A Contested Borderland: Competing Russian and Romanian Visions of Bessarabia in the Second Half of the 19th and Early 20th Century(Historical Studies in Eastern Europe and Eurasia - CEU Press)

Bessarabia¿mostly occupied by modern-day republic of Moldova¿was the only territory representing an object of rivalry and symbolic competition between the Russian Empire and a fully crystallized nation-state: the Kingdom of Romania. This book is an intellectual prehistory of the Bessarabian problem, focusing on the antagonism of the national and imperial visions of this contested periphery. Through a critical reassessment and revision of the traditional historical narratives, the study argues that Bessarabia was claimed not just by two opposing projects of ‘symbolic inclusion,’ but also by two alternative and theoretically antagonistic models of political legitimacy. By transcending the national lens of Bessarabian / Moldovan history and viewing it in the broader Eurasian comparative context, the book responds to the growing tendency in recent historiography to focus on the peripheries in order to better understand the functioning of national and imperial states in the modern era.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Bessarabia—A Contested Borderland of the Russian Empire Conceptual Framework and Historiographical Overview Chronological and Thematic Structure of the Book Chapter I. Empire- and Nation-Building in Russia and Romania: Discourses and Practices 1. The Russian Empire and the Challenge of Multiethnicity: Managing the Periphery 2. Constructing the National Narrative in Romania: Models and Variations 3. Russian Imperial Visions and Policies in Bessarabia between the 1860s and World War I Chapter II. Southern Bessarabia as an Imperial Borderland: Diplomatic and Political Dilemmas 1. The Russian-Romanian 1878 Controversy: Between Realpolitik and National Dignity 2. Southern Bessarabia in Russian Imperial Discourse after 1878: Visions of Otherness and Institutional Transfers Chapter III. Rituals of Nation and Empire in Early Twentieth-Century Bessarabia: The Anniversary of 1912 and its Significance 1. The 1912 Anniversary and the Early Twentieth-Century Russian Imperial Context 2. The 1912 Anniversary and Bessarabia’s Public Sphere 3. Russian-Romanian Symbolic Competition and the “Romanian Response” 4. Romanian National Discourse on Bessarabia during the 1912 Celebrations Chapter IV. Three Hypostases of the “Bessarabian Refugee”: Hasdeu, Stere, Moruzi, and the Uncertainty of Identity 1. Hasdeu—The Romantic Nationalist 2. Moruzi—The Uprooted Traditionalist 3. Stere—The Legal Revolutionary Chapter V. Revolution, War, and the “Bessarabian Question”: Russian and Romanian Perspectives (1905–1916) 1. Bessarabia as a Contested Borderland during Revolution and War (1905–15) 2. The Wartime “Nationalization” of the Russian Empire and its Significance 3. The Controversy over the “Bessarabian Question” in the Romanian Kingdom (1914–16) Conclusion Instead of an Epilogue: Autonomy, Federalism, or National Unification (1917–18)? Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Andrei Cusco is Director of the Center for Empire Studies at the Department of History and Philosophy within Moldova State University.

Review :
"Andrei Cusco’s book provides the background to understanding the rival territorial claims made by Romania and the Soviet Union with regard to Bessarabia in the interwar era (the so-called “Bessarabian question”). In so doing, the book also provides the historical context for the competing claims of the Soviet Union/Russia and Romania in Moldova in more recent decades. This is a thorough work that draws upon unpublished documents from the Russian State Historical Archive, the Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire, the State Archive of the Russian Federation, and the National Archive of the Republic of Moldova. As the writing is quite dense in places, it is a work that will appeal to those with some prior knowledge of the history of Bessarabia and is a useful addition to the available works in English on this contested borderland." "Cuscos akademischer Ansatz zeight sich bereits in des zeitlichen Eingrenzung des Themas des symbolischen Zueignung des Gebietes durch Moskau und Bukarest: 1860-1918. Insgesamt ist der Aaufbau des Buches weitaus kreativer als eine chonologische Nacherzählung der Diskurse und ihrer Träger. Cusco erkennt auch an, dass die intellektuellen Kontroversen sich verengen und auf dogmatische Positionen reduziert weden, wenn die staatspolitichesn Spannungen wachsen. Umgekehrt hat sein Buch eindrucksvoll gezeigt, dass das halbe Jahrhundert viel mehr zu bieten hatte, als wachsendes Nationalbewusstsein und Wiedervereingungsbestrebungen in Bessarabien. Somit endet das Buch mit einem 'cliffhanger' - 'the most impostant result was Bessarabia's entry into the world of violent change that would signal the advent of modernity to the region' - und macht Hoffnung auf einen 2. Band." "Andrei Cusco widmet sich einem Thema, das bis heute von großer Bedeutung ist. Es birgt in sich die Wurzeln einer Reihe von Problemen, die im Nachfolgestaat Republik Moldau, das an der Grenze zur Europäische Union liegt, zum Vorschein kommen. Die Auswirkungen der Raumkonstruktion in Bessarabien sind insbesondere bei der lokalen Bevölkerung und ihrer Identitätsbildung deutlich spürbar, zumal das Land bis zur Gegenwart Projektionsfläche antagonistischer, diskursiver russischer und rumänischer bzw. europäischer Projekte zu bleiben scheint. Die sich weiter hinziehende prorumänische und/oder prorussische Debatte innerhalb des Landes, spaltet die multiethnische Gesellschaft und hemmt die Weiterentwicklung des Landes. Alles in allem ist Cuscos Buch und seine angestrebte Objektivität bei der Behandlung des Themas sehr lobenswert. Es ist ein aktuelles Buch, das weiterzuempfehlen ist – vor allem in der Republik Moldau."