Duchy of Bukovina

This article is about the administrative unit of the Habsburg Monarchy. For the historic region, see Bukovina. For other uses, see Bukowina (disambiguation).

Duchy of Bukovina
Herzogtum Bukowina (de) Ducatul Bucovinei (ro) Герцогство Буковина (uk)
Military district of the Habsburg Empire (1775–1787) Kreis within Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria (1787–1849) Kronland of the Austrian Empire (1849–1867) and Cisleithanian Austria-Hungary (1867–1918)
1775–1918
Flag Coat of arms
Duchy of Bukovina within Austria-Hungary
Capital		Czernowitz (Cernăuți / Chernivtsi)
Languages		German, Romanian, Ukrainian, Polish
Government		Military district (1775–1787) Kreis (1787–1849) Kronland (1849–1918)
History
•	Annexation of northwestern Moldavia by the Habsburg Monarchy	January 1775
•	Duchy of Bukovina	March 4, 1849
•	Declaration of Union with Romania	November 28, 1918
•	Treaty of Saint Germain	September 10, 1918
Area
•	1910
Population
•	1910 est.	794,929
Density
Preceded by Succeeded by Moldavia Kingdom of Romania
Today part of		Romania Ukraine

The Duchy of Bukovina was a constituent land of the Austrian Empire from 1849 and a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria–Hungary from 1867 until 1918.

Name

The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became Austrian Empire in 1804, and Austria-Hungary in 1867.

The official German name, die Bukowina, of the province under Austrian rule (1775–1918), was derived from the Polish form Bukowina, which in turn was derived from the Ukrainian word, Буковина (Bukovyna), and the common Slavic form of buk, meaning beech tree (бук [buk] as, for example, in Ukrainian or, even, Buche in German). Another German name for the region, das Buchenland, is mostly used in poetry, and means "beech land", or "the land of beech trees". In Romanian, in literary or poetic contexts, the name Țara Fagilor ("the land of beech trees") is sometimes used.

In English, an alternative form is The Bukovina, increasingly an archaism, which, however, is found in older literature.

History

Further information: Moldavia, Romania in the Early Middle Ages, and Origin of the Romanians

Czernovitz: Seat of the Bukovina provincial government, about 1900

After the Mongol invasion of Europe, the Bukovina lands since the 14th century had been part of the Principality of Moldavia, with Suceava being the princely capital from 1388 to 1565. In the 16th century, Moldavia came under Ottoman influence, but still retaining its autonomy.

During the early 18th century, Moldavia became the target of the Russian Empire's southwards expansion, inaugurated by Peter the Great during the Russo-Turkish War of 1710-1711. In 1769, during the Russo-Turkish War (1768–74), Moldavia was occupied by Russian troops. Following the First Partition of Poland in 1772, the Habsburg Monarchy had aimed at a land connection from the Principality of Transylvania to the newly acquired Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. After the Russo-Turkish Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca was concluded in July 1774, the Austrians entered into negotiations with the Sublime Porte from October and could finally obtain a ceded territory of about 10,000 square kilometres (ca. 4,000 square miles) they called Bukovina, which they formally annexed in January 1775. On 2 July 1776, at Palamutka, Austrians and Ottomans signed a border convention, Austria giving back 59 of the previously occupied villages, and remaining with 278 villages.

For opposing and protesting the annexation of the northwestern part of Moldavia by the Habsburg Empire, the Moldavian ruler Prince Grigore III Ghica was assassinated by the Ottomans.

Czernowitz: main square and town hall

Bukovina at first was a closed military district from 1775 until 1786, and then was incorporated as the largest district, Kreis Czernowitz (later also Kreis Bukowina) of the Austrian constituent Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. So far, the Moldavian nobility had traditionally formed the ruling class in that territory. The Habsburg emperor Joseph II wished to affiliate the region with the provinces of the Austrian monarchy (though not with the Holy Roman Empire) and had the devastated lands colonised by Danube Swabians, later known as Bukovina Germans. In the mid 19th century the town of Sadhora became the centre of the Hasidic Sadigura dynasty. The immigration process promoted the further economic development of the multi-ethnic country, though it remained a remote eastern outpost of the Danube Monarchy.

In 1804, the region became part of the newly established Austrian Empire. After the political turmoil of the 1848 revolutions, the Duchy of Bukovina became a separate Austrian Kronland (crown land) with effect of 4 March 1849, governed by a k.k. Landespräsident (not a stadtholder, as in other crown lands) and was declared the Herzogtum Bukowina, a nominal duchy as part of the official full style of the Austrian Emperor. In 1860 it was again amalgamated with Galicia, but reinstated as a separate province once again 26 February 1861, a status that would last until 1918. In 1867, with the re-organisation of the Austrian Empire as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it became part of the Cisleithanian or Austrian territories, and remained so until 1918.

During World War I, parts of the duchy were temporarily occupied by Imperial Russian troops after the Battle of Galicia, combated by Common Army and German forces. In the autumn of 1918, Austria-Hungary collapsed.

On 18 October 1918, the Ukrainian National Council established in Lemberg, Galicia, planned to declare a Ukrainian Republic that would also incorporate Bukovina and Transcarpathia, to Galicia. On 25 October 1918, a Ukrainian regional committee, led by Emilian Popowicz, was established in Czernowitz to represent the Ukrainian National Council in Bukovina. On 14/27 October 1918, at the initiative of Sextil Pușcariu, Iancu Flondor, and Isidor Bodea, the Constituent Assembly of Bukovina established, in Czernowitz, the Romanian National Council (consisting of representatives from the Austrian parliament and from the Bukovina diet, and local political activists), which adopted a declaration to support the union of Bukovina with Romania, and demanded the Austrian governor Etzdorf to cede its power. In the meantime, the local paramilitary forces of the Ukrainian National Council took control over Czernowitz and other parts of Bukovina, effectively supplanting Austrian control by the 6th of November. Although local Ukrainians attempted to incorporate Bukovina into the so-called West Ukrainian People's Republic, they were not able to set up an administration. In the light of Ukrainians' actions, the Romanian National Council leader Iancu Flondor, request the Romanian government to intervene in Bukovina. Five days later, the Romanian 8th Division, led by General Iacob Zadik, entered Czernowitz, against Ukrainian protests, while the Ukrainian paramilitary forces withdrew without resistance to Galicia. Further attempts by local Ukrainians to incorporate parts of northern Bukovina into the West Ukrainian People's Republic were swiftly suppressed by the troops, with the leadership of the Ukrainian National Council fleeing across the Dniester River, to Galicia, which was partially under Ukrainian military control.

After the Romanian troops secured the region, a General Congress of Bukovina was established on 15/28 November 1918, which counted among its members 74 Romanians, 13 Ruthenians, 7 Germans, and 6 Poles were elected (this is the linguistic composition, and Jews were not recorded as a separate group). A popular enthusiasm sprang throughout the region, and a large number of people gathered in the city to wait for the resolution of the Congress.

The Congress elected the Romanian Bukovinian politician Iancu Flondor as chairman, and voted for the union with the Kingdom of Romania, with the support of the Romanian, German, Jewish, and Polish representatives, and in the absence of the Ukrainian ones. The reasons stated were that, until its takeover by the Habsburg in 1775, Bukovina was the heart of the Principality of Moldavia (where the voivods' burial sites are located), and right of self-determination.

Romanian control of the province was recognized internationally in the Treaty of St. Germain, in 1919.

Administration

File:Bucovina.JPG When Kreis Bukowina was elevated to a duchy in its own right in 1849, it was initially still administrated from the Galician capital Lemberg. By order of the Austrian Ministry of the Interior, Czernowitz became the seat of an Imperial-Royal (k.k.) stadtholder in 1850. By the 1861 February Patent the Duchy of Bukovina got a representative assembly, the Landtag diet with a Landesausschuss executive branch led by a Landeshauptmann. Upon the Cisleithanian legislative election, 1907 the duchy was represented by 14 delegates in the Austrian Imperial Council legislature.

The subdivision of the crown land was amended in 1868; by 1914 the Duchy of Bukovina consisted of eleven political districts (Bezirke):

District	Area	Pop. (1900)
Czernowitz	876.05 km2 (338.24 sq mi)	99,438
Gurahumora (est. 1893)	739.89 km2 (285.67 sq mi)	55,741
Kimpolung	2,349.48 km2 (907.14 sq mi)	55,688
Kotzmann	518.80 km2 (200.31 sq mi)	94,633
Radautz	184.097 km2 (71.080 sq mi)	82,152
Sereth	518.8 km2 (200.3 sq mi)	60,743
Storoschinetz	1,152.31 km2 (444.91 sq mi)	80,100
Suczawa	569.32 km2 (219.82 sq mi)	62,447
Waskoutz am Czeremosz (est. 1903)	427.87 km2 (165.20 sq mi)	43,595
Wysznitz	1,499.89 km2 (579.11 sq mi)	71,631
Zastawna (est. 1905)	492.82 km2 (190.28 sq mi)	51,502

Historical population

According to the 1775 Austrian census, the province had a total population of 86,000 (this included 56 villages which were later returned to Moldova). The census only recorded social status and some ethno-religious groups. In 1919, the historian Ion Nistor claimed that Romanians constituted an overwhelming majority in 1774, roughly 64,000 (85%) of the 75,000 total population. Meanwhile, about 8,000 (10%) were Ruthenians, and 3,000 (4%) other ethnic groups. On the other hand, an anthroponimical analysis of the Russian census of the population of Moldova in 1774 asserted a population of 68,700 people in 1774, out of which 40,920 (59.6%) Romanians, 22,810 Ruthenians and Hutsuls (33.2%), and 7.2% Jews, Roma, and Armenians. The Ruthenians lived more densely in the north-west of Bukovina, especially in the zone between Prut and Dniester and the Hutsulians were concentrated in the mountain zone in the west of the province, especially in the zone of the rivers Ceremuș and Putyla. In 1787, the imperial officials documented in Czernowitz 153 Romanian houses, 84 Germans, 76 Jews, and a group of Armenians, Czechs, Greeks, Poles, Hungarians, and Albanians.

During the 19th century, the Austrian Empire policies encouraged the influx of many immigrants (Austrian authorities encouraged immigration in order to develop the economy) such as Germans, Poles, Jews, Hungarians, and Ukrainians (at that time referred to as Ruthenians from Galicia), as well as Romanians from Transylvania. Official censuses in the Austrian Empire (later Austria-Hungary) did not record ethno-linguistic data until 1850-1851. H.F. Müller gives the 1840 population used for purposes of military conscription as 339,669. According to Alecu Hurmuzaki, by 1848 55% of the population was Romanian. The Austrian census of 1850-1851 which for the first time recorded data regarding languages spoken, shows 48.50% Romanians and 38.07% Ruthenians

In 1843 the Ruthenian language was recognized, along with the Romanian language, as 'the language of the people and of the Church in Bukovina'.

According to estimates and the census data of Austria-Hungary, the population of Bukovina was:

Year	Romanians		Ruthenians (Ukrainians)		Other
1774.	40,920 - 64,000	59.6% - 85.33%	8,000 - 22,810	10.6% - 33.2%	3,000 - 4,970	4.0% - 7.2%
1848	209,293	55.4%	108,907	28.8%	59,381	15.8%
1851	184,718	48.5%	144,982	38.1%	51,126	13.4%
1880	190,005	33.4%	239,960	42.2%	138,758	24.4%
1890	208,301	32.4%	268,367	41.8%	165,827	25.8%
1900	229,018	31.4%	297,798	40.8%	203,379	27.8%
1910	273,254	34.1%	305,101	38.4%	216,574	27.2%

External links

• The Bukovina Society of the Americas