History of the Romanians in Ukraine
Encyclopedia
This article is about the history of Romanians
in what is now southwestern Ukraine
, roughly between the Dniester
River and the Southern Bug
River, who traditionally have not belonged to any Romanian statal entity (nor to Transnistria
), but have been an integral part of the history of modern Ukraine, and are considered natives to the area. It does no refer to the Romanians of Northern Bukovina
or Bessarabia
, areas that were, between the World Wars, part of Romania. For articles regarding Romanians in those areas, see History of Romania, History of Moldavia, and History of Moldova
. For the history of the whole modern state, see History of Ukraine
.
and Tivertsy) from the north, by Romanians (Vlachs
) from the west, as well as by Turkic
nomads such as Pechenegs, Cumans
and (later) Tatars
from the east.
Vlachs
and Brodniks
are mentioned in the area in the 12th and 13th century. As characterised by contemporary sources, the area between the Southern Bug and Dniester had never been populated by a single ethnicity, or totally controlled by Kievan or other rulers. Ukrainian historian Volodymyr Antonovych
writes: "Neither the right bank, nor the left bank of the Dniester have ever belonged to Galician or other Ruthenian princes."
Since 14th century, the area were intermittently ruled by Lithuanian dukes, Polish
kings, Crimean
khans, and Moldavian princes (such as Ion Vodă Armeanul). In 1681 Gheorghe Duca
's title was "Despot of Moldavia and Ukraine", as he was simultaneously Prince of Moldavia and Hetman
of Ukraine. Other Moldavian princes who held control of the territory in 17th and 18th centuries were Ştefan Movilă, Dimitrie Cantacuzino and Mihai Racoviţă
.
In the 17th century, in a letter to the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire
, Stefan Batory
, the Prince of Transylvania
stated that "The lands between the Bug and Dniester are populated by a mix of races composed of Lithuanian Poles
, Muscovites, and Romanians. The Cossacks are raised from the Muscovites and Romanians". While the Ruthenian ethnic element is fundamental for Cossacks, the was also a considerable number of Romanians among the hetmans of the Cossacks (Ioan Potcoavă
, Grigore Lobodă (Hryhoriy Loboda), who ruled in 1593–1596), Ioan Sârcu (Ivan Sirko), who ruled in 1659–1660, Dănilă Apostol (Danylo Apostol), whi ruled in 1727–1734, Alexander Potcoavă, Constantin Potcoavă, Petre Lungu, Petre Cazacu, Tihon Baibuza, Samoilă Chişcă, Ion Sârcu, Opară, Trofim Voloşanin, Ion Şărpilă, Timotei Sgură, Dumitru Hunu), and other high ranking Cossacks (Polkovnyks Toader Lobădă and Dumitraşcu Raicea in Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyy, Martin Puşcariu in Poltava
, Burlă in Gdansk
, Pavel Apostol in Mirgorod, Eremie Gânju and Dimitrie Băncescu in Uman
, Varlam Buhăţel, Grigore Gămălie in Lubensk, Grigore Cristofor, Ion Ursu, Petru Apostol in Lubensk).
Historically, the Orthodox
Church in today's Transdneister and Ukraine was subordinated at first to the Mitropolity of Proilava (modern Brăila
, Romania). Later, it belonged to the Bishop
ric of Huşi
. After the Russian annexation of 1792, the Bishopric of Ochakiv
reverted to Ekaterinoslav (modern Dnipropetrovsk). From 1837, it belonged to the Eparchy
s of Kherson
with seat in Odessa
, and of Taurida
with seat in Simferopol
.
ethnicity. The process of Russification
and colonization of this territory started to be carried out by representatives of other ethnic groups of the Russian Empire
.
, as a part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Ukrainian SSR), had also suffered the Holodomor
, the famine of the 1930s that caused several millions deaths in Ukraine.
At the end of World War I
in 1918, the Directory of Ukraine proclaimed the sovereignty of the Ukrainian People's Republic
over the left bank of the Dneister. After the Russian Civil War
ended, in 1922, the Ukrainian SSR was created.
The geopolitical concept of an autonomous Transnistrian region was born in 1924, when Bessarabian-Russian military leader Grigore Kotovski
founded, under the auspices of Moscow, the Moldavian Autonomous Oblast
, which on 12 October 1924 became the Moldavian ASSR
of the Ukrainian SSR.
The intention of Soviet policy was to promote Communism in recently-lost Bessarabia and surroundings, and eventually to regain the former province from Romania
. (Soviet authorities declared the "temporarily occupied city of Kishinev
" as de jure capital of the ASSR.) The area was 8,100 km² and included 11 raion
s by the left bank of Dniester.
to the USSR. As many as 90,000 died as the Red Army entered and occupied the territory on June 28. The official Soviet press declared that the "peaceful policy of the USSR" had "liquidated the [Bessarabian] Soviet-Romanian conflict". The Moldavian SSR
was created from Bessarabia and the western part of the Moldavian ASSR. Bessarabian territory along the Black Sea and Danube, where Romanians were in the minority, was merged into the Ukrainian SSR
to ensure its control by a stable Soviet republic.
Having allied with Nazi Germany, and having recaptured the territories occupied by the Soviets in 1940, Romanian dictator Antonescu
did not heed the counsel of his advisers and continued to wage war on the Soviets beyond Romania's pre-war boundaries, invading parts of Ukraine and occupying the territory between Dniester and Southern Bug rivers
. During this period the Romanian and German authorities and units deported to this region 147,000 Bessarabian and Bukovinian Jews, 30,000 Romanian Roma, and exterminated the largest part of the local Jewish population of this region. In 1944, the Soviets re-conquered the area.
the sole state language, and the state system of higher education has been switched to Ukrainian.
In June 1997 Romania and Ukraine signed a bilateral treaty which included addressing territorial and minority issues. By the terms of the agreement, Ukraine guaranteed the rights of Romanians in Ukraine and Romania guaranteed the rights of Ukrainians in Romania. There are schools teaching Romanian as a primary language, along with newspapers, TV, and radio broadcasting in Romanian.
(approximately one fifth of the region's population).
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
in what is now southwestern Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, roughly between the Dniester
Dniester
The Dniester is a river in Eastern Europe. It runs through Ukraine and Moldova and separates most of Moldova's territory from the breakaway de facto state of Transnistria.-Names:...
River and the Southern Bug
Southern Bug
The Southern Bug, also called Southern Buh), is a river located in Ukraine. The source of the river is in the west of Ukraine, in the Volyn-Podillia Upland, about 145 km from the Polish border, and flows southeasterly into the Bug Estuary through the southern steppes...
River, who traditionally have not belonged to any Romanian statal entity (nor to Transnistria
Transnistria
Transnistria is a breakaway territory located mostly on a strip of land between the Dniester River and the eastern Moldovan border to Ukraine...
), but have been an integral part of the history of modern Ukraine, and are considered natives to the area. It does no refer to the Romanians of Northern Bukovina
Romanians of Chernivtsi Oblast
Chernivtsi Oblast of Ukraine comprises a significant Romanian community.-History:Today's Chernivtsi Oblast of Ukraine was part of Romania until June 1940, when it was occupied by the Soviet Union, and on 2 August 1940 it was transferred to the Ukrainian SSR...
or 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....
, areas that were, between the World Wars, part of Romania. For articles regarding Romanians in those areas, see History of Romania, History of Moldavia, and History of Moldova
History of Moldova
The history of Moldova can be traced to the 1350s, when the Principality of Moldavia, the medieval precursor of modern Moldova and Romania, was founded. In 1812, following one of several Russian-Turkish wars, the eastern half of the principality, Bessarabia , was annexed by the Russian Empire...
. For the history of the whole modern state, see History of Ukraine
History of Ukraine
The territory of Ukraine was a key center of East Slavic culture in the Middle Ages, before being divided between a variety of powers. However, the history of Ukraine dates back many thousands of years. The territory has been settled continuously since at least 5000 BC, and is also a candidate site...
.
Middle ages
Beginning with the 10th century, the territory was slowly infiltrated Slavic tribes (UlichsUlichs
The Ulichs were a tribe of Early East Slavs who between the eighth and the tenth century inhabited the territories along the Lower Dnieper, Bug River and the Black Sea littoral....
and Tivertsy) from the north, by Romanians (Vlachs
Vlachs
Vlach is a blanket term covering several modern Latin peoples descending from the Latinised population in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. English variations on the name include: Walla, Wlachs, Wallachs, Vlahs, Olahs or Ulahs...
) from the west, as well as by Turkic
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
nomads such as Pechenegs, Cumans
Cumans
The Cumans were Turkic nomadic people comprising the western branch of the Cuman-Kipchak confederation. After Mongol invasion , they decided to seek asylum in Hungary, and subsequently to Bulgaria...
and (later) Tatars
Tatars
Tatars are a Turkic speaking ethnic group , numbering roughly 7 million.The majority of Tatars live in the Russian Federation, with a population of around 5.5 million, about 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan.Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,...
from the east.
Vlachs
Vlachs
Vlach is a blanket term covering several modern Latin peoples descending from the Latinised population in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. English variations on the name include: Walla, Wlachs, Wallachs, Vlahs, Olahs or Ulahs...
and Brodniks
Brodnici
The Brodnici were a 13th-century people whose ethnicity is uncertain, as various authors suggest they were Slavic, mixed Romanian-Jassic, Romanian-Slavic, or Turkic-Slavic population, probably vassals of Galicia for a period. Brodnici did not leave any provable material or written traces, which...
are mentioned in the area in the 12th and 13th century. As characterised by contemporary sources, the area between the Southern Bug and Dniester had never been populated by a single ethnicity, or totally controlled by Kievan or other rulers. Ukrainian historian Volodymyr Antonovych
Volodymyr Antonovych
Volodymyr Antonovych , was a prominent Ukrainian historian and one of the leaders of the Ukrainian national awakening in the Russian Empire. As a historian, Antonovych, who was longtime Professor of History at the University of Kiev, represented a populist approach to Ukrainian history.This...
writes: "Neither the right bank, nor the left bank of the Dniester have ever belonged to Galician or other Ruthenian princes."
Since 14th century, the area were intermittently ruled by Lithuanian dukes, Polish
Kingdom of Poland (1385–1569)
The Kingdom of Poland of the Jagiellons was the Polish state created by the accession of Jogaila , Grand Duke of Lithuania, to the Polish throne in 1386. The Union of Krewo or Krėva Act, united Poland and Lithuania under the rule of a single monarch...
kings, Crimean
Crimean Khanate
Crimean Khanate, or Khanate of Crimea , was a state ruled by Crimean Tatars from 1441 to 1783. Its native name was . Its khans were the patrilineal descendants of Toqa Temür, the thirteenth son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan...
khans, and Moldavian princes (such as Ion Vodă Armeanul). In 1681 Gheorghe Duca
Gheorghe Duca
Gheorghe Duca Moldovan academic and politician.- Biography :Gheorghe Duca has been the head of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova since February 5, 2004.- External links :* * -References:...
's title was "Despot of Moldavia and Ukraine", as he was simultaneously Prince of Moldavia and Hetman
Hetman
Hetman was the title of the second-highest military commander in 15th- to 18th-century Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which together, from 1569 to 1795, comprised the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, or Rzeczpospolita....
of Ukraine. Other Moldavian princes who held control of the territory in 17th and 18th centuries were Ştefan Movilă, Dimitrie Cantacuzino and Mihai Racoviţă
Mihai Racovita
Mihai or Mihail Racoviţă was a Prince of Moldavia on three separate occasions and Prince of Wallachia on two occasions...
.
In the 17th century, in a letter to the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, Stefan Batory
Stefan Batory
Stephen Báthory was a Hungarian noble Prince of Transylvania , then King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania . He was a member of the Somlyó branch of the noble Hungarian Báthory family...
, the Prince of Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
stated that "The lands between the Bug and Dniester are populated by a mix of races composed of Lithuanian Poles
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...
, Muscovites, and Romanians. The Cossacks are raised from the Muscovites and Romanians". While the Ruthenian ethnic element is fundamental for Cossacks, the was also a considerable number of Romanians among the hetmans of the Cossacks (Ioan Potcoavă
Ioan Potcoava
Ioan al IV-lea Potcoavă was a Hetman of Ukrainian Cossacks , and Voivode of Moldavia...
, Grigore Lobodă (Hryhoriy Loboda), who ruled in 1593–1596), Ioan Sârcu (Ivan Sirko), who ruled in 1659–1660, Dănilă Apostol (Danylo Apostol), whi ruled in 1727–1734, Alexander Potcoavă, Constantin Potcoavă, Petre Lungu, Petre Cazacu, Tihon Baibuza, Samoilă Chişcă, Ion Sârcu, Opară, Trofim Voloşanin, Ion Şărpilă, Timotei Sgură, Dumitru Hunu), and other high ranking Cossacks (Polkovnyks Toader Lobădă and Dumitraşcu Raicea in Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyy, Martin Puşcariu in Poltava
Poltava
Poltava is a city in located on the Vorskla River in central Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Poltava Oblast , as well as the surrounding Poltava Raion of the oblast. Poltava's estimated population is 298,652 ....
, Burlă in Gdansk
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...
, Pavel Apostol in Mirgorod, Eremie Gânju and Dimitrie Băncescu in Uman
Uman
Uman is a city located in the Cherkasy Oblast in central Ukraine, to the east of Vinnytsia. The city rests on the banks of the Umanka River at around , and serves as the self-governing administrative center of the Umanskyi Raion ....
, Varlam Buhăţel, Grigore Gămălie in Lubensk, Grigore Cristofor, Ion Ursu, Petru Apostol in Lubensk).
Historically, the Orthodox
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
Church in today's Transdneister and Ukraine was subordinated at first to the Mitropolity of Proilava (modern Brăila
Braila
Brăila is a city in Muntenia, eastern Romania, a port on the Danube and the capital of Brăila County, in the close vicinity of Galaţi.According to the 2002 Romanian census there were 216,292 people living within the city of Brăila, making it the 10th most populous city in Romania.-History:A...
, Romania). Later, it belonged to the Bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
ric of Huşi
Husi
Huși is a city in Vaslui County, Romania, former capital of the disbanded Fălciu County in the historical region of Moldavia, Romanian Orthodox episcopal see, and home of some of the best vineyards of Romania. The city is located on a branch of the Iaşi-Galaţi railway, nine miles west of the Prut...
. After the Russian annexation of 1792, the Bishopric of Ochakiv
Ochakiv
Ochakiv is a city in the Mykolaiv Oblast of southern Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Ochakivsky Raion , the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast, and is located on a peninsula in the Black Sea, at the entrance to the Dnieper Rivers's estuary,...
reverted to Ekaterinoslav (modern Dnipropetrovsk). From 1837, it belonged to the Eparchy
Eparchy
Eparchy is an anglicized Greek word , authentically Latinized as eparchia and loosely translating as 'rule over something,' like province, prefecture, or territory, to have the jurisdiction over, it has specific meanings both in politics, history and in the hierarchy of the Eastern Christian...
s of Kherson
Kherson
Kherson is a city in southern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Kherson Oblast , and is designated as its own separate raion within the oblast. Kherson is an important port on the Black Sea and Dnieper River, and the home of a major ship-building industry...
with seat in Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
, and of Taurida
Taurida Governorate
The Taurida Governorate or Government of Taurida was a historical governorate of the Russian Empire. It included the Crimean peninsula and the mainland between the lower Dnieper River and the coasts of the Black Sea and Sea of Azov It was formed after the defunct Taurida Oblast in was abolished in...
with seat in Simferopol
Simferopol
-Russian Empire and Civil War:The city was renamed Simferopol in 1784 after the annexation of the Crimean Khanate to the Russian Empire by Catherine II of Russia. The name Simferopol is derived from the Greek, Συμφερόπολις , translated as "the city of usefulness." In 1802, Simferopol became the...
.
Early Modern Times
The end of the 18th century marked Imperial Russia's colonization of the region, as a result of which large migrations into the region were encouraged, including people of Ukrainian, Russian, and GermanEthnic German
Ethnic Germans historically also ), also collectively referred to as the German diaspora, refers to people who are of German ethnicity. Many are not born in Europe or in the modern-day state of Germany or hold German citizenship...
ethnicity. The process of Russification
Russification
Russification is an adoption of the Russian language or some other Russian attributes by non-Russian communities...
and colonization of this territory started to be carried out by representatives of other ethnic groups of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
.
The Soviet Union
The population of the former Moldavian ASSRMoldavian ASSR
The Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic , shortened to Moldavian ASSR or, less frequently, Moldovan ASSR, was an autonomous republic of the Ukrainian SSR between 12 October 1924 and 2 August 1940, encompassing modern Transnistria The Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic...
, as a part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Ukrainian SSR), had also suffered the Holodomor
Holodomor
The Holodomor was a man-made famine in the Ukrainian SSR between 1932 and 1933. During the famine, which is also known as the "terror-famine in Ukraine" and "famine-genocide in Ukraine", millions of Ukrainians died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of...
, the famine of the 1930s that caused several millions deaths in Ukraine.
Autonomous Moldavian Republic in Soviet Ukraine
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...
in 1918, the Directory of Ukraine proclaimed the sovereignty of the Ukrainian People's Republic
Ukrainian 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:...
over the left bank of the Dneister. After the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
ended, in 1922, the Ukrainian SSR was created.
The geopolitical concept of an autonomous Transnistrian region was born in 1924, when Bessarabian-Russian military leader Grigore Kotovski
Grigore Kotovski
Grigory Ivanovich Kotovsky was a Soviet military leader and Communist activist.Kotovsky was born in Bessarabia, the son of a mechanical engineer. His father was of Polish ethnicity and his mother was an ethnic Russian. Kotovskt attended agricultural college and worked as an estate manager....
founded, under the auspices of Moscow, the Moldavian Autonomous Oblast
Moldavian Autonomous Oblast
Moldavian Autonomous Oblast was created on March 7, 1924 within the Ukrainian SSR.The new oblast had four districts, all of them having a Moldovan majority:* Rîbniţa with 48,748 inhabitants, of which 25,387 Moldovans...
, which on 12 October 1924 became the Moldavian ASSR
Moldavian ASSR
The Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic , shortened to Moldavian ASSR or, less frequently, Moldovan ASSR, was an autonomous republic of the Ukrainian SSR between 12 October 1924 and 2 August 1940, encompassing modern Transnistria The Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic...
of the Ukrainian SSR.
The intention of Soviet policy was to promote Communism in recently-lost Bessarabia and surroundings, and eventually to regain the former province from Romania
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...
. (Soviet authorities declared the "temporarily occupied city of Kishinev
Chisinau
Chișinău is the capital and largest municipality of Moldova. It is also its main industrial and commercial centre and is located in the middle of the country, on the river Bîc...
" as de jure capital of the ASSR.) The area was 8,100 km² and included 11 raion
Raion
A raion is a type of administrative unit of several post-Soviet countries. The term, which is from French rayon 'honeycomb, department,' describes both a type of a subnational entity and a division of a city, and is commonly translated in English as "district"...
s by the left bank of Dniester.
Moldavian SSR
In 1940, under duress from a Soviet ultimatum issued to the Romanian ambassador in Moscow and under pressure from Italy and Germany, Romania ceded BessarabiaBessarabia
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....
to the USSR. As many as 90,000 died as the Red Army entered and occupied the territory on June 28. The official Soviet press declared that the "peaceful policy of the USSR" had "liquidated the [Bessarabian] Soviet-Romanian conflict". The Moldavian SSR
Moldavian SSR
The Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic , commonly abbreviated to Moldavian SSR or MSSR, was one of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union...
was created from Bessarabia and the western part of the Moldavian ASSR. Bessarabian territory along the Black Sea and Danube, where Romanians were in the minority, was merged into the Ukrainian SSR
Ukrainian SSR
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic or in short, the Ukrainian SSR was a sovereign Soviet Socialist state and one of the fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union lasting from its inception in 1922 to the breakup in 1991...
to ensure its control by a stable Soviet republic.
Transnistria (WWII)
Ion Antonescu
Ion Victor Antonescu was a Romanian soldier, authoritarian politician and convicted war criminal. The Prime Minister and Conducător during most of World War II, he presided over two successive wartime dictatorships...
did not heed the counsel of his advisers and continued to wage war on the Soviets beyond Romania's pre-war boundaries, invading parts of Ukraine and occupying the territory between Dniester and Southern Bug rivers
Transnistria (World War II)
Transnistria Governorate was a Romanian administered territory, conquered by the Axis Powers from the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa, and occupied from 19 August 1941 to 29 January 1944...
. During this period the Romanian and German authorities and units deported to this region 147,000 Bessarabian and Bukovinian Jews, 30,000 Romanian Roma, and exterminated the largest part of the local Jewish population of this region. In 1944, the Soviets re-conquered the area.
Today
In line with common practice, Ukrainian, the language of the historical ethnic/linguistic majority, is constitutionallyConstitution of Ukraine
The Constitution of Ukraine is the nation's fundamental law. The constitution was adopted and ratified at the 5th session of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on 28 June 1996. The constitution was passed with 315 ayes out of 450 votes possible .Other laws and other normative legal acts of Ukraine...
the sole state language, and the state system of higher education has been switched to Ukrainian.
In June 1997 Romania and Ukraine signed a bilateral treaty which included addressing territorial and minority issues. By the terms of the agreement, Ukraine guaranteed the rights of Romanians in Ukraine and Romania guaranteed the rights of Ukrainians in Romania. There are schools teaching Romanian as a primary language, along with newspapers, TV, and radio broadcasting in Romanian.
Language and demographics
According to the Soviet 1989 census, Romanian speakers accounted for just under one percent of Ukraine’s total population: 134,825 Romanians, and 324,525 Moldovans with the largest minority in ChernivtsiChernivtsi
Chernivtsi is the administrative center of Chernivtsi Oblast in southwestern Ukraine. The city is situated on the upper course of the River Prut, a tributary of the Danube, in the northern part of the historic region of Bukovina, which is currently divided between Romania and Ukraine...
(approximately one fifth of the region's population).
| Region | Population |
|---|---|
| Chernivtsi Oblast Chernivtsi Oblast Chernivtsi Oblast is an oblast in western Ukraine, bordering on Romania and Moldova. It has a large variety of landforms: the Carpathian Mountains and picturesque hills at the foot of the mountains gradually change to a broad partly forested plain situated between the Dniester and Prut rivers.... |
181,800 Romanian speaking population (19.78% of the region's population) out of which 114,600 (12.5%) declared to be of Romanian ethnical minority and 67,200 Moldavians |
| Transcarpathia Zakarpattia Oblast The Zakarpattia Oblast is an administrative oblast located in southwestern Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Uzhhorod... |
32,152 Romanian ethnics—mainly living in Teaciv rayon with 21,300 (12.4% of the rayon population) and Rahiv with 10,300 (11.6% of the rayon population) |
| Odessa Odessa Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,... |
724 declared to be Romanian, 123,751 Moldavian [includes historically Ukrainian and eastern Bessarabian territories] |
| Total | 338,427 |
See also
- Romanians of SerbiaRomanians of SerbiaRomanians are a recognised national minority in Serbia. The total number of declared Romanians in the 2002 Serbian census was 34,576, while 40,054 people declared themselves Vlachs; there are differing views among some of the Vlachs over they should be regarded as Romanians or as members of a...
- Vlachs of Serbia
- AromaniansAromaniansAromanians are a Latin people native throughout the southern Balkans, especially in northern Greece, Albania, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, and as an emigrant community in Serbia and Romania . An older term is Macedo-Romanians...
- Northern MaramureshNorthern MaramureshNorthern Maramuresh is a geographic-historical region comprising roughly the eastern half of the Zakarpattia Oblast in southwestern Ukraine, near the border with Romania...
- BessarabiaBessarabiaBessarabia 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....
- Northern Bukovina
External links
- INCONSISTENT LANGUAGE POLICY CREATES PROBLEMS IN UKRAINE, Oleg Varfolomeyev, EURASIA DAILY MONITOR, Volume 3, Issue 101 (May 24, 2006)
- "Interpreting 'Nationality' and 'Language' in the 2001 Ukrainian Census,", Dominique Arel, Post-Soviet Affairs, Vol. 18 No. 3, July–September 2002, pp. 213–249, appearing in JRL #6535
- The Romanian Minority in Ukraine, Ionas Aurelian Rus, Center for Prevention of Conflicts and Early Warning, Policy Paper Nr. 704R, Bucharest, June 2004