The son of a distinguished architect, and himself an engineer by vocation, Tsyganko entered politics shortly before the proclamation of a Moldavian Democratic Republic, when he earned a seat in the republican legislature (Sfatul Țării).
He sided with the parliamentary Peasants' Faction, which supported left-wing ideals and pushed for land reform, being generally, and radically, opposed to the more right-wing Moldavian Bloc.
Allying himself to members of the White movement, with whom he set up a Committee for the Salvation of Bessarabia, attending the Paris Peace Conference to campaign for the reversal of the union.
– 1919), an architect, designed such landmarks as the Ethnography Museum and Saint Nicholas Church; his brother Nikolai (Nicolai) Vladimirovich (born 1882) was the zemstvo engineer in Orhei, and from 1909 in Kishinev itself.
[10] He had returned to Bessarabia by the time World War I, and reached political prominence after the October Revolution, which had left the region to administer itself independently, as a "Moldavian Democratic Republic".
According to recollections published in 1937 by Elena Alistar, Tsyganko was directly involved in the soldiers' congress and the November 1917 elections, which formed a regional assembly, or Sfatul Țării.
According to the Rumcherod's newspaper, during the opening session, Tsyganko's message on behalf of the local Socialist Revolutionary branch was met with applause and calls to support the Russian Revolution.
[12] Tsyganko, who was counted among the representatives of the Russian minority,[13] remained with the left-wing Peasants' Faction, which stood in opposition to the Moldavian Bloc of Romanian nationalists.
[11] Stere himself still viewed Tsyganko as a leading obstacle in reconciling the agrarian and nationalist agendas: "As for the Moldavian peasants, those whom I found united as a bloc under Țiganco, those who had seized the great estates with a revolution, they displayed strong feelings of fear and suspicion.
"[18] Despite being involved in left-wing politics, Tsyganko would gradually develop a working relationship with A. N. Krupensky, the Polono-Bessarabian landowner and ex-Marshal of Nobility, and Alexandr K. Schmidt, who stood for the conservative side of anti-Romanian agitation; between 1918 and 1920 the three men issued calls for the end of Romanian occupation, and began popularizing their cause in Europe.
He adds: "It was late at night, I was experiencing chills, and so I believe I have insulted the convictions of this visionary youth, reassuring him that all opinions lead to a ministerial chair, provided one makes sure to discard them on cue.
The delegation, which included the interior minister Vladimir Cristi, nationalists Nicolae Secară and Teodor Neaga, and Tsyganko as representative of the Peasants' Faction, was prevented from leaving.
According to the unionist Gheorghe Andronachi, it was Daniel Ciugureanu, the Republic's pro-Romanian prime minister, who intervened with the Romanian Army to hamper the departure, fearing that an international recognition of independence would hinder nationalist plans for union with Romania.
[25] In April, the pro-Romanian newspaper Cuvânt Moldovenesc attacked Tsyganko for his obstructionism and his perceived lack of political legitimacy, claiming that his Peasant Faction was a personal party, the "Tsygankists".
[27] A radical project for land reform had received pledges of support from Sfatul secretary Ion Buzdugan, and also from Marghiloman himself; consequently, according to historian Alberto Basciani, Tsyganko's critique of unionism became marginal within his own party and Soviet.
This coalition of Romanian Bessarabians and White Russians demanded the immediate recognition and restoration of autonomy, as well as the lifting of the martial law; however, its imperatives were rejected as illegitimate by the central authorities.
"[35] Also according to Tsyganko, Văitoianu informed the group that they needed to coalesce with Romanian nationalists in front of Great Russian revivalism, and that "the national idea takes precedence over everything", implicitly threatening Sfatul dignitaries.
[42] According to Halippa, Tsyganko's walk-out from the Assembly Hall proved to be a miscalculation, as the Peasant Faction's other members returned to vote on land reform, and, subsequently, on the unconditional union.
[46] The various groups of Bessarabian autonomists and White loyalists agreed to send a common delegation to the Peace Conference in Paris, where the Allies were debating on recognizing the union.
He therefore took some distance from the conservative demands of the Salvation Committee, and in various contexts presented himself as an independent emissary, united with the others mainly in their common support for a plebiscite clause in Bessarabia.
[51] However, his autonomism and Krupensky's loyalism were mostly endorsed by the White émigré lobby in Paris, including the likes of Georgy Lvov, Vasily Maklakov, Sergey Sazonov, and Nikolai Tchaikovsky.
[53] In June 1919, the French communist organ, L'Humanité, gave exposure to Slonim and Tsyganko's allegations regarding political repression and "atrocities" in Bessarabia, as a common protest of the "democrats and socialists".
[56] Although he acknowledged some abuse of powers by Romanian administrators, including the "destruction of villages", he argued that it was "nothing compared" to what was being done by the French Army, also present in the region (see Southern Front of the Russian Civil War).
[4] He rallied with the Bessarabian Democratic League, a minor party formed around Alexandri, Zamfir Arbore and Vasile Ghenzul, afterwards presenting himself as a candidate in the legislative elections of March 1922.
[10] The Romanian newspaper Opinia noted in April 1924 that the "known renegade Tziganco, who had followed the Soviet delegation to the conference in Vienna" was present at Odessa with the "so-called Bessarabian refugees", and was issuing renewed calls for a territorial plebiscite.
[65] The same month, Romania's government clamped down on the newly formed Romanian Communist Party (PCdR), arresting, among others, activists Marcel and Ana Pauker.
[69] In September 1926, Tsyganko was again at Odessa, where, together with Ivan Krivorukov, he issued a formal protest against Italy's recognition of the Bessarabian union with Romania, and therefore against her "passage into the anti-Soviet camp".
His and Alexandri's views were publicized in a special edition of Pravda of Moscow, alongside articles by exiled figures of the PCdR—Alexandru Dobrogeanu-Gherea—and by the Red-Army veteran Ion Dic Dicescu.