Moldovans in Ukraine are the third biggest minority recorded in the 2001 All Ukrainian Census after
Russians
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118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate)
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and
Belarusians. Unlike many other minorities, Moldovans often live in the countryside (71.5%) rather than in a city (28.5%), the majority in the northern and southern historical region of
Bessarabia.
There is an
ongoing controversy whether
Moldovans
Moldovans, sometimes referred to as Moldavians ( ro, moldoveni , Moldovan Cyrillic: молдовень), are a Romance-speaking ethnic group and the largest ethnic group of the Republic of Moldova (75.1% of the population as of 2014) and a sign ...
are part of the larger
Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
*** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...
ethnic group or a separate ethnicity.
History
After 1812,
Russian Empire annexed Bessarabia from Moldavia. Initially, Romanians under Russian rule enjoyed privileges well, the language of Moldavians was established as an official language in the governmental institutions of
Bessarabia, used along with
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
, as more than 90% of the population was
Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
*** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...
. The publishing works established by Archbishop
Gavril Bănulescu-Bodoni
Gavril Bănulescu-Bodoni (; 1746 – 30 March 1821) was a Romanian clergyman who served as Metropolitan of Moldavia (1792), Metropolitan of Kherson and Crimea (1793–1799), Metropolitan of Kiev and Halych (1799–1803), Exarch ...
were able to produce books and liturgical works in Moldavian between 1815 and 1820.
From 1829 to 1905, the
Russification policies were implemented and all public use of Romanian was phased out, being substituted with Russian. Romanian continued to be used as the colloquial language of home and family, mostly spoken by Romanians, either first or second language. Many Romanians changed their family names to Russian. This was the era of the highest level of assimilation in the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
.
[Colesnic-Codreanca, Lidia. ''Limba Română în Basarabia. Studiu sociolingvistic pe baza materialelor de arhivă (1812–1918)'' ("The Romanian language in Bessarabia. A sociolinguistic study based on archival materials (1812–1918)"). Chișinău: Editorial Museum, 2003.]
In 1918, Bessarabia
united
United may refer to:
Places
* United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community
* United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community
Arts and entertainment Films
* ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film
* ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two f ...
with the
Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania ( ro, Regatul României) was a constitutional monarchy that existed in Romania from 13 March ( O.S.) / 25 March 1881 with the crowning of prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as King Carol I (thus beginning the Romanian ...
.
In 1940,
Bessarabia was annexed by the Soviet Union. Around 65% of Bessarabia is part of the modern-day
Moldova
Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The unrecognised state of Transnistr ...
, with the Ukrainian
Budjak
Budjak or Budzhak ( Bulgarian and Ukrainian: Буджак; ro, Bugeac; Gagauz and Turkish: ''Bucak''), historically part of Bessarabia until 1812, is a historical region in Ukraine and Moldova. Lying along the Black Sea between the Danube ...
region (part of the
Odessa Oblast
Odesa Oblast ( uk, Оде́ська о́бласть, translit=Odeska oblast), also referred to as Odeshchyna ( uk, Оде́щина) is an oblast (province) of southwestern Ukraine, located along the northern coast of the Black Sea. Its administ ...
) covering the southern coastal region, and part of the Ukrainian
Chernivtsi Oblast
Chernivtsi Oblast ( uk, Черніве́цька о́бласть, Chernivetska oblast), also referred to as Chernivechchyna ( uk, Чернівеччина) is an oblast (province) in Western Ukraine, consisting of the northern parts of the regio ...
covering an area in the north.
Demographics
The number of Moldovans was 258,619 in 2001 (the
2001 Ukrainian Census
The Ukrainian Census of 2001 is to date the only census of the population of independent Ukraine. It was conducted by the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine on 5 December 2001, twelve years after the last Soviet Union census in 1989. ).
The people identifying themselves as Moldovans represented a majority in
Novoselytsia Raion
Novoselytsia Raion ( uk, Новоселицький район, ro, Raionul Noua Suliță ) was a raion (administrative district) in Chernivtsi Oblast, (province) in the west of Ukraine. The western part of its territory lied in the historical r ...
(Chernivtsi Oblast) and
Reni Raion
Reni Raion ( uk, Ренійський район; ro, Raionul Reni) was a raion (district) in Odessa Oblast in south-western Ukraine, in the historic Budjak region of Bessarabia. Its administrative center was the city of Reni. The raion was aboli ...
(Odessa Oblast) before the 2020 administrative reform of Ukraine. The number of Romanians, at the same 2001 Census, was 151,100.
Notable representatives
*
Sophia Rotaru
Sofiia Mykhailivna Yevdokymenko-Rotaru (born 7 August 1947), known as Sofia Rotaru ( uk, Софія Михайлівна Ротару ; russian: link=no, Софи́я Миха́йловна Рота́ру; ro, Sofia Rotaru), is a former Ukrainia ...
*
Tatiana Gutsu
*
Vasyl Tsushko
Vasyl Petrovych Tsushko ( uk, Василь Петрович Цушко; born February 1, 1963, in Nadrichne, Tarutinsky Raion, Odesa Oblast) is a Ukrainian politician former Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, former Minister of Internal A ...
See also
*
Moldova–Ukraine relations
*
Ukrainians in Moldova
Ukrainians in Moldova represent Moldova's largest ethnic minority. According to the 2014 Moldovan census, 181,035 ethnic Ukrainians lived in Moldova, representing 6.6% of the population of the country.
Furthermore, as a result of the 2022 Russia ...
*
Romanians in Ukraine
This article represents an overview on the history of Romanians in Ukraine, including those Romanians of Northern Bukovina, Zakarpattia, the Hertsa region, and Budjak in Odesa Oblast, but also those Romanophones in the territory between the ...
*
Moldovan diaspora
The Moldovan diaspora is the diaspora of Moldova, including Moldovan citizens abroad or people with ancestry from the country, regardless of their ethnic origin. Very few of them have settled in other parts of the world, but there is a significan ...
*
New Serbia, a province in the Russian Empire where colonists from Moldavia were the majority
*
Slavo-Serbia
Slavo-Serbia or Slaveno-Serbia ( uk, Слов'яносербія, Slov'ianoserbiia; russian: Славяносербия, Slavyanoserbiya; sr, Славеносрбија / or / ; Slavonic-Serbian: Славо-Сербія or Славено-Се ...
, another province of the Russian Empire that had a notable minority of colonists from Moldavia
References
{{Moldovan diaspora
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
Ethnic groups in Ukraine