page_title: Bessarabia Governorate
section_title: Demographics
hierarchical_section_title: Bessarabia Governorate / Demographics
caption_attribution_description: English: Ethnic map of the European part of the Russian Empire Deutsch: Ethnische Karte des europäischen Russland vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg
context_page_description: Bessarabia Governorate or Bessarabia Oblast was a governorate of the Russian Empire from 1812–1871. Initially an oblast and following 1871 a governorate, it included the eastern part of the Principality of Moldavia along with the neighboring Ottoman-ruled territories annexed by Russia by the Treaty of Bucharest following the Russo-Turkish War. The Governorate was disbanded in 1917, with the establishment of Sfatul Țării, a national assembly which proclaimed the Moldavian Democratic Republic in December 1917. The latter united with Romania in April 1918.
  Around 65% of the territory of the former governorate now belongs to the Republic of Moldova, and around 35% to Ukraine.
context_section_description: According to Bessarabian historian Ștefan Ciobanu, at the beginning of the 19th century the ethnic Romanians (Moldavians) proportion was approximately 95% (1810), not including the territories formerly under direct Turkish administration (Budjak and Khotyn), which also purportedly had a Romanian majority. The Russian rule resulted in important changes in the ethnic structure of Bessarabia, especially due to the Russian policy of immigration from neighbouring provinces and Russification. The immigration was not uniform: in some districts in the northern and southern parts of Bessarabia (for instance Hotin and Akkerman), the immigration resulted in Ukrainians outnumbering Romanians, while the rural areas of the centre were mostly Romanian.
  Initially, the purpose of the colonization policy was unrelated to the ethnic makeup, being to increase the population of the rather sparsely populated area, in order to better exploit its resources. It was part of the larger campaign of colonization of Novorossiya, under which Russia appealed to everyone who wanted to work and live under its authority, no matter if they came from the Russian Empire or from elsewhere.
  Most of the Moldavians of Bessarabia were free peasants, of which most being landless, leasing their land from landlords and monasteries, while 12% (in 1861) were răzeşi ("yeomen"). The Emancipation reform of 1861 had little effects in Bessarabia, where there were few serfs: just 12,000 most of which being brought from Russia for non-agricultural activities.
  The urban population was quite low, amounting just 14.7% in 1912, most of the cities being just local administrative centres and having little industry. Also, few of the urban dwellers were Moldavians, in 1912, 37.2% being Jewish, 24.4% Russian, 15.8% Ukrainian, with just 14.2% Moldavian.
caption: Ethnic groups in the European part of the Russian Empire before World War I.
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