Linguistic policy of the Russian Empire in Bessarabia in the years 1834-1871

Abstract

The sources examined attest that we must have no illusions about the purpose pursued by the imperial authorities, namely the total Russification of the inhabitants of the annexed territories. Discordant voices of specialists from both the Russian Empire and contemporary Russia clearly indicate that the annexed territories were colonies of the empire, and the inhabitants were condemned to cultural stagnation. During the examined period, in the region of Bessarabia, the area of use of the Romanian language was totally restricted in school, church, administration, court. Access even to primary education was allowed children aged 8-10 only if they were able to read and write in the language Russian. But, despite the efforts made by the authorities, in the chronological segment investigated here, the years 1834-1871 – the Russification of the inhabitants was not successful – the Russian language was known at a fairly high level modest or even by the population. The timid attempts of some representatives of dvorenimi to improve and intensify the process of studying the Romanian language by bringing books necessary from Moldova across the Prut and from Wallachia, collided with the categorical refusal of imperial authorities, as well as the attempts to edit a newspaper in Romanian. Despite efforts made by the imperial authorities, the school did not prove to be an effective instrument of russification, but to make a better system of education, tsarism neither wanted nor was in condition. In general, the Russian Empire was a backward empire, slavery hindered the processes of modernization and, although it was liquidated in 1861, it does not mean that the situation changed immediately and we should have expected big changes. To these was added the inefficiency of the Russian bureaucratic-administrative system, but also the traditional conservatism of the local society in Bessarabia, which tacitly, but quite effectively, opposed the process of Russification.