Romanians in Ukraine
North America South America Oceania This article represents an overview on the history of Romanians in Ukraine, including those Romanians of Northern Bukovina, Zakarpattia, the Hertsa region, and Budjak in Odesa Oblast, but also those Romanophones in the territory between the Dniester River and the Southern Buh river, who traditionally have not inhabited any Romanian state (nor Transnistria), but have been an integral part of the history of modern Ukraine, and are considered natives to the area.
A large majority of the Romanian-speakers living in the former territories of Bukovina and Hertsa region, as well as in Transcarpathia, consider themselves to be ethnic Romanians, but only a minority of those in the historical province of Bessarabia, and the areas further to the east, do.
[3] There was a significant decrease in the number of individuals who identified themselves as ethnic Moldovans in the 1989 Soviet census, and a significant increase in the number of self-identified ethnic Romanians, especially, but not exclusively, in northern Bukovina and the Hertsa area according to the 2001 Ukrainian census (see the data later in the article).
Beginning with the 10th century, the territory was slowly infiltrated by Slavic tribes (Ulichs and Tivertsy) from the north, by Romanians (Vlachs) from the west, as well as by Turkic nomads such as Pechenegs, Cumans and (later) Tatars from the east.
As characterised by contemporary sources, the area between the Southern Bug and Dniester had never been populated by a single ethnicity, or totally controlled by Kievan Rus' or other rulers.
Since the 14th century, the area was intermittently ruled by Lithuanian dukes, Polish kings, Crimean khans, and Moldavian princes (such as Ion Vodă Armeanul).
Other Moldavian princes who held control of the territory in 17th and 18th centuries were Ștefan Movilă,[clarification needed] Dimitrie Cantacuzino, and Mihai Racoviţă.
The process of Russification and colonization of this territory started to be carried out by representatives of other ethnic groups of the Russian Empire.
have claimed a considerable number of Romanians among the hetmans of the Cossacks (i.e. Ioan Potcoavă, Grigore Lobodă (Hryhoriy Loboda), who ruled in 1593–1596), Ioan Sârcu (Ivan Sirko), who ruled in 1659–1660, Dănilă Apostol (Danylo Apostol), who ruled in 1727–1734, Alexander Potcoavă, Constantin Potcoavă, Petre Lungu, Petre Cazacu, Tihon Baibuza, Samoilă Chişcă, Opară, Trofim Voloşanin, Ion Şărpilă, Timotei Sgură, Dumitru Hunu), and other high-ranking Cossacks (Polkovnyks Toader Lobădă and Dumitraşcu Raicea in Pereiaslav, Martin Puşcariu in Poltava, Burlă in Gdańsk, Pavel Apostol in Myrhorod, Eremie Gânju and Dimitrie Băncescu in Uman, Varlam Buhăţel, Grigore Gămălie in Lubensk, Grigore Cristofor, Ion Ursu, Petru Apostol in Lubensk).
Historically, the Orthodox Church in today's Transnistria and Ukraine was subordinated at first to the Mitropolity of Proilava (modern Brăila, Romania).
[citation needed] After the Russian annexation of 1792, the Bishopric of Ochakiv reverted to Ekaterinoslav (modern Dnipro).
At the end of World War I in 1918, the Directory of Ukraine proclaimed the sovereignty of the Ukrainian People's Republic over the left bank of the Dneister.
The intention of Soviet policy was to promote Communism in recently lost Bessarabia and surroundings, and eventually to regain the former province from Romania.
(Soviet authorities declared the "temporarily occupied city of Chişinău" as de jure capital of the ASSR.)
In 1940, under duress from a Soviet ultimatum issued to the Romanian ambassador in Moscow and under pressure from Italy and Germany, Romania ceded Bessarabia and Bukovina to the USSR.
The official Soviet press declared that the "peaceful policy of the USSR" had "liquidated the [Bessarabian] Soviet-Romanian conflict".
Bessarabian territory along the Black Sea and Danube, where Romanians were in the minority, was merged into the Ukrainian SSR to ensure its control by a stable Soviet republic.
[citation needed] In neighboring Bessarabia the same persecution did not have a predominantly ethnic orientation, being based mostly on social, educational, and political grounds.
Having allied with Nazi Germany, and having recaptured the territories occupied by the Soviets in 1940, Romanian dictator Antonescu did not heed the counsel of his advisers and continued to wage war on the Soviets beyond Romania's pre-war boundaries, invading parts of Ukraine and occupying the territory between Dniester and Southern Buh rivers.
[12] In June 1997 Romania and Ukraine signed a bilateral treaty which included addressing territorial and minority issues.
"[29] Modern mass media of the Romanians in Ukraine include the newspapers Zorile Bucovinei, Concordia, Libertatea Cuvântului, Gazeta de Herța and several more, as well as some TV and radio channels.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2015, there were 1,438 ethnic Romanians born in Ukraine living in the United States of America.
[40] By contrast, the number of self-identified ethnic Romanians has increased (from 100,317 to 114,555),and so has their proportion of the population of the oblast (from 10.66% to 12.46%), and the process has continued after the 2001 census.
[47] By contrast, the number of self-identified ethnic Romanians has increased (from 23,539 to 29,554), and so has their proportion of the population of the former raion (from 79.49% to 91.45%), and the process has continued after the 2001 census.
[44] By contrast, the number of self-identified ethnic Romanians has increased (from 29,042 to 32,923), and so has their proportion of the population of the former raion (from 42.7% to 45.3%), and the process has continued after the 2001 census.
[52] On the basis of the 1989 and 2001 census data, included those listed above, some authors have stated and argued that most of the inhabitants of historical northern Bukovina and of the Hertsa area who had been counted as Moldovan and Moldovan-speakers during the Soviet period indicated a Romanian ethnic and linguistic identity in 2001.
[55][43][2] This parallels similar developments in the Republic of Moldova, where the number of self-identified ethnic Romanians as measured by the censuses increased from 2.477 (0.1%) in 1989 to 192,800 in 2014 (7%).
