Democratic Union Party (Bukovina)
Encyclopedia
The Democratic Union Party ( or Partidul Democrat al Unirii, PDU) was a political group in Romania
, one of the political forces which claimed to represent the ethnic Romanian
community of Bukovina
province. The PDU was active in the wake of World War I
, between 1919 and 1923, having for its leader the historian and nationalist
militant Ion Nistor
. It was formed by Nistor and other activists who wrote for the regional periodical Glasul Bucovinei, and, as a consequence, the party members were commonly referred to as Glasişti ("Glas-ists").
The PDU favored a centralist
administration, pushed for Romanianization
in public life, and was generally hostile to the centrifugal tendencies of other communities, primarily Ukrainians, Germans
, Poles and Jews. These together formed a relative majority of Bukovina's population, and Nistor's agenda met with sustained opposition from all sides of the region's political spectrum, although the PDU was successful in rallying to its cause some individuals from all these communities. In addition, the PDU clashed with the moderate or autonomist Bukovinan Romanians, whose leaders were Aurel Onciul
and Iancu Flondor
.
Democratic Union politicians helped organize the administration of Bukovina, speeding its absorption into Greater Romania
, and, in 1919, formed part of the government coalition backing Premier
Alexandru Vaida-Voevod
. The PDU was later allied to the dominant National Liberal Party
(PNL), helping it return to power with a nation-wide centralist agenda, consolidated by the adoption of a new Romanian Constitution
, in 1923. The same year, Nistor merged his party into the PNL.
, on the empire's border with the Kingdom of Romania
. A Romanian traditional region
, it had a Romanian plurality of 42 to 48% before 1918. Early in the war, a nationalist faction headed by Nistor refused to join the Austro-Hungarian Army
and fled to Romania, where they organized a Committee of Bukovinan Refugees, nucleus of the future PDU groups and first publisher of Glasul Bucovinei. Over the following years, Nistor and his men became conjectural allies of the PNL Prime Minister
Ion I. C. Brătianu
, who declared war on Austria in 1916.
Bukovinans of all nationalities emancipated themselves as the Austro-Hungarian regime collapsed and, after war ended on all fronts, the region faced an uncertain future. Early on, the Romanians and the Ukrainians created rival representative bodies, which, in late October-early November 1918, voted each for its union project: Romanians for union with Romania, Ukrainians for merger into the West Ukrainian People's Republic. A partition agreement was mediated between Aurel Onciul, who claimed to represent all Romanians, and Omelian Popovych of the Ukrainian movement. This allowed the Ukrainian Galician Army
to organize incursions into Bukovina.
After the Austro-Hungarian administration had dissolved and the last governor (Josef Graf von Etzdorf) renounced power in favour of the Romanian and Ukrainian committees, the Ukrainian militias gained control of the province, and established a provisional government. The National Romanian Council reacted by demanding help from the Romanian Land Forces
(General Iacob Zadig). The Romanian troops swiftly occupied the region, with little armed resistance from the Ukrainians, and installed martial law
. Through a Congress of Nationalities held at Cernăuţi, some of the various competing factions, who supported the preservation of integral Bukovina, came to an understanding. Bukovina's preservation and its union with Romania was sealed on November 28, 1918, although only the region's Romanians, Germans and Poles agreed that this should be unconditional. The Congress, which opened with a greeting to the Romanian Army, was boycotted by the Ukrainian and Jewish representatives. The Congress also renewed tensions between the two leaders of Bukovina's Romanian nationalist revival: Iancu Flondor
, who supported regional autonomy and minority rights; and Nistor, who stood for ethnonationalism and welcomed centralized rule.
Ferdinand I
was recognized as sovereign; a Ministry of Bukovina, with Ion Nistor and Iancu Flondor at its helm, took over the actual administration under a Brătianu premiership. Flondor resigned soon after, and, although Nistor took over his office in Cernăuţi, the region experienced an acute political crisis. Flondor sent his complaints to the king in April 1919, implying that centralization was alienating everyone, including Romanians. The outgoing Minister-Delegate found a cautionary example in the neighboring Moldavian Democratic Republic
, which had also been united with Romania
a year before. He argued: "I have avoided fast and radical changes in the belief that [...] their consequences would be compromised, perhaps beyond repair, and that the same would go for the good cause of the people, as has happened in Bessarabia
, haunted to this day by deep resentments versus the national ideal." By contrast, Nistor saw his government mission as being the Romanianization of the provincial administrative, judicial and schooling systems.
Over the next months, as the Romanian provisional military administration withdrew, Bukovina's civil society began expressing discontent. In June, General Nicolae Petala heard numerous groups expressing support for the autonomist option: Flondor's Romanian moderates and George Grigorovici of the Romanian Socialists; Ukrainian Kasian Bohatyrets; Germans Albert Kohlruss and Rudolf Gaidosch; Jews Mayer Ebner and Iacob Pistiner
. Flondor, who regretted his earlier vote for unconditional union, threatened to call in international arbiters, and demanded that Romania cease its occupation of the West Ukrainian People's Republic. He was by then conceiving of a Bukovinan autonomous region extending out of the former Austro-Hungarian province and into Botoşani
, Dorohoi
, Hotin
and Suceava
territories.
Meanwhile, the Glasul Bucovinei group alone stood by the governing authority. Nistor supported centralism on principle, as a legalist, and (in agreement with the Romanian central authorities) viewed Flondor's compromise option as unsound. As early a December 1918, Nistor had tied the cause of autonomism with the marginalization of Romanian Bukovinans; its aim, he argued, was: "to erase all traces of the past and to smother the national consciousness of the native population." In his view: "Provincial politics have vanished on the very day of union." The Glas-ists were thus supportive of the new electoral law. Passed in August 1919, it dissolved the Diet of Bukovina while giving the region 40 representatives in the Romanian Parliament
, introduced universal male suffrage, and ended the proportional representation
of ethnic groups.
In September 1919, Nistor and his supporters founded the PDU as the political instrument of Romanian centralists. Its leading militants were folklorist Dimitrie Marmeliuc, historian Vasile Grecu, schoolteacher George Tofan
(d. 1920), and, before December 1919, linguist Sextil Puşcariu.
. They were therefore apathetic when it came to the electoral battle, and some of the leading Ukrainian nationalist militants (Hierotheus Pihuliak, Stepan Smal-Stotsky, Volodymyr Zalozetsky-Sas) even left the region in protest. The Ukrainian, Jewish, German and socialist political groups boycotted the November 1919 legislative election. As a countering measure to this abstentionist bloc, the PDU suggested co-opting individual politicians from minority groups into alliances with the Romanian parties.
The PDU was especially critical of the National Jewish Council, a triumvirate of Jewish politicians in Bukovina: Ebner, Pistiner, Benno Straucher
. When the Council, reacting against Romania's failure to emancipate
its Jewish communities
, called for international sanctions, Glasul Bucovinei resorted to antisemitic campaigning. In the 1919 suffrage, Nistor enlisted (or, according to Flondor's supporters, coerced) Jewish inspector Heini Teller into registering in as a traveling companion of the PDU, but Teller eventually withdrew from the race when faced with his coreligionists' indignant reaction. Eventually, the PDU list for the Senate
included Jewish entrepreneur Jakob Hecht. Hecht spoke in favor of complete and unconditional union, in statements which, at the time, infuriated the Jewish Council. The Senate list was completed by another Jew, Iosif Vihovici of Coţmani
.
There was a similar disagreement between the PDU and Bukovina's Germans. The Romanian party claimed that it had supported the creation of a German constituency, but that the Germans, being spread out between villages, were ungroupable. The National German Council, resentful of early Romanianization attempts, refused to sign for an alliance with Nistor. In this case as well, the PDU was able to enlist a dissident German, Norbert Kipper (Chiper), among its own candidates for the Assembly. The party was even able to affiliate two Ukrainians, Vasily Snyatynchuk of Orăşeni (Coţmani) and the Mayor of Ocna
. Stanisław (Stanislaus) Kwiatkowski, the first Bukovina Pole to serve in Parliament, was also close to Nistor and, after taking his seat, became a PDU member.
The PDU sent twenty Bukovinans, its leader included, to Parliament—Nistor himself was to be reelected for successive terms, until 1938. A Bukovinan telegram, published by the central and regional press on November 7, informed: "The candidates of the Democratic Union Party under Mr. Nistor's leadership have won seats everywhere, in Cernăuţi as well as in the other parts of Bukovina. [...] The elections were carried out in the most profound peacefulness." All of the PDU's ethnic minority candidates had been elected to either Senate of Assembly, but the others' boycott was still effectively sending the message of Bukovinan disobedience.
were included in the parliamentary bloc formed by the Peasants' Party
and the Romanian National Party
. The bloc held power, with Alexandru Vaida-Voevod
as Prime Minister
, but King Ferdinand's refusal to accept its land reform project
brought down the cabinet.
Newly appointed Premier Alexandru Averescu
dissolved Parliament on March 25, 1920. After April 5, 1920, a Unification Commission deposed all that remained of Bukovina's autonomous administration, and Nistor resigned from his Bukovina Minister post. However, in the 1920 election, the PDU, which ran together with its former electoral bloc colleagues, faced significant opposition from Averescu's People's Party (PP). The PP successfully signed up some prominent supporters of conditional union. Elected to Parliament as an ethnic German PP candidate, Kohlruss rekindled the campaign for cultural autonomy, and received virulent replies from the PDU, through Glasul Bucovinei. The PDU's own ethnic minority candidate was Vihovici, elected to the Assembly in Coţmani. Overall, the PDU had three elected representatives in the Assembly.
By then, the PDU and it paper were primarily supporters of the centralist policy on education
, and applauded the disestablishment of German, Jewish or other schools, noting that they overrepresented their respective minority groups. This, and the complete lack of Polish representation in the 1920 Parliament, created tensions between Nistor's supporters and the Polish community. In May 1920, the National Polish Council presented King Ferdinand with a memorandum. Although stating that the administration had been beyond reproach as far as the Poles were concerned, the document noted that the unwillingness to create a Polish constituency was an "injustice" on Nistor's part, "which may lead to Polish irredentism
". Nistor issued a formal reply, arguing that the number of Poles was too small to validate the preservation of Austro-Hungarian electoral customs.
Around 1920, the party was taking an interest into various other problems specific to Bukovina's rural society. The PDU took a stance on the issue of logging
rights, giving support to peasants who complained that the PP had been arbitrarily handing out major grants of forest terrain to its clientele. Glasul Bucovinei discussed the issue of worthless Austrian war bond
s, which the peasants had bought in good faith during the 1910s, and issued warnings about the unexploded ordnance
which posed threats on the lives of agricultural workers.
, legality and justice." Reportedly, the National Liberals had tried tried to co-opt all unionist parties into this new cartel, but only Nistor and the Bessarabian Peasantists could be persuaded to join.
The PDU was part of a cartel with the PNL and the Bessarabian Peasants' Party, which faced three other alliances: the Citizens' Bloc of Democratic Nationalists and Conservative-Democrats; the Peasants' Party-Romanian National Party group; and the PP's common list with the Progressive Conservatives. The PDU's own Bukovina list of candidates featured three PNL members, all of them based outside the region—Brătianu for Rădăuţi
, Alexandru Constantinescu-Porcu for Vijniţa
, Artur Văitoianu
for Zastavna
. More controversially, Nistor adhered to the PNL's philosophy on elections, and in particular the notion that election results needed to be corrected in areas where the electorate was hostile or inexperienced.
By then, Nistor had come to a disagreement with the Democratic Nationalist leader Nicolae Iorga
, who urged him not to align himself with Romania's traditional partisan politics, and especially not with Brătianu's men. The anti-Liberal nationalist Iorga was bitter about the PDU's political choices, and privately called Nistor "a nullity". From his new home in Transylvania, Sextil Puşcariu also watched with concern as Nistor became Brătianu's man of confidence; he was himself a supporter of Iorga. While its nationalist basis was threatened, the PDU was again able to list minority representatives as its candidates. This category includes Kipper and even the PDU's former rival Benno Straucher
, who had since lost Jewish community backing.
Eventually, in January 1923, the PDU was absorbed into the PNL. In so doing, Brătianu's Bukovinan allies helped the PNL overcome a crisis of confidence: the National Liberal group was strengthened by arrivals from the PDU and the Bessarabian Peasantists. When the PNL-endorsed 1923 Constitution of Romania
was finally adopted, Bukovina became an integral part of the Kingdom (or "Greater Romania
"). As Minister of State for Bukovina (between 1924 and 1926), Nistor signed up to the PNL's Romanianization agenda. His term saw the closure of more minority schools, especially Jewish, German and Ukrainian ones.
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, one of the political forces which claimed to represent the ethnic Romanian
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
community of Bukovina
Bukovina
Bukovina is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains.-Name:The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became...
province. The PDU was active in the wake of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, between 1919 and 1923, having for its leader the historian and nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
militant Ion Nistor
Ion Nistor
Ion Nistor was a prominent Romanian historian and politician. He was a member of the Romanian Academy after 1911, and served as administrator of its Library.-Biography:...
. It was formed by Nistor and other activists who wrote for the regional periodical Glasul Bucovinei, and, as a consequence, the party members were commonly referred to as Glasişti ("Glas-ists").
The PDU favored a centralist
Centralized government
A centralized or centralised government is one in which power or legal authority is exerted or coordinated by a de facto political executive to which federal states, local authorities, and smaller units are considered subject...
administration, pushed for Romanianization
Romanianization
Romanianization or Rumanization is the term used to describe a number of ethnic assimilation policies implemented by the Romanian authorities during the 20th century...
in public life, and was generally hostile to the centrifugal tendencies of other communities, primarily Ukrainians, Germans
Bukovina Germans
The Bukovina Germans were a German ethnic group that mainly lived from about 1780 to the 1940s in Bukovina, part of present-day western Ukraine and northern Romania...
, Poles and Jews. These together formed a relative majority of Bukovina's population, and Nistor's agenda met with sustained opposition from all sides of the region's political spectrum, although the PDU was successful in rallying to its cause some individuals from all these communities. In addition, the PDU clashed with the moderate or autonomist Bukovinan Romanians, whose leaders were Aurel Onciul
Aurel Onciul
Aurel, knight of Onciul, was a Romanian moderate political leader in the Austrian Bukovina, prior to its union with the Kingdom of Romania. He advocated a division of the province along ethnic lines, into a Romanian-controlled southern Bukovina, and a Ukrainian-controlled northern Bukovina...
and Iancu Flondor
Iancu Flondor
Iancu Flondor was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian activist who advocated Bukovina's unifion with the Kingdom of Romania....
.
Democratic Union politicians helped organize the administration of Bukovina, speeding its absorption into Greater Romania
Greater Romania
The Greater Romania generally refers to the territory of Romania in the years between the First World War and the Second World War, the largest geographical extent of Romania up to that time and its largest peacetime extent ever ; more precisely, it refers to the territory of the Kingdom of...
, and, in 1919, formed part of the government coalition backing Premier
Prime Minister of Romania
The Prime Minister of Romania is the head of the Government of Romania. Initially, the office was styled President of the Council of Ministers , when the term "Government" included more than the Cabinet, and the Cabinet was called The Council of Ministers...
Alexandru Vaida-Voevod
Alexandru Vaida-Voevod
Alexandru Vaida-Voevod or Vaida-Voievod was a Romanian politician who was a supporter and promoter of the union of Transylvania with the Romanian Old Kingdom; he later served three terms as a Prime Minister of Greater Romania.-Transylvanian politics:He was born to a Greek-Catholic family in the...
. The PDU was later allied to the dominant National Liberal Party
National Liberal Party (Romania)
The National Liberal Party , abbreviated to PNL, is a centre-right liberal party in Romania. It is the third-largest party in the Romanian Parliament, with 53 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 22 in the Senate: behind the centre-right Democratic Liberal Party and the centre-left Social...
(PNL), helping it return to power with a nation-wide centralist agenda, consolidated by the adoption of a new Romanian Constitution
1923 Constitution of Romania
The 1923 Constitution of Romania, also called the Constitution of Union, was intended to align the organisation of the state on the basis of universal male suffrage and the new realities that arose after the Great Union of 1918. Four draft constitutions existed: one belonging to the National...
, in 1923. The same year, Nistor merged his party into the PNL.
Origins
Bukovina met World War I as an eastern province of Austria-HungaryAustria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
, on the empire's border with the Kingdom of Romania
Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania was the Romanian state based on a form of parliamentary monarchy between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania...
. A Romanian traditional region
Historical regions of Romania
At various times during the late 19th and 20th centuries, Romania extended over the following historical regions:Wallachia:*Muntenia or Greater Wallachia: as part of Wallachia, joined Moldavia in 1859 to create modern Romania;...
, it had a Romanian plurality of 42 to 48% before 1918. Early in the war, a nationalist faction headed by Nistor refused to join the Austro-Hungarian Army
Austro-Hungarian Army
The Austro-Hungarian Army was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. It was composed of three parts: the joint army , the Austrian Landwehr , and the Hungarian Honvédség .In the wake of fighting between the...
and fled to Romania, where they organized a Committee of Bukovinan Refugees, nucleus of the future PDU groups and first publisher of Glasul Bucovinei. Over the following years, Nistor and his men became conjectural allies of the PNL Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Romania
The Prime Minister of Romania is the head of the Government of Romania. Initially, the office was styled President of the Council of Ministers , when the term "Government" included more than the Cabinet, and the Cabinet was called The Council of Ministers...
Ion I. C. Brătianu
Ion I. C. Bratianu
Ion I. C. Brătianu was a Romanian politician, leader of the National Liberal Party , the Prime Minister of Romania for five terms, and Foreign Minister on several occasions; he was the eldest son of statesman and PNL leader Ion Brătianu, the brother of Vintilă and Dinu Brătianu, and the father of...
, who declared war on Austria in 1916.
Bukovinans of all nationalities emancipated themselves as the Austro-Hungarian regime collapsed and, after war ended on all fronts, the region faced an uncertain future. Early on, the Romanians and the Ukrainians created rival representative bodies, which, in late October-early November 1918, voted each for its union project: Romanians for union with Romania, Ukrainians for merger into the West Ukrainian People's Republic. A partition agreement was mediated between Aurel Onciul, who claimed to represent all Romanians, and Omelian Popovych of the Ukrainian movement. This allowed the Ukrainian Galician Army
Ukrainian Galician Army
Ukrainian Galician Army , was the Ukrainian military of the West Ukrainian National Republic during and after the Polish-Ukrainian War. -Military equipment:...
to organize incursions into Bukovina.
After the Austro-Hungarian administration had dissolved and the last governor (Josef Graf von Etzdorf) renounced power in favour of the Romanian and Ukrainian committees, the Ukrainian militias gained control of the province, and established a provisional government. The National Romanian Council reacted by demanding help from the Romanian Land Forces
Romanian Land Forces
The Romanian Land Forces is the army of Romania, and the main component of the Romanian Armed Forces. In recent years, full professionalisation and a major equipment overhaul have transformed the nature of the force.The Romanian Land Forces were founded on...
(General Iacob Zadig). The Romanian troops swiftly occupied the region, with little armed resistance from the Ukrainians, and installed martial law
Martial law
Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...
. Through a Congress of Nationalities held at Cernăuţi, some of the various competing factions, who supported the preservation of integral Bukovina, came to an understanding. Bukovina's preservation and its union with Romania was sealed on November 28, 1918, although only the region's Romanians, Germans and Poles agreed that this should be unconditional. The Congress, which opened with a greeting to the Romanian Army, was boycotted by the Ukrainian and Jewish representatives. The Congress also renewed tensions between the two leaders of Bukovina's Romanian nationalist revival: Iancu Flondor
Iancu Flondor
Iancu Flondor was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian activist who advocated Bukovina's unifion with the Kingdom of Romania....
, who supported regional autonomy and minority rights; and Nistor, who stood for ethnonationalism and welcomed centralized rule.
Creation
On January 2, a hybrid and transitional regime was instituted in the region: Romanian KingKing of Romania
King of the Romanians , rather than King of Romania , was the official title of the ruler of the Kingdom of Romania from 1881 until 1947, when Romania was proclaimed a republic....
Ferdinand I
Ferdinand I of Romania
Ferdinand was the King of Romania from 10 October 1914 until his death.-Early life:Born in Sigmaringen in southwestern Germany, the Roman Catholic Prince Ferdinand Viktor Albert Meinrad of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, later simply of Hohenzollern, was a son of Leopold, Prince of...
was recognized as sovereign; a Ministry of Bukovina, with Ion Nistor and Iancu Flondor at its helm, took over the actual administration under a Brătianu premiership. Flondor resigned soon after, and, although Nistor took over his office in Cernăuţi, the region experienced an acute political crisis. Flondor sent his complaints to the king in April 1919, implying that centralization was alienating everyone, including Romanians. The outgoing Minister-Delegate found a cautionary example in the neighboring Moldavian Democratic Republic
Moldavian Democratic Republic
The Moldavian Democratic Republic , a.k.a. Moldavian Republic, was the state proclaimed on by Sfatul Ţării of Bessarabia, elected in October-November 1917 in the wake of the February Revolution and disintegration of the political power in the Russian Empire.Sfatul Ţării was its legislative body,...
, which had also been united with Romania
Union of Bessarabia with Romania
On , the Sfatul Ţării, or National Council, of Bessarabia proclaimed union with the Kingdom of Romania.-Governorate of Bessarabia:The 1812 Treaty of Bucharest between the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empires provided for Russian annexation of the eastern half of the territory of the Principality...
a year before. He argued: "I have avoided fast and radical changes in the belief that [...] their consequences would be compromised, perhaps beyond repair, and that the same would go for the good cause of the people, as has happened in Bessarabia
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
, haunted to this day by deep resentments versus the national ideal." By contrast, Nistor saw his government mission as being the Romanianization of the provincial administrative, judicial and schooling systems.
Over the next months, as the Romanian provisional military administration withdrew, Bukovina's civil society began expressing discontent. In June, General Nicolae Petala heard numerous groups expressing support for the autonomist option: Flondor's Romanian moderates and George Grigorovici of the Romanian Socialists; Ukrainian Kasian Bohatyrets; Germans Albert Kohlruss and Rudolf Gaidosch; Jews Mayer Ebner and Iacob Pistiner
Iacob Pistiner
Jacob Pistiner was a Romanian politician and lawyer.He was born in Chernivtsi, 1882, then part of Austro-Hungarian Empire, in a Jewish family....
. Flondor, who regretted his earlier vote for unconditional union, threatened to call in international arbiters, and demanded that Romania cease its occupation of the West Ukrainian People's Republic. He was by then conceiving of a Bukovinan autonomous region extending out of the former Austro-Hungarian province and into Botoşani
Botosani County
Botoșani is a county of Romania, in Moldavia, with the capital city at Botoșani.-Demographics:In 2002, it had a population of 452,834 and the population density was 91/km2.*Romanians – – the highest percentage of Romanians in Romania...
, Dorohoi
Dorohoi county
Dorohoi County, with its seat at Dorohoi, was a subdivision of the Kingdom of Romania and located in the region of Moldavia....
, Hotin
Hotin County
Hotin County was a county in the Principality of Moldavia , the Governorate of Bessarabia , the Moldavian Democratic Republic , and the Kingdom of Romania ....
and Suceava
Suceava County
Suceava is a county of Romania, in the historical region of Moldavia and few villages in Transylvania, with the capital city at Suceava.- Demographics :...
territories.
Meanwhile, the Glasul Bucovinei group alone stood by the governing authority. Nistor supported centralism on principle, as a legalist, and (in agreement with the Romanian central authorities) viewed Flondor's compromise option as unsound. As early a December 1918, Nistor had tied the cause of autonomism with the marginalization of Romanian Bukovinans; its aim, he argued, was: "to erase all traces of the past and to smother the national consciousness of the native population." In his view: "Provincial politics have vanished on the very day of union." The Glas-ists were thus supportive of the new electoral law. Passed in August 1919, it dissolved the Diet of Bukovina while giving the region 40 representatives in the Romanian Parliament
Parliament of Romania
The Parliament of Romania is made up of two chambers:*The Chamber of Deputies*The SenatePrior to the modifications of the Constitution in 2003, the two houses had identical attributes. A text of a law had to be approved by both houses...
, introduced universal male suffrage, and ended the proportional representation
Proportional representation
Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...
of ethnic groups.
In September 1919, Nistor and his supporters founded the PDU as the political instrument of Romanian centralists. Its leading militants were folklorist Dimitrie Marmeliuc, historian Vasile Grecu, schoolteacher George Tofan
George Tofan
George Tofan was a writer and official from Austro Hungary, Moldavian Democratic Republic, and Romania. He was the editor in chief of Şcoala magazine ; also, George Tofan was a journalist and official in Chişinău.-Biography:...
(d. 1920), and, before December 1919, linguist Sextil Puşcariu.
Nationalist clashes and 1919 elections
The PDU was confrontational on the national issue, as noted in Nistor's letter to Sextil Puşcariu: "As soon as the external threats cease, internal political struggles will breakout with an unprecedented vehemence. [...] The new will triumph." Their position was initially supported by the Polish community, who, at 4.2% of Bukovina's population, did not take issue with Romanian nationalism (see Polish–Romanian Alliance). By contrast, the PDU was in conflict with the more sizable minorities. The Ukrainians tended to view Romanian rule as accidental, and expected assistance from the Ukrainian People's RepublicUkrainian People's Republic
The Ukrainian People's Republic or Ukrainian National Republic was a republic that was declared in part of the territory of modern Ukraine after the Russian Revolution, eventually headed by Symon Petliura.-Revolutionary Wave:...
. They were therefore apathetic when it came to the electoral battle, and some of the leading Ukrainian nationalist militants (Hierotheus Pihuliak, Stepan Smal-Stotsky, Volodymyr Zalozetsky-Sas) even left the region in protest. The Ukrainian, Jewish, German and socialist political groups boycotted the November 1919 legislative election. As a countering measure to this abstentionist bloc, the PDU suggested co-opting individual politicians from minority groups into alliances with the Romanian parties.
The PDU was especially critical of the National Jewish Council, a triumvirate of Jewish politicians in Bukovina: Ebner, Pistiner, Benno Straucher
Benno Straucher
Benno or Beno Straucher was a Bukovina-born Austro–Hungarian lawyer, politician and Jewish community representative, who spent the final part of his career in Romania. A Jewish nationalist influenced by classical liberalism and Zionism, he first held political offices in Czernowitz city...
. When the Council, reacting against Romania's failure to emancipate
Jewish Emancipation
Jewish emancipation was the external and internal process of freeing the Jewish people of Europe, including recognition of their rights as equal citizens, and the formal granting of citizenship as individuals; it occurred gradually between the late 18th century and the early 20th century...
its Jewish communities
History of the Jews in Romania
The history of Jews in Romania concerns the Jews of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is nowadays Romanian territory....
, called for international sanctions, Glasul Bucovinei resorted to antisemitic campaigning. In the 1919 suffrage, Nistor enlisted (or, according to Flondor's supporters, coerced) Jewish inspector Heini Teller into registering in as a traveling companion of the PDU, but Teller eventually withdrew from the race when faced with his coreligionists' indignant reaction. Eventually, the PDU list for the Senate
Senate of Romania
The Senate of Romania is the upper house in the bicameral Parliament of Romania. It has 137 seats , to which members are elected by direct popular vote, using Mixed member proportional representation in 42 electoral districts , to serve four-year terms.-Former location:After the Romanian...
included Jewish entrepreneur Jakob Hecht. Hecht spoke in favor of complete and unconditional union, in statements which, at the time, infuriated the Jewish Council. The Senate list was completed by another Jew, Iosif Vihovici of Coţmani
Kitsman
Kitsman is a city located in the Chernivtsi Oblast of western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Kitsman Raion, and is located at around . The town is about northwest from Chernivtsi on the road to Zalishchyky....
.
There was a similar disagreement between the PDU and Bukovina's Germans. The Romanian party claimed that it had supported the creation of a German constituency, but that the Germans, being spread out between villages, were ungroupable. The National German Council, resentful of early Romanianization attempts, refused to sign for an alliance with Nistor. In this case as well, the PDU was able to enlist a dissident German, Norbert Kipper (Chiper), among its own candidates for the Assembly. The party was even able to affiliate two Ukrainians, Vasily Snyatynchuk of Orăşeni (Coţmani) and the Mayor of Ocna
Solotvyno
Solotvyno is a village in the Tiachiv Raion in the Zakarpattia Oblast of Ukraine, located close to the border with Romania, on the right bank of the Tisza River . The village's name comes from the nearby salt mine.Solotvyno was first mentioned ca. 1360...
. Stanisław (Stanislaus) Kwiatkowski, the first Bukovina Pole to serve in Parliament, was also close to Nistor and, after taking his seat, became a PDU member.
The PDU sent twenty Bukovinans, its leader included, to Parliament—Nistor himself was to be reelected for successive terms, until 1938. A Bukovinan telegram, published by the central and regional press on November 7, informed: "The candidates of the Democratic Union Party under Mr. Nistor's leadership have won seats everywhere, in Cernăuţi as well as in the other parts of Bukovina. [...] The elections were carried out in the most profound peacefulness." All of the PDU's ethnic minority candidates had been elected to either Senate of Assembly, but the others' boycott was still effectively sending the message of Bukovinan disobedience.
1920 elections
The 1919 legislature ratified the act of union and saw the signing of the Saint-Germain Treaty, which awarded it formal recognition. The PDU briefly parted with the PNL and supported the opposition. After negotiations, the PDU, the Democratic Nationalist Party and the Bessarabian Peasants' PartyBessarabian Peasants' Party
The Bessarabian Peasants' Party was an agrarian political party active in Romania, founded in Chişinău, Bessarabia, on 23 August 1918.- Overview :...
were included in the parliamentary bloc formed by the Peasants' Party
Peasants' Party (Romania)
The Peasants' Party was a political party in post-World War I Romania that espoused a left-wing ideology partly connected with Agrarianism and Populism, and aimed to represent the interests of the Romanian peasantry. Through many of its leaders, the party was connected with Romanian populism , a...
and the Romanian National Party
Romanian National Party
The Romanian National Party , initially known as the Romanian National Party in Transylvania and Banat , was a political party which was initially designed to offer ethnic representation to Romanians in the Kingdom of Hungary, the Transleithanian half of Austria-Hungary, and especially to those in...
. The bloc held power, with Alexandru Vaida-Voevod
Alexandru Vaida-Voevod
Alexandru Vaida-Voevod or Vaida-Voievod was a Romanian politician who was a supporter and promoter of the union of Transylvania with the Romanian Old Kingdom; he later served three terms as a Prime Minister of Greater Romania.-Transylvanian politics:He was born to a Greek-Catholic family in the...
as Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Romania
The Prime Minister of Romania is the head of the Government of Romania. Initially, the office was styled President of the Council of Ministers , when the term "Government" included more than the Cabinet, and the Cabinet was called The Council of Ministers...
, but King Ferdinand's refusal to accept its land reform project
Land reform in Romania
Four major land reforms have taken place in Romania: in 1864, 1921, 1945 and 1991. The first sought to undo the feudal structure that had persisted after the unification of the Danubian Principalities in 1859; the second, more drastic reform, tried to resolve lingering peasant discontent and create...
brought down the cabinet.
Newly appointed Premier Alexandru Averescu
Alexandru Averescu
Alexandru Averescu was a Romanian marshal and populist politician. A Romanian Armed Forces Commander during World War I, he served as Prime Minister of three separate cabinets . He first rose to prominence during the peasant's revolt of 1907, which he helped repress in violence...
dissolved Parliament on March 25, 1920. After April 5, 1920, a Unification Commission deposed all that remained of Bukovina's autonomous administration, and Nistor resigned from his Bukovina Minister post. However, in the 1920 election, the PDU, which ran together with its former electoral bloc colleagues, faced significant opposition from Averescu's People's Party (PP). The PP successfully signed up some prominent supporters of conditional union. Elected to Parliament as an ethnic German PP candidate, Kohlruss rekindled the campaign for cultural autonomy, and received virulent replies from the PDU, through Glasul Bucovinei. The PDU's own ethnic minority candidate was Vihovici, elected to the Assembly in Coţmani. Overall, the PDU had three elected representatives in the Assembly.
By then, the PDU and it paper were primarily supporters of the centralist policy on education
Education in Romania
According to the Law on Education adopted in 1995, the Romanian Educational System is regulated by the Ministry of Education and Research . Each level has its own form of organization and is subject to different legislation. Kindergarten is optional between 3 and 6 years old...
, and applauded the disestablishment of German, Jewish or other schools, noting that they overrepresented their respective minority groups. This, and the complete lack of Polish representation in the 1920 Parliament, created tensions between Nistor's supporters and the Polish community. In May 1920, the National Polish Council presented King Ferdinand with a memorandum. Although stating that the administration had been beyond reproach as far as the Poles were concerned, the document noted that the unwillingness to create a Polish constituency was an "injustice" on Nistor's part, "which may lead to Polish irredentism
Irredentism
Irredentism is any position advocating annexation of territories administered by another state on the grounds of common ethnicity or prior historical possession, actual or alleged. Some of these movements are also called pan-nationalist movements. It is a feature of identity politics and cultural...
". Nistor issued a formal reply, arguing that the number of Poles was too small to validate the preservation of Austro-Hungarian electoral customs.
Around 1920, the party was taking an interest into various other problems specific to Bukovina's rural society. The PDU took a stance on the issue of logging
Logging
Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks.In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard...
rights, giving support to peasants who complained that the PP had been arbitrarily handing out major grants of forest terrain to its clientele. Glasul Bucovinei discussed the issue of worthless Austrian war bond
War bond
War bonds are debt securities issued by a government for the purpose of financing military operations during times of war. War bonds generate capital for the government and make civilians feel involved in their national militaries...
s, which the peasants had bought in good faith during the 1910s, and issued warnings about the unexploded ordnance
Unexploded ordnance
Unexploded ordnance are explosive weapons that did not explode when they were employed and still pose a risk of detonation, potentially many decades after they were used or discarded.While "UXO" is widely and informally used, munitions and explosives of...
which posed threats on the lives of agricultural workers.
1922 elections and 1923 merger
Before the 1922 election, Nistor and his party were committed partners of the PNL, Romania's main centralist movement. Shortly before the election date was set, the PDU was co-opted in Brătianu's new cabinet, created through an understanding with King Ferdinand. Nicolae Petala's government gazette Cultura Poporului gave positive coverage to the new governing alliance. Brătianu's platform, it argued, was one of "order, good governanceGood governance
Good governance is an indeterminate term used in development literature to describe how public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources in order to guarantee the realization of human rights. Governance describes "the process of decision-making and the process by which...
, legality and justice." Reportedly, the National Liberals had tried tried to co-opt all unionist parties into this new cartel, but only Nistor and the Bessarabian Peasantists could be persuaded to join.
The PDU was part of a cartel with the PNL and the Bessarabian Peasants' Party, which faced three other alliances: the Citizens' Bloc of Democratic Nationalists and Conservative-Democrats; the Peasants' Party-Romanian National Party group; and the PP's common list with the Progressive Conservatives. The PDU's own Bukovina list of candidates featured three PNL members, all of them based outside the region—Brătianu for Rădăuţi
Radauti
Rădăuţi is a municipality in Suceava County, Romania with a population of 27,759 inhabitants.-Geography and demographics:Rădăuţi is situated in Bucovina, northern Moldavia, on a plain between the Suceava and Suceviţa rivers, north from Suceava, at 375 m altitude...
, Alexandru Constantinescu-Porcu for Vijniţa
Vyzhnytsia
Vyzhnytsia is a town located on the Cheremosh River in the Chernivtsi Oblast of western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Vyzhnytsia Raion.-Notable People from Vyzhnytsia:* Gerard Ciołek, architect* Menachem Mendel Hager, first Vizhnitser Rebbe...
, Artur Văitoianu
Artur Vaitoianu
Artur or Arthur Văitoianu was a Romanian general who served as a Prime Minister of Romania for about two months in 1919...
for Zastavna
Zastavna
Zastavna is a city in Chernivtsi Oblast of Ukraine. The city is the administrative center of Zastavna Raion. Population is 8,866 ....
. More controversially, Nistor adhered to the PNL's philosophy on elections, and in particular the notion that election results needed to be corrected in areas where the electorate was hostile or inexperienced.
By then, Nistor had come to a disagreement with the Democratic Nationalist leader Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga was a Romanian historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, poet and playwright. Co-founder of the Democratic Nationalist Party , he served as a member of Parliament, President of the Deputies' Assembly and Senate, cabinet minister and briefly as Prime Minister...
, who urged him not to align himself with Romania's traditional partisan politics, and especially not with Brătianu's men. The anti-Liberal nationalist Iorga was bitter about the PDU's political choices, and privately called Nistor "a nullity". From his new home in Transylvania, Sextil Puşcariu also watched with concern as Nistor became Brătianu's man of confidence; he was himself a supporter of Iorga. While its nationalist basis was threatened, the PDU was again able to list minority representatives as its candidates. This category includes Kipper and even the PDU's former rival Benno Straucher
Benno Straucher
Benno or Beno Straucher was a Bukovina-born Austro–Hungarian lawyer, politician and Jewish community representative, who spent the final part of his career in Romania. A Jewish nationalist influenced by classical liberalism and Zionism, he first held political offices in Czernowitz city...
, who had since lost Jewish community backing.
Eventually, in January 1923, the PDU was absorbed into the PNL. In so doing, Brătianu's Bukovinan allies helped the PNL overcome a crisis of confidence: the National Liberal group was strengthened by arrivals from the PDU and the Bessarabian Peasantists. When the PNL-endorsed 1923 Constitution of Romania
1923 Constitution of Romania
The 1923 Constitution of Romania, also called the Constitution of Union, was intended to align the organisation of the state on the basis of universal male suffrage and the new realities that arose after the Great Union of 1918. Four draft constitutions existed: one belonging to the National...
was finally adopted, Bukovina became an integral part of the Kingdom (or "Greater Romania
Greater Romania
The Greater Romania generally refers to the territory of Romania in the years between the First World War and the Second World War, the largest geographical extent of Romania up to that time and its largest peacetime extent ever ; more precisely, it refers to the territory of the Kingdom of...
"). As Minister of State for Bukovina (between 1924 and 1926), Nistor signed up to the PNL's Romanianization agenda. His term saw the closure of more minority schools, especially Jewish, German and Ukrainian ones.