Under the protection of 

Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni and Dimitrie Sulima a

theological school and a seminary were opened in Chișinău, and public
schools throughout the region: in the cities of Chișinău, Hotin, Cetatea
Albă, Briceni, Bender, Bălți, Cahul, Soroca, Orhei, at the monasteries of
Dobrușa and Hârjauca, and even in several villages (Rezeni, Mereni,
Volcineț, Nisporeni, Hârtop). In 1835, the tsarist authorities declared a 7-
year deadline to transfer the education from Romanian to Russian.
Although the measure was implemented more gradually, since 1867,
Romanian was purged entirely from the education. This had the effect of
keeping the peasant population of Bessarabia backward, as witnessed
by the fact that in 1912 Moldavians had a literacy rate of only 10.5%,
lowest among all ethnic groups of the region (63% for Bessarabian
Germans, 50% for Bessarabian Jews, 40% for Russians, 31%
for Bessarabian Bulgarians), with a record low 1.7% literacy rate for
Moldavian women. Of the 1709 primary schools in Bessarabia in 1912,
none was in the language of the main ethnic group. [19]

Chișinău water carrier

After 1812, the newly installed Russian authorities expelled the

large Nogai Tatar population of Budjak (Little Tartary),[20] and encouraged
the settlement of Moldavians, Wallachians, Bulgarians, Ukrainians and
others through various fiscal facilities and exemption from military
service.[21] The colonization was generated by the need to better exploit
the resources of the land,[22] and by the absence of serfdom in
Bessarabia.[23] German colonists from Switzerland (canton Lausanne),
France, and Germany (Württemberg) settled in 27 localities (most newly
settled) in Budjak, and by 1856 Bessarabian Germans were 42,216.
Russian veterans of the 1828–1829 war with the Ottomans were settled
in 10 localities in Budjak, and three other localities were settled
by Cossacks from Dobrudja (which got there from the Dniepr region
some 50 years earlier). Bessarabian Bulgarians and Gagauz arrived
from modern eastern Bulgaria as early as the second half of the 18th
century. In 1817, they numbered 482 families in 12 localities, in 1856 –
115,000 people in 43 localities. Ukrainians had arrived Bessarabia since
before 1812, and already in the 1820s they made up one third of the
population of the most northern Hotin county. In the following decades
more Ukrainians settled throughout the northern part of Bessarabia
from Galicia and Podolia. Jews from Galicia, Podolia and Poland also
settled in Bessarabia in the 19th century, but mostly in the cities and
fairs; in some of these they eventually became a plurality. In 1856, there
were 78,751 Bessarabian Jews and according to the Imperial Russian
census of 1897, the capital Kishinev had a Jewish population of 50,000,
or 46%, out of a total of approximately 110,000. [24] There was even an
attempt by the Russian authorities to create 16 Jewish agricultural
colonies, where 10,589 people would settle. However within less than 2
generations, most of them sold the land to the local Moldavians and
moved to the cities and fairs.[25] The various population movements saw
an increase of the Slavic population to more than a fifth of the total
population by 1920,[26] while the proportion of the Moldovan population
steadily decreased. In absence of any official records on ethnic
distribution until the late 19th century, various figures for the ethnic
proportions of the region have been advanced. Thus, in the 1920s
Romanian historian Ion Nistor alleged that, at the beginning of the
Russian administration, Moldavians represented 86% of the population.
[27]
 While according to official statistics speakers of Moldovan and
Romanian accounted for 47.8% in 1897,[28] some authors proposed
figures as high as 70% for the beginning of the 20th century. [29]

Moldavian Democratic Republic and

Union with Romania[edit]

Declaration of unification of Bessarabia and Romania

Main articles: Sfatul Țării, Moldavian Democratic Republic, Union of
Bessarabia with Romania, and Greater Romania
After the Russian Revolution of 1905, a Romanian nationalist movement
started to develop in Bessarabia. While it received a setback in 1906–
1907, the movement re-emerged even stronger in 1917. [30]
To quell the chaos brought about by the Russian revolutions of February
and October 1917, a national council, Sfatul Țării, was established in
Bessarabia, with 120 members elected in county meetings of peasants,
and by political and professional organizations from Bessarabia. On
December 15, 1917, the Council proclaimed the Moldavian Democratic
Republic, as part of the Russian Republic, then formed the government
of Moldavia. With the approval of the Allies and the Russian
White general Dmitry Shcherbachev, commander-in-chief of the Russian
forces on the Romanian Front, on January 26, 1918, Romanian troops
entered Bessarabia, ostensibly as a temporary measure to maintain
security, which had deteriorated due to large numbers of deserters from
the Russian Army.[31][32] While Romanian historiography generally asserts
the intervention was done on the request of Sfatul Țării, [33][34][35] the
presence of the Romanian army in Bessarabia was protested by some of
the republic's leaders, notably Ion Inculeț, president of Sfatul
Țării and Pantelimon Erhan, head of the provisional Moldavian executive
protesting against it.[36] In particular they feared that big land owners-
dominated Romanian Government could use the troops to prevent the
envisaged Agrarian reform, a cornerstone priority of the Bessarabian
government.[37]
After this, the Council declared the independence of the Moldavian
Democratic Republic on February 6 [O.S. January 24] 1918. Under
pressure from the Romanian army,[38][39] on April 9 [O.S. March 27] 1918,
Sfatul Țării, by a vote of 86 to 3, with 36 abstentions, approved a
conditional Union of Bessarabia with Romania. Conditions included
territorial autonomy of Bessarabia, an agrarian reform, respect for
human freedoms and general amnesty. Nevertheless, as early as the
summer of 1918 the Romanian government began encroaching on the
existing forms of local autonomy. Thus, the members of
the zemstvos were appointed by royal decree, rather than being elected,
as had been the case during the Russian rule. The province was
subordinated to a royal-appointed General Commissar, and Sfatul
Țării was relegated to a consultative position. Furthermore, the state of
siege was declared throughout Bessarabia and censorship was instated.
[40]
 Under the pressure of the Romanian central government, worried
about the growing dissatisfaction with its administration of the region and
the strengthening of the autonomist current, the conditions were
nominally dropped by the Sfatul Țării in December 1918.[41] The vote was
taken in the presence of only 44 of the 125 members, or, according to
other sources, 48 of 160; lacking a quorum, the vote was judged to be
illegitimate by some.[41][42]
The union was recognized by Britain, France and Italy, but not by
the Soviet government, which claimed the area as the Bessarabian
Soviet Socialist Republic, and argued the union was made under
conditions of Romanian military occupation by a Council that had not
been elected by the people of Bessarabia in elections. [43]