Its core constituency was a large group of Romanian-speaking soldiers in the Russian Army; it was also closely aligned with the older National Moldavian Party (PNM) of Chișinău, though it advanced some left-wing policies that were entirely its own.
The region's political future was left in question after the October Revolution; Catelli himself made his way back into Bessarabia, becoming a founding figure of a polity called "Moldavian Democratic Republic".
[1] According to an overview by scholar Vitalie Ciobanu, the instability of World War I and its patterns of mass conscription meant that as many as 100,000 Bessarabian recruits had been moved to Odesa, just east of Bessarabia, whereas Chișinău, the Governorate's capital, was garrisoned by men from elsewhere in the Empire.
As Ciobanu notes, this fact, coupled with the still-unchallenged ascendancy of Russian conservatism in Chișinău, made it more likely that a youthful political movement would be formed in Odesa, rather than inside Bessarabia.
[3] From March 1917, he and some fifty comrades began meeting in Odesa as the party's initiative committee, also sending a letter to the Provisional Government in Petrograd, asking for the recognition of national rights in Bessarabia.
"[6] Onisifor Ghibu, a doyen of the nationalist movement in both Bessarabia and Transylvania, spent early 1917 in Odesa, and met with Catelli, calling him "a very good Romanian man", though noting that his excessive enthusiasm got in the way of organizing things.
[8] By 23 March, the meetings involved Ion Păscăluță, on behalf of the soldiers' soviet, with Ghibu, Sergiu Victor Cujbă and Pan Halippa representing the wider nationalist movement.
Catelli allegedly proposed that Ioan Levizor of Balta, who had created a breakaway Inochentist church, be employed as a propagandist; this notion irritated Halippa, who recommended a more conservative approach.
He was especially keen on printing a Romanian–Russian dictionary by Emanuil Grigorovitza, as well as nationalist propaganda songs, primarily those authored in Transylvania by George Coșbuc—he had picked these up from the Romanian Volunteer Corps in Russia.
[10] Ciobanu argues that the PPM had its inaugural session on 30 March 1917, initially as the "Moldavian Progressive Party of the Bessarabian Officers and Soldiers" (Partidul Progresist Moldovenesc al Ofițerilor și Soldaților Basarabeni); Catelli was voted in as chairman of the Organizing Committee, which was headquartered at 95 Bolshaya Arnautskaya Street.
[7] In his own narrative, the PNM's Petre Cazacu refers to the group as a "national Moldavian party in Odesa", reporting that its 18th-member executive committee, headed by Catelli, also included Vasile Gafencu, Constantin Osoianu, and Andrei Murafa.
[9] The rally was partly instigated by the PNM, who sent in Matei Donici, a retired Russian army general, to help organize it; he was scheduled to speak in front of the soldiers, using a text drafted for him by Ghibu and Halippa.
[22] On 4 May, Catelli and Iustin Frățiman co-signed a letter to the Matvey Skobelev of the Petrograd Soviet, demanding formal recognition to the Romanian nationality as living within the old borders of "historic Dacia".
[25] In August, Catelli scored a moral victory when he persuaded the Odesan garrison to form Moldavian-only units, with the Committee now recognized as representing all Romanian soldiers serving under the Russian flag.