog alfabetic 1931–1935, p. 145. Bucharest: Editura Academiei, 2009.
PNȚ recruitment and later life