Voting of the Union in the Basarabian Parliament - 1918

Sfatul Ţării (i.e. Council of the Land) was the legislative and executive organ of the Democratic Moldavian Republic proclaimed on the ashes of an agonizing Russian empire. Its session opened on the 21st of November / 3rd of December 1917; at the opening ceremony a national flag was hallowed with holy water and the national anthem, "Deşteaptă-te, române" was sung. The history of this old Transylvania born song as national anthem started then at Chişinău. The title means Wake up, Romanian and this song is since 1990 the national anthem of Romania. When the Republic of Moldavia proclaimed itself independent in 1991, it regained most of its Romanian national values lost for about fifty years during the Soviet rule: national colors for the flag (red, yellow and blue), the national currency (leu and bani), the Romanian tongue, the national literature and for a while even the national anthem "Wake up, Romanian", for a second time. The later was replaced as result of Russian pressures that assert an ethnic difference between the Moldavians in Basarabia and their brothers in Transylvania, Walachia and western Moldavia and enforce this idea through Russified and Russia oriented communist political leaders.

The vote was taken only after lively debates. The minority representatives generally pretended a secret ballot and afterwards voted against or abstained. Moldavian deputy Ion Buzdugan asked for an open vote so that the people and history know the true opinion of the Parliament:

"May our people, our country and the entire world know that we, Romanian Basarabians, that suffered an entire century under the Russian czarist yoke, want the union with the brothers beyond Prut, that we wish to be and remain forever with all the Romanians."

A special position from the minorities in the Parliament was the one of the Pole Felix Dudchievicz, a position more than worth being recalled:

"I regret much that in this solemn day for the Moldavian population, I must speak Russian, which is the symbol of oppression for the Moldavian people as it is for the Polish one: I do not know the Moldavian language, and the Moldavians would not understand Polish.

In this majestic day, I wormly salute the unhappy and in the same time happy, fraternized Moldavian people, that finally is able to join the blood related Romanian people.

On the behalf of the Polish people I support entirely the Union of Basarabia with Romania, as this is desired by the Moldavians, native inhabitants of this country."

The essence of the decision is found concentrated in the beginning of the resolution subjected on March 27th / April 9th to the vote of the Basarabian Parliament:

"On the behalf of the people of Basarabia, the Council of the Land declares:

The Democratic Moldavian Republic (Basarabia), in its boundaries between Prut, Nistru, the Black Sea and the old boundaries with Austria, ripped by Russia a hundred years and even more ago from the body of the old Moldavia, in the reason of historical right and right of strain, on the basis of the principle that peoples alone shall decide their fate, from today on and forever joins its mother Romania."

The result of the vote was conclusive: 86 for, 3 against, 36 abstained, 13 were absent. As the result was being read, the deputies cried "Long live the Union with Romania!", carried away with enthusiasm in rapturous applauses. Let us remember the names of those deputies present there who accomplished the great act of historical justice.

1. Nicolae Alexandri 2. Elena Alistar 3. Ion Buzdugan 4. Ilarion Buiuc 5. Constantin Bivol 6. Ignaţie Budişteanu 7. Teodor Bîrcă 8. Nicolae Bosie-Codreanu 9. Ştefan Botnarciuc 10. Gheorghe Buruiană 11. Teodosie Bîrcă 12. Vladimir Bogos 13. Vladimir Budescu 14. Alexandru Baltag 15. Ion Valuţă 16. Nicolae Grosu 17. Vasile Gafencu 18. Simeon Galiţchi 19. Vasile Ghenţul 20. Andrei Găină 21. Alexandru Groapă 22. Dimitrie Dragomir

23. Felix Dudchievicz 24. Dimitrie Dron 25. Boris Epure 26. Pantelimon Erhan 27. Vitalie Zubac 28. Ion Ignatiuc 29. Ion Inculeţ 30. Teofil Ioncu 31. Anton Crihan 32. Ion Creangă 33. Afanasie Chiriac 34. Dimitrie Cărăuş 35. Ion Corduneanu 36. Grigorie Cazacliu 37. Anton Caraiman 38. Pavel Cocarlă 39. Ion Costin 40. Vladimir Ciorescu 41. Grigorie Cazacliu 42. Vladimir Cazacliu 43. Vasile Lascu

44. Nicolae Mămăligă 45. Mihail Minciună 46. Anatolie Moraru 47. Alexandru Moraru 48. Dimitrie Marţa 49. Gheorghe Mare 50. Mihail Maculeţchi 51. Dimitrie Marghitan 52. Teodor Neaga 53. Gheorghe Năstas 54. Constantin Oşoian 55. Gherman Pîntea 56. Vasile Mândrescu 57. Ion Pelivan 58. Efimie Palii 59. Ion Pascăluţă 60. Petru Picior-Mare 61. Elefterie Siniclie 62. Nicolae Suruceanu 63. Timofte Silitari 64. Chiril Sberea

65. Nicolae Sacară 66. Andrei Scobioală 67. Chiril Spinei 68. Gheorghe Stavro 69. Teodor Suruceanu 70. Gheorghe Tudor 71. Ion Tudose 72. Grigore Turcuman 73. Teodor Uncu 74. Pantelimon Halipa 75. Teodor Herţa 76. Leonida Ţurcan 77. Vasile Ţanţu 78. Nicolae Cernăuţeanu 79. Nicolae Ciornei 80. Vasile Cijevschi 81. Vasile Cerescu 82. Nicolae Cernof 83. Nicolae Soltuz 84. Constantin Stere 85. Zamfir Munteanu 86. Iacov Sucevan