Bukovina

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For other uses, see Bukovina (disambiguation).
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Bukovina
Bucovina (Romanian)
Буковина (Ukrainian)
Buchenland/Bukowina (German)
Bukowina (Polish)
Historical region
Prislop Pass, connecting Maramureș with Bukovina in northern Romania
Prislop Pass, connecting Maramureș with Bukovina in northern Romania
Coat of arms of Bukovina
Coat of arms
Location of Bukovina within northern Romania and neighbouring Ukraine
Location of Bukovina within northern Romania and neighbouring Ukraine
Country
Administrative Subdivisions
Bukovina1774
Founded byHabsburg monarchy
Demonyms
  • Bukovinian
  • Bucovinean (in Romanian)
UTC+3 (EEST
)

Bukovina[nb 1] is a historical region in Eastern Europe.[1] The region is located on the northern slopes of the central Eastern Carpathians and the adjoining plains, today divided between Romania and Ukraine.

Inhabited by many cultures and peoples, settled by both

principality of Moldavia
in the 14th century where the capital of Moldavia, Suceava, was founded, eventually expanding its territory all the way to the Black Sea.

Consequently, the culture of the Kievan Rus' spread in the region during the early Middle Ages. During the time of the Golden Horde, namely in the 14th century (or in the high Middle Ages), Bukovina became part of Moldavia under Hungarian suzerainty (i.e. under the medieval Kingdom of Hungary).

According to the Moldo-Russian Chronicle, the Hungarian king Vladislav (Ladislaus) asked the Old Romans (Byzantiens) and the New Romans (Vlachs) to fight the Tatars. During the same event, it writes that Dragoș was one of the New Romans. Eventually, Dragoș dismounted Moldavia named from a river (

John I Albert of Poland
. The battle is known in Polish popular culture as "the battle when the Knights have perished".

The territory of what became known as Bukovina was, from 1775 to 1918, an administrative division of the Habsburg monarchy, the Austrian Empire, and Austria-Hungary. The first census that recorded ethnicity was made in 1851 and shows a population of 184,718 or 48.5% Romanians, 144,982 or 38.1% Ukrainians and 51,126 or 13.4% others, with a total population of 380,826 people. By 1910, Romanians and Ukrainians were almost in equal numbers with the Romanians concentrated mainly in the south and the Ukrainians mainly in the north.

In 1940, the northern half of Bukovina was annexed by the Soviet Union in violation of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, a non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.[3] The region was temporarily recovered by Romania as an ally of Nazi Germany after the latter invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, but retaken by the Soviet army in 1944.[2] Bukovina's population was historically ethnically diverse. Today, Bukovina's northern half is the Chernivtsi Oblast of Ukraine, while the southern part is Suceava County of Romania.[2] Bukovina is sometimes known as the 'Switzerland of the East', given its diverse ethnic mosaic and deep forested mountainous landscapes.[4][5][6]

Name

Map of Austria-Hungary depicting the Duchy of Bukovina, as part of Cisleithania in 1914.

The name first appears in a document issued by the Voivode of Moldavia Roman I Mușat on 30 March 1392, by which he gives to Ionaș Viteazul three villages, located near the Siret river.[7]

The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg monarchy, which became the Austrian Empire in 1804, and Austria-Hungary in 1867.

The official German name of the province under Austrian rule (1775–1918), die Bukowina, was derived from the Polish form Bukowina, which in turn was derived from the common Slavic form of buk, meaning beech tree (compare Ukrainian бук [buk]; German Buche; Hungarian bükkfa).[8][9] Another German name for the region, das Buchenland, is mostly used in poetry, and means 'beech land', or 'the land of beech trees'. In Romanian, in literary or poetic contexts, the name Țara Fagilor ('the land of beech trees') is sometimes used. In some languages a definite article, sometimes optional, is used before the name: the Bukovina, increasingly an archaism in English[citation needed], which, however, is found in older literature.

In Ukraine, the name Буковина (Bukovyna) is unofficial, but is common when referring to the Chernivtsi Oblast, as over two thirds of the oblast is the northern part of Bukovina. In Romania, the term Northern Bukovina is sometimes synonymous with the entire Chernivtsi Oblast of Ukraine, while Southern Bukovina refers to the Suceava County of Romania (although 30% of the present-day Suceava County covers territory outside of the historical Bukovina).

History

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The territory of Bukovina had been part of

Principality of Galicia, and then part of Moldavia in the 14th century. It was first delineated as a separate district of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria in 1775, and was made a nominal duchy
within the Austrian Empire in 1849.

Background

Further information:
Antes (people), Moldavia, Romania in the Early Middle Ages, and Origin of the Romanians

The region, which is made up of a portion of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the neighbouring plain, was settled by both

Trypillian, Scythians, Dacians, Getae) starting from the Paleolithic, Germanic culture and language emerged in the region in the 4th century by the time of the Goths, archeological research has also indicated that the Romans had a presence in the region. Later, Slavic culture spread, and by the 10th century the region was part of Turkic, Slavic and Romance people like Pechenegs, Cumans, Ruthinians and Vlachs.[citation needed] Among the first references of the Vlachs (Romanians) in the region is in the 10th century by Varangian Sagas referring to the Blakumen people i.e. Vlachs in the land of Pechenegs. By late 12th century chronicle of Niketas Choniates, writes that some Vlachs seized the future Byzantine emperor, Andronikos Komnenos, when "he reached the borders of Halych" in 1164. In the Moldo-Russian Chronicle, writes the events of year 1342, that the Hungarian king Vladislav (Ladislaus) asked the Old Romans and the New Romans to fight the Tatars, by that they will earn a sit in Maramureș. During the same event, it writes that Dragoș was one of the Romans .[12] In the year 1359 Dragoș dismounted Moldavia and took with him many Vlachs and German colonists from Maramureș to Moldavia.[2][10][11][citation needed
]

Early settlement

First traces of human occupation date back to the Paleolithic.

Antes. In the 9th century Tivertsi and White Croatians and Cowari composed the local population.[10][11]

Kievan Rus

Principalities of Kievan Rus', Principality of Halych in magenta
Galicia–Volhynia state
Bukovina within the historical region of Moldavia over the passing of time.

United by

Principality of Galicia-Volhynia.[10][11]

Principality of Galicia-Volhynia

After the fragmentation of Kievan Rus', Bukovina passed to the Principality of Galicia (

Kiev. In 1302, it was passed to the Halych metropoly.[10][11]

After the Mongols under Batu invaded Europe, with the region nominally falling into their hands, ties between Galician-Volhynian and Bukovina weakened. As a result of the Mongol invasion, the Shypyntsi land, recognizing the suzerainty of the Mongols, arose in the region.[10][11]

Eventually, this state collapsed, and Bukovina passed to Hungary. King Louis I appointed Dragoș, Voivode of Moldavia as his deputy, facilitating the migration of the Romanians from Maramureș and Transylvania.[10][11]

The

Moldova River
) flowing in Bukovina.

Polish and Moldavian period

John I Albert of Poland. The battle is known in Polish popular culture as "the battle when the Knights have perished". The region had been under Polish nominal suzerainty from its foundation (1387) to the time of this battle (1497). Shortly thereafter, it became a vassal of the Ottoman Empire (1514).[10]

View over the western side of the Suceava medieval seat fortress.

In this period, the patronage of Stephen the Great and his successors on the throne of Moldavia saw the construction of the famous painted monasteries of

John the New [ro; uk], an Orthodox saint and martyr, who was killed by the Tatars in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi
.

From 1490 to 1492, the Mukha rebellion, led by the Ukrainian hero Petro Mukha, took place in Galicia.[15] This event pitted the Moldavians against the oppressive rule of the Polish magnates. A rebel army composed of Moldavian peasants took the fortified towns of Sniatyn, Kolomyia, and Halych, killing many Polish noblemen and burghers, before being halted by the Polish Royal Army in alliance with a Galician levée en masse and Prussian mercenaries while marching to Lviv. Many rebels died in the Rohatyn Battle, with Mukha and the survivors fleeing back to Moldavia. Mukha returned to Galicia to re-ignite the rebellion, but was killed in 1492.[15]

In May 1600 Mihai Viteazul (Michael the Brave), became the ruler the two Danubian principalities and Transylvania.[16]

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Ukrainian warriors (

Cossacks) were involved in many conflicts against the Turkish and Tatar invaders of the Moldavian territory. Notably, Ivan Pidkova, best known as the subject of Ukraine's bard Taras Shevchenko's Ivan Pidkova (1840), led military campaigns in the 1570s.[10] Many Bukovinians joined the Cossacks during the Khmelnytsky Uprising. As part of the peasant armies, they formed their own regiment, which participated to the 1648 siege of Lviv. Ukrainian Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky himself led a campaign in Moldavia, whose result was an alliance between Khmelnytsky and its hospodar Vasile Lupu.[10] Other prominent Ukrainian leaders fighting against the Turks in Moldovia were Severyn Nalyvaiko and Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny.[11]

For short periods of time (during wars), the Polish Kingdom (to which Moldavians were hostile) again occupied parts of northern Moldavia. However, the old border was re-established each time, as for example on 14 October 1703 the Polish delegate Martin Chometowski said, according to the Polish protocol, "Between us and Wallachia (i.e. the Moldavian region, vassal of the Turks) God himself set Dniester as the border" (Inter nos et Valachiam ipse Deus flumine Tyras dislimitavit). According to the Turkish protocol the sentence reads, "God (may He be exalted) has separated the lands of Moldavia [Bukovina, vassal of the Turks] from our Polish lands by the river Dniester." Strikingly similar sentences were used in other sayings and folkloristic anecdotes, such as the phrase reportedly exclaimed by a member of the Aragonese Cortes in 1684.[17]

Monument in Iași (1875) dedicated to Grigore III Ghica and Moldavia's loss of Bukovina.

In the course of the

Phanariot foreigner was put on the throne of Moldavia
by the Ottomans.

Austrian Empire

Main articles: Bukovina District and Duchy of Bukovina
See also: Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca and Early Modern Romania
The flag of the Duchy of Bukovina during the Austrian-ruled period
The coat of arms of Bukovina, a constituent country of the Imperial Austrian Council, depicted at the Assembly Hall in the Viennese Justice Palace.

The Austrian Empire occupied Bukovina in October 1774. Following the First Partition of Poland in 1772, the Austrians claimed that they needed it for a road between Galicia and Transylvania. Bukovina was formally annexed in January 1775. On 2 July 1776, at Palamutka, Austrians and Ottomans signed a border convention, Austria giving back 59 of the previously occupied villages, retaining 278 villages.

Bukovina was a closed military district (1775–1786), then the largest district, Bukovina District (first known as the Czernowitz District), of the Austrian constituent Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria (1787–1849). On 4 March 1849, Bukovina became a separate Austrian Kronland 'crown land' under a Landespräsident (not a Statthalter, as in other crown lands) and was declared the Herzogtum Bukowina (a nominal duchy, as part of the official full style of the Austrian Emperors). In 1860 it was again amalgamated with Galicia but reinstated as a separate province once again on 26 February 1861, a status that would last until 1918.[18]

In 1849 Bukovina got a representative assembly, the Landtag (diet). The Moldavian nobility had traditionally formed the ruling class in that territory. In 1867, with the re-organization of the Austrian Empire as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it became part of the Cisleithanian or Austrian territories of Austria-Hungary and remained so until 1918.

Late 19th to early 20th centuries

Main articles: Early Modern Romania and History of Ukraine
Topographic map of Bukovina, also with settlement place names, as depicted in 1791.
Olha Kobylianska, 1882
Map of the Austrian crownland of Bukovina at the turn of the 20th century.

The 1871 and 1904 celebrations held at

art and architecture and remained a strong cultural anchor for Moldavians in particular.[19]

During the Habsburg period, the Ukrainian population increased in the north of the region, while in the south the ethnic Romanian population remained the majority population. The Austrians "managed to keep a balance between the various ethnic groups."

Hutsuls
are a regional Ukrainian subgroup.

Ukrainian national sentiment

Stepan Smal-Stotsky, 1893.
Coat of arms of Galicia–Volhynia

Ukrainian national sentiment re-ignited in the 1840s. Officially started in 1848, the nationalist movement gained strength in 1869, when the Ruska Besida Society was founded in Chernivtsi. By the 1890s, Ukrainians were represented in the regional diet and Vienna parliament, being led by Stepan Smal-Stotsky. Beside Stotsky, other important Bukovinian leaders were Yerotei Pihuliak, Omelian Popovych, Mykola Vasylko, Orest Zybachynsky [uk], Denys Kvitkovsky  [uk], Sylvester Nikorovych, Ivan and Petro Hryhorovych, and Lubomyr Husar.[11] The first periodical in the Ukrainian language, Bukovyna (published from 1885 until 1918) was published by the populists since the 1880s. The Ukrainian populists fought for their ethnocultural rights against the Austrians.

Peasant revolts broke out in Hutsul areas in the 1840s, with the peasants demanding more rights, socially and politically. Likewise, nationalist sentiment spread among the Romanians. As a result, more rights were given to Ukrainians and Romanians, with five Ukrainians (including notably Lukian Kobylytsia), two Romanians and one German elected to represent the region.[11] The Ukrainians won representation at the provincial diet as late as 1890, and fought for equality with the Romanians also in the religious sphere. This was partly achieved only as late as on the eve of World War I.[11] However, their achievements were accompanied by friction with Romanians. Overpopulation in the countryside caused migration (especially to North America), also leading to peasant strikes. However, by 1914 Bukovina managed to get "the best Ukrainian schools and cultural-educational institutions of all the regions of Ukraine."[11] Beside Ukrainians, also Bukovina's Germans and Jews, as well as a number of Romanians and Hungarians, emigrated in 19th and 20th century.[22][23][24]

Ethnic groups in Bukovina 1775–1930 (Ukrainians in red, Romanians in green).
Czernowitz c. 1905

Under Austrian rule, Bukovina remained ethnically mixed:

XVIII century.[7]

In 1783, by an

Galicia and the rest of Ukraine with a network of Ukrainian educational facilities, while Dalmatia
formed an archbishopric, later raised to the rank of Metropolitanate.

In 1873, the Eastern Orthodox Bishop of

Czernowitz gained supreme jurisdiction over Serbian eparchies of Dalmatia and Kotor
, which were also (until then) under the spiritual jurisdiction of Karlovci.

In the early 20th century, a group of scholars surrounding the Austrian

Galicia a Ukrainian state, both in a federation with 13 other states under the Austrian crown.[27][28]

Kingdom of Romania

Main articles: Union of Bukovina with Romania and Greater Romania
Romanian takeover of Bukovina
Part of the Polish–Ukrainian War
Date11–12 November 1918
Location
Bukovina, now part of Romania and Ukraine
Result Romanian victory
Territorial
changes		 Bukovina subsequently united with Romania on 28 November
Belligerents
 West Ukrainian People's Republic Romania Romania
Commanders and leaders
Yevhen Petrushevych Romania Ferdinand I

In

February Revolution of 1917.[29] The Russian were driven out in 1917. Bukovina suffered great losses during the war.[11]

With the collapse of

West Ukrainian National Republic (November 1918), but it was occupied by the Romanian army immediately thereafter.[10]

A Constituent Assembly on 14/27 October 1918 formed an executive committee, to whom the Austrian governor of the province handed power. After an official request by Iancu Flondor, Romanian troops swiftly moved in to take over the territory, against Ukrainian protest.[30] Although local Ukrainians attempted to incorporate parts of Northern Bukovina into the short-lived West Ukrainian People's Republic, this attempt was defeated by Polish and Romanian troops.

The Ukrainian Regional Committee, led by Omelian Popovych, organized a rally in Chernivtsi on 3 November 1918, demanding Bukovina's annexation to Ukraine. The committee took power in the Ukrainian part of Bukovina, including its biggest center Chernivtsi.[11] The Romanian moderates, who were led by Aurel Onciul, accepted the division. However, the Romanian conservatives, led by Iancu Flondor, rejected the idea. In spite of Ukrainian resistance, the Romanian army occupied the Northern Bukovina, including Chernivtsi, on 11 November.[10][11]

Under the protection of Romanian troops, the Romanian Council summoned a General Congress of Bukovina for 15/28 November 1918, where 74 Romanians, 13 Ruthenians, 7 Germans, and 6 Poles were represented (this is the linguistic composition, and Jews were not recorded as a separate group).[citation needed] According to Romanian historiography, popular enthusiasm swept the whole region, and a large number of people gathered in the city to wait for the resolution of the Congress.[31][32] The council was quickly summoned by the Romanians upon their occupation of Bukovina.[11]

Coat of arms of interwar Suceava county in the Kingdom of Romania

The Congress elected the Romanian Bukovinian politician Iancu Flondor as chairman, and voted for the union with the

Principality of Moldavia, where the gropnițele domnești (voivods' burial sites) are located, and dreptul de liberă hotărâre de sine (right of self-determination).[nb 2] Romanian control of the province was recognized internationally in the Treaty of St. Germain in 1919. Bukovina's autonomy was undone during Romanian occupation, the region being reduced to an ordinary Romanian province.[10] It was subject to martial law from 1918 to 1928, and again from 1937 to 1940.[10]

The Ukrainian language was suppressed, "educational and cultural institutions, newspapers and magazines were closed."[10]

Romanian authorities oversaw a renewed programme of Romanianization aiming its assimilationist policies at the Ukrainian population of the region.[33][10] In addition to the suppression of the Ukrainian people, their language and culture, Ukrainian surnames were Rumanized, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was persecuted.[10][11] In the 1930s an underground nationalist movement, which was led by Orest Zybachynsky and Denys Kvitkovsky, emerged in the region.[11] The Romanian government suppressed it by staging two political trials in 1937.[11]

At the same time, Ukrainian enrollment at the Cernăuți University fell from 239 out of 1671, in 1914, to 155 out of 3,247, in 1933, while simultaneously Romanian enrollment there increased several times to 2,117 out of 3,247.[34] In part this was due to attempts to switch to Romanian as the primary language of university instruction, but chiefly to the fact that the university was one of only five in Romania, and was considered prestigious.

In the decade following 1928, as Romania tried to improve its relations with the Soviet Union, Ukrainian culture was given some limited means to redevelop, though these gains were sharply reversed in 1938.[citation needed]

According to the 1930 Romanian census, Romanians made up 44.5% of the total population of Bukovina, and Ukrainians (including Hutsuls) 29.1%.[35] In the northern part of the region, however, Romanians made up only 32.6% of the population, with Ukrainians significantly outnumbering Romanians.

On 14 August 1938 Bukovina officially disappeared from the map, becoming a part of

ten new administrative regions. At the same time, Cernăuți, the third most populous town in Romania (after Bucharest and Chișinău), which had been a mere county seat for the last 20 years, became again a (regional) capital. Also, Bukovinian regionalism continued under the new brand. During its first months of existence, Ținutul Suceava suffered far right (Iron Guard) uproars, to which the regional governor Gheorghe Alexianu (the future governor of the Transnistria Governorate
) reacted with nationalist and anti-Semitic measures. Alexianu was replaced by Gheorghe Flondor on 1 February 1939.

Division of Bukovina

Bukovina as divided in 1940: Soviet to the north, Romanian to the south.

As a result of the

Bassarabia". Following the Soviet ultimatum, Romania ceded Northern Bukovina, which included Cernăuți, to the USSR on 28 June 1940. The withdrawal of the Romanian Army, authorities, and civilians was disastrous. Mobs attacked retreating soldiers and civilians, whereas a retreating unit massacred Jewish soldiers and civilians in the town of Dorohoi. The Red Army occupied Cernăuți and Storojineț counties, as well as parts of Rădăuți and Dorohoi counties (the latter belonged to Ținutul Suceava, but not to Bukovina). The new Soviet-Romanian border was traced less than 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of Putna Monastery. Until 22 September 1940, when Ținutul Suceava was abolished, the spa town Vatra Dornei served as the capital of Ținutul Suceava.[36]

Second World War

Main article: Romania in World War II

In 1940,

Moldavian SSR. Whether the region would have been included in the Moldavian SSR, if the commission presiding over the division had been led by someone other than the communist leader Nikita Khrushchev, remains a matter of debate among scholars.[citation needed] In fact, some territories with a mostly Romanian population (e.g., Hertsa region
) were allotted to the Ukrainian SSR.

Administrative map of the Bukovina Governorate as of May 1942

After the instauration of Soviet rule, under NKVD orders, thousands of local families were deported to Siberia during this period,[37] with 12,191 people targeted for deportation in a document dated 2 August 1940 (from all formerly Romanian regions included in the Ukrainian SSR),[37] while a December 1940 document listed 2,057 persons to be deported to Siberia.[38] The largest action took place on 13 June 1941, when about 13,000 people were deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan.[39] The majority of those targeted were ethnic native Romanians, but there were (to a lesser degree) representatives of other ethnicities, as well.[40]

Until the repatriation convention[citation needed] of 15 April 1941, NKVD troops killed hundreds of Romanian peasants of Northern Bukovina as they tried to cross the border into Romania in order to escape from Soviet authorities. This culminated on 7 February 1941 with the Lunca massacre and on 1 April 1941 with the Fântâna Albă massacre.

During Soviet Communist rule in Bukovina, "private property was nationalized; farms were partly collectivized; and education was Ukrainianized. At the same time all Ukrainian organizations were disbanded, and many publicly active Ukrainians were either killed or exiled." A significant part of Ukrainian intelligentsia fled to Romania and Germany in the beginning of the occupation.[11] When the conflict between the Soviets and Nazi Germany broke out, and the Soviet troops began moving out of Bukovina, the Ukrainian locals attempted to established their own government, but they were not able to stop the advancing Romanian army.[11]

Almost the entire German population of Northern Bukovina was coerced to resettle in 1940–1941 to the parts of Poland then occupied by Nazi Germany, during 15 September 1940 – 15 November 1940, after this area was occupied by the Soviet Union. About 45,000 ethnic Germans had left Northern Bukovina by November 1940.[41]

In the course of the

Bassarabia, during June–July 1941. It was organized as part of the Bukovina Governorate
.

The Axis invasion of Northern Bukovina was catastrophic for its Jewish population, as conquering Romanian soldiers immediately began massacring its Jewish residents. Surviving Jews were forced into ghettoes to await deportation to work camps in Transnistria where 57,000 had arrived by 1941. One of the Romanian mayors of Cernăuți, Traian Popovici, managed to temporarily exempt from deportation 20,000 Jews living in the city between the fall of 1941 and the spring of 1942. Bukovina's remaining Jews were spared from certain death when it was retaken by Soviet forces in February 1944. In all, about half of Bukovina's entire Jewish population had perished. After the war and the return of the Soviets, most of the Jewish survivors from Northern Bukovina fled to Romania (and later settled in Israel).[42]

After the war

Main articles: Socialist Republic of Romania and History of Moldova
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Northern Bukovina within Ukraine
Southern Bukovina within Romania

In 1944 the

Ukrainian SSR as Chernivtsi Oblast (province). While during the war the Soviet government killed or forced in exile a considerable number of Ukrainians,[11] after the war the same government deported or killed about 41,000 Romanians.[43] As a result of killings and mass deportations, entire villages, mostly inhabited by Romanians,[citation needed] were abandoned (Albovat, Frunza, I.G.Duca, Buci—completely erased, Prisaca, Tanteni and Vicov—destroyed to a large extent).[44]
Men of military age (and sometimes above), both Ukrainians and Romanians, were conscripted into the Soviet Army. That did not protect them, however, from being arrested and deported for being "anti-Soviet elements".

As a reaction, partisan groups (composed of both Romanians and Ukrainians) began to operate against the Soviets in the woods around Chernivtsi, Crasna and Codrii Cosminului.[45] In Crasna (in the former Storozhynets county) villagers attacked Soviet soldiers who were sent to "temporarily resettle" them, since they feared deportation. This resulted in dead and wounded among the villagers, who had no firearms.

Spring 1945 saw the formation of transports of Polish repatriates who (voluntarily or by coercion) had decided to leave. Between March 1945 and July 1946, 10,490 inhabitants left Northern Bukovina for Poland, including 8,140 Poles, 2,041 Jews and 309 of other nationalities. Most of them settled in

Lubań Śląski, Lwówek Śląski, Nowa Sól, Oława, Prudnik, Wrocław, Zielona Góra, Żagań, Żary.[46]

Overall, between 1930 (last Romanian census) and 1959 (first Soviet census), the population of Northern Bukovina decreased by 31,521 people. According to official data from those two censuses, the Romanian population had decreased by 75,752 people, and the Jewish population by 46,632, while the Ukrainian and Russian populations increased by 135,161 and 4,322 people, respectively.[citation needed]

After 1944, the human and economic connections between the northern (Soviet) and southern (Romanian) parts of Bukovina were severed. Today, the historically Ukrainian northern part is the nucleus of the Ukrainian Chernivtsi Oblast, while the southern part is part of Romania, though there are minorities of Ukrainians and Romanians in Romanian Bukovina and Ukrainian Bukovina respectively. Ukrainians are still a recognized minority in Romania, and have one seat reserved in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies.

In Romania, 28 November is a holiday observed as Bukovina Day.[47] A popular Romanian-language song about the region is "Cântă cucu-n Bucovina" ("Sings the Cuckoo in Bukovina").[48]

Geography

Bukovina proper has an area of 10,442 km2 (4,032 sq mi). The territory of Romanian (or Southern) Bukovina is located in

western Ukraine and it is part of the Chernivtsi Oblast
.

Population

Historical population

Demographic composition of Bukovina in 1930

The region was occupied by several now extinct peoples. After which it was settled by both Romanians (Moldavians) and Ukrainians (Ruthenians)

principality of Moldavia, following the revolt of Bogdan the Founder
against the Kingdom of Hungary, Bukovina became an integral part of the principality of Moldavia. Suceava, in the south of the territory, was the capital of Moldavia from the late 14th to the mid-16th century. The only data we have about the ethnic composition of Bukovina are the Austrian censuses starting from the 1770s. The Austrians hindered both Romanian and Ukrainian nationalisms. On the other hand, they favored the migration in Bukovina of Ukrainians from Galicia as well as Romanians from Transylvania and Maramureș.

According to the 1775 Austrian census, the province had a total population of 86,000 (this included 56 villages which were returned to Moldavia one year later). The census only recorded social status and some ethno-religious groups (

Roma, and German colonists). Historian Ion Nistor estimated that the 1774 population consisted of 52,750 Romanians (also called Moldavians) (73.5%), 15,000 Ruthenians and Hutsuls (20.9%) (of whom 6,000 were Hutsuls, and 9,000 were Ruthenian immigrants from Galicia and Podolia settled in Moldavia around 1766), and 4,000 others who "use the Romanian language in conversation" (5.6%), consisting of Armenians, Jews and Roma.[50] Keith Hitchins on the other hand, estimated that in 1774 Bukovina's population numbered 51,920 people, consisting of 40,920 Romanians, 8,000 Ukrainians and 3,000 Germans, Jews, and Poles.[20] According to Alecu Hurmuzaki, by 1848, out of a population of 377,581 people, 209,293 or 55,4% of the population was Romanian. At the same time, the Ukrainian population rose to 108,907 and the Jewish population surged from 526 in 1774, to 11,600 in 1848.[20]

Dornești (German: Kriegsdorf, Hungarian: Hadikfalva), Suceava County, an example of a former mixed German-Hungarian rural settlement in Bukovina.
The Polish House in Cernăuți (Polish: Czerniowce, German: Czernowitz)

In 2011, an anthropological analysis of the Russian census of the population of Moldavia in 1774 asserted a population of 68,700 people in 1774, out of which 40,920 (59.6%) Romanians, 22,810 Ruthenians and Hutsuls (33.2%), and 7.2% Jews, Roma, and Armenians.[21]

Based on the above anthropological estimate for 1774 as well as subsequent official censuses, the ethnic composition of Bukovina changed in the years after 1775 when the Austrian Empire occupied the region.[7] The population of Bukovina increased steadily, primarily through immigration, which Austrian authorities encouraged in order to develop the economy.[51] Indeed, the migrants entering the region came from Ukrainian Galicia, as well as from Romanian Transylvania and Moldavia.[11] Another Austrian official report from 1783, referring to the villages between the Dniester and the Prut, indicated Ruthenian-speaking immigrants from Poland constituting a majority, with only a quarter of the population speaking Moldavian. The same report indicated that Moldavians constituted the majority in the area of Suceava.[52] H.F. Müller gives the 1840 population used for purposes of military conscription as 339,669.[53]

In 1843 the Ruthenian language was recognized, along with the Romanian language, as 'the language of the people and of the Church in Bukovina'.[54]

During the 19th century, as mentioned, the Austrian Empire policies encouraged the influx of migrants coming from Transylvania, Moldavia, Galicia and the heartland of Austria and Germany, with Germans, Poles, Jews, Hungarians, Romanians, and Ukrainians settling in the region.[11][54] Official censuses in the Austrian Empire (later Austria-Hungary) did not record ethnolinguistic data until 1850–1851. The 1857 and 1869 censuses omitted ethnic or language-related questions. 'Familiar language spoken' was not recorded again until 1880.

The Austrian census of 1850–1851, which recorded data regarding languages spoken, shows 48.50% Romanians and 38.07% Ukrainians.[55] Subsequent Austrian censuses between 1880 and 1910 reveal a Romanian population stabilizing around 33% and a Ukrainian population around 40%. From 1774 to 1910, the percentage of Ukrainians increased, meanwhile the one of Romanians decreased.[7]

According to the 1930 Romanian census, Bukovina had a population of 853,009.[56] Romanians made up 44.5% of the population, while 27.7% were Ukrainians/Ruthenians (plus 1.5% Hutsuls), 10.8% Jews, 8.9% Germans, 3.6% Poles, and 3.0% others or undeclared.[57]

According to estimates and censuses data, the population of Bukovina was:

Year Romanians Ukrainians Others (most notably Germans, Jews, and Poles) Total
1774 (e)[20][21] 40,920 – 64,000 59.6% – 85.33% 8,000 – 22,810 10.6% – 33.2% 3,000 – 4,970 4.0% – 7.2% 51,920 – 91,780
1848 (e)[20] 209,293 55.4% 108,907 28.8% 59,381 15.8% 377,581
1851 (c)[58][59] 184,718 48.5% 144,982 38.1% 51,126 13.4% 380,826
1880 (c)[60] 190,005 33.4% 239,960 42.2% 138,758 24.4% 568,723
1890 (c)[61] 208,301 32.4% 268,367 41.8% 165,827 25.8% 642,495
1900 (c)[62] 229,018 31.4% 297,798 40.8% 203,379 27.8% 730,195
1910 (c) 273,254 34.1% 305,101 38.4% 216,574 27.2% 794,929
1930 (c)[56][63] 379,691 44.5% 248,567 29.1% 224,751 26.4% 853,009

Note: e-estimate; c-census

Current population

Ethnic divisions in modern Bukovina with Ukrainian Romanian and Russian areas depicted in light yellow, green, and red respectively. The Moldovans, counted separately in the 2001 Ukrainian census, are included in this map as Romanians.

The present demographic situation in Bukovina hardly resembles that of the Austrian Empire. The northern (Ukrainian) and southern (Romanian) parts became significantly dominated by their Ukrainian and Romanian majorities, respectively, with the representation of other ethnic groups being decreased significantly.

According to the data of the 2001 Ukrainian census,[64] the Ukrainians represent about 75% (689,100) of the population of Chernivtsi Oblast, which is the closest, although not an exact, approximation of the territory of the historic Northern Bukovina. The census also identified a fall in the Romanian and Moldovan populations to 12.5% (114,600) and 7.3% (67,200), respectively. Russians are the next largest ethnic group with 4.1%, while Poles, Belarusians, and Jews comprise the rest 1.2%. The languages of the population closely reflect the ethnic composition, with over 90% within each of the major ethnic groups declaring their national language as the mother tongue (Ukrainian, Romanian, and Russian, respectively).

The fact that

self-declared majority in some regions, were presented as separate categories in the census results, has been criticized in Romania, where there are complains that this artificial Soviet-era practice results in the Romanian population being undercounted, as being divided between Romanians and Moldovans. The Romanian minority of Ukraine also claims to represent a 500,000-strong community.[65][66][67]

The Romanians mostly inhabit the southern part of the Chernivtsi region, having been the majority in former Hertsa Raion and forming a plurality together with Moldovans in former Hlyboka Raion.[citation needed] Self-declared Moldovans were the majority in Novoselytsia Raion. In the other eight districts and the city of Chernivtsi, Ukrainians were the majority.[citation needed] However, after the 2020 administrative reform in Ukraine, all these districts were abolished, and most of the areas merged into Chernivtsi Raion, where Romanians are not in majority anymore.[citation needed]

The renovated Wood Art Museum situated in Câmpulung Moldovenesc (German: Kimpolung).

The southern, or Romanian Bukovina reportedly has a significant Romanian majority (94.8%) according to Romanian sources, the largest minority group being the

Jews (almost exclusively in Suceava, Rădăuți and Siret
).

Concerns have been raised about the way census are handled in Romania.[citation needed][neutrality is disputed] For example, according to the 2011 Romanian census, Ukrainians of Romania number 51,703 people, making up 0.3% of the total population.[68] However, Ukrainian nationalists[citation needed] of the 1990s claimed the region had 110,000 Ukrainians.[69][full citation needed] The Ukrainian descendants of the Zaporozhian Cossacks who fled Russian rule in the 18th century, living in the Dobruja region of the Danube Delta, also complained similar practices. In 1992, their descendants numbered four thousand people according to official Romanian statistics.[70] However, the local community claims to number 20,000, five times the number stated by Romanian authorities.[71] Rumanization, with the closure of schools and suppression of the language, happened in all areas in present-day Romania where the Ukrainians live or lived. The very term "Ukrainians" was prohibited from the official usage and some Romanians of disputable Ukrainian ethnicity were rather called the "citizens of Romania who forgot their native language" and were forced to change their last names to Romanian-sounding ones.[72] In Bukovina, the practice of Romanization dates to much earlier than the 20th century. Since Louis of Hungary appointed Dragoș, Voivode of Moldavia as his deputy, there was an introduction of Romanians in Bukovina, and a process of Romanization that intensified in the 1560s.[10][11]

Places such as the etymologically Ukrainian

Negostina, Ukrainian majority is still reported in Romanian census. On other hand in North Bukovina the Romanians used to be the biggest ethnic group in the city of Chernivtsi, as well as in the towns of Hlyboka and Storozhynets, and still are in Boiany and Krasnoilsk.[citation needed
]

Urban settlements

Southern Bukovina

Table highlighting all urban settlements in Southern Bukovina
Romanian name German name Ukrainian name Population
Cajvana Keschwana Кажване, Kazhvane 6,812
Câmpulung Moldovenesc Kimpolung Кимпулунґ, Kympulung; historically Довгопілля, Dovhopillya 16,105
Frasin Frassin Фрасин, Frasyn 5,702
Gura Humorului Gura Humora Ґура-Гумора, Gura-Humora 12,729
Milișăuți Milleschoutz Милишівці, Mylyshivtsi 4,958
Rădăuți Radautz Радівці, Radivtsi 22,145
Siret Sereth Сирет, Syret 7,721
Solca Solka Солька, Sol'ka 2,188
Suceava Sotschen/Sutschawa/Suczawa; historically in Old High German: Sedschopff Сучава, Suchava; historic Сочава, Sochava 124,161
Vatra Dornei Dorna-Watra Ватра Дорни, Vatra Dorny 13,659
Vicovu de Sus Ober Wikow Верхнє Викове, Verkhnye Vykove 16,874

Northern Bukovina

Table highlighting all urban settlements in Northern Bukovina
Ukrainian name Romanian name German name Population
Berehomet Berehomete pe Siret Berhometh 7,717
Boyany
 		Boian Bojan 4,425
Chornivka Cernăuca Czernowka 2,340
Chernivtsi Cernăuți Czernowitz 266,366
Hlyboka Adâncata Hliboka 9,474
Kitsman Cozmeni Kotzman 6,287
Krasnoyilsk
 		Crasna-Ilschi Krasna 10,163
Luzhany Lujeni Luschany/Luzan 4,744
Mikhalcha
 		Mihalcea Mihalcze 2,245
Nepolokivtsi Nepolocăuți/Grigore-Ghica Vodă Nepolokoutz/Nepolokiwzi 2,449
Putyla Putila Putilla Storonetz/Putyla 3,435
Storozhynets Storojineț Storozynetz 14,197
Vashkivtsi Vășcăuți Waschkautz/Waschkiwzi 5,415
Voloka
 		Voloca pe Derelui Woloka 3,035
Vyzhnytsia Vijnița Wiznitz 4,068
Zastavna Zastavna Zastawna 7,898

Gallery

See also

Notes

  1. ^ German: Bukowina or Buchenland; Hungarian: Bukovina; Polish: Bukowina; Romanian: Bucovina; Ukrainian: Буковина, romanized: Bukovyna; see also other languages.
  2. ^ "Congresul general al Bucovinei, întrupând suprema putere a țării și fiind învestiți cu puterea legiuitoare, în numele suveranității naționale, hotărâm: Unirea necondiționată și pe vecie a Bucovinei în vechile ei hotare până la Ceremuș, Colacin și Nistru cu Regatul României". The General Congress of Bukovina, embodying the supreme power of the country [Bukovina], and invested with legislative power, in the name of national sovereignty, we decide: Unconditional and eternal union of Bukovina, in its old boundaries up to Ceremuș [river], Colachin and Dniester [river] with the Kingdom of Romania.

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Further reading

External links

Bukovina travel guide from Wikivoyage

Media related to Bukovina at Wikimedia Commons

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Bukovina".

 Romanian Wikisource has original text related to this article: La Bucovina (Mihai Eminescu original poem in Romanian)

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