PROIECTUL REGULAMENTULUI DIN 1819 ŞI TENTATIVA ADMINISTRAŢIEI REGIONALE DIN BASARABIA DE A REGLEMENTA RELAŢIILE DINTRE MOŞIERI ŞI ŢĂRANI

Abstract

In this paper, based on archival sources and published works, the Project of Regulation of 1819 and the tentative of the regional administration of Bessarabia to regulate relati ons between landlords and peasants is analysed. The author makes a succinct characteristic of the peasants’ situation and the main forms of social protest of the peasants of Bes-sarabia in the first years after annexation, determines the ec onomic and juridical statute of the peasants according to the Regulation of 1819 and analyzes the main stipulations of the Project: the personal freedom of the peasants, the obligations of peasant toward the landlord, the ‘liability’ of the landlords toward the peasants, ascertains the statute of the ‘răzeş’ lands and the attribution of the village elder etc. The author ascertains that the peasants’ problem was not a new one for the imperial administration. Alexander I took concrete actions towards discussion and attempt to solve this problem not only within the internal Russian provinces, but also at the national periphery. In Bessarabia the implementation of a solid reform regarding the peasants’ problem was not considered. The imperial administration was studying and familiarizing with economic and social situation in the newly annexed territory. Also it was to be considered the existing peculiarities in the social structure, land property, system of taxation etc. Similarly, the social and juridical statute of every social category should have been established, it was necessary to regulate the relations between landowners and different categories of peasants etc. There with, it was to be taken in consideration that in the 1820s the aristocracy of Bessarabia completed not only with representatives of local privileged classes, but also with representatives of other ethnical communities, especially from Russian internal provinces and from abroad, who received land and state services in Bessarabi a; to be mentioned that others received lands as inheritance in consequence of marriage. The social structure of the peasants of Bessarabia also had changed as a result of organized colonization of the region. An alien structure of many cities and towns of Bessarabia loomed. As a consequence, the tsarism was concerned in maintaining silence in Bessarabia, the territory which was to become attrac- tive enough for the Balkan’s peoples. The review of the Project of Regulation of 1819 demonstrates that it was elaborated on the base of principal thesis of the Regulation of 1803 regarding ‘the free ploughmen’ of Russia: voluntary agreement between peasants and landlords on the matter of the size of the allotment which the peasants should have received from the landlords, the volume of services which the peasants were due to accomplish in landlords’ behalf etc. The author states that the discussions th at were carried on during the years within the regional and imperial governmental circles between the adepts of a moderate course, represented by I.N. Inzov, and those of a reactionary course, represented by M.S. Vorontsov and V.P. Cociubei, delayed the ratification of the Regulation, which was applied, after many draftings only in 1834.