Palatul Mitropolitan din Cernăuți, unde s-a votat Unirea Bucovinei cu Țara
Declaraţia de Unire a Bucovinei cu România dată la 15/28 noiembrie 1918
“Congresul General al Bucovinei întrunit azi, joi în 15/28 noiembrie 1918 în sala sinodală din Cernăuţi, consideră că: de la fundarea Principatelor Române, Bucovina, care cuprinde vechile ţinuturi ale Sucevei şi Cernăuţilor, a făcut pururea parte din Moldova, care în jurul ei s-a închegat ca stat; că în cuprinsul hotarelor acestei ţări se găseşte vechiul scaun de domnie de la Suceava, gropniţele domneşti de la Rădăuţi, Putna şi Suceviţa, precum şi multe alte urme şi amintiri scumpe din trecutul Moldovei; că fii acestei ţări, umăr la umăr cu fraţii lor din Moldova şi sub conducerea aceloraşi domnitori au apărat de-a lungul veacurilor fiinţa neamului lor împotriva tuturor încălcărilor din afară şi a cotropirei păgâne; că în 1774 prin vicleşug Bucovina a fost smulsă din trupul Moldovei şi cu de-a sila alipită coroanei habsburgilor; că 144 de ani poporul bucovinean a îndurat suferinţele unei ocârmuiri străine, care îi nesocotea drepturile naţionale şi care prin strâmbătăţi şi persecuţii căuta să-şi înstrăineze firea şi să-l învrăjbească cu celelalte neamuri cu cari el voieşte să trăiască ca frate; că în scurgerea de 144 de ani bucovinenii au luptat ca nişte mucenici pe toate câmpurile de bătaie din Europa sub steag străin pentru menţinerea, slava şi mărirea asupritorilor lor şi că ei drept răsplată aveau să îndure micşorarea drepturilor moştenite, isgonirea limbei lor din viata publică, din şcoală şi chiar din biserică; că în acelaşi timp poporul băştinaş a fost împiedicat sistematic de a se folosi de bogăţiile şi izvoarele de câştig ale acestei ţări, şi despoiat în mare parte de vechea sa moştenire; dară că cu toate acestea bucovinenii n-au pierdut nădejdea că ceasul mântuirii, aşteptat cu atâta dor şi suferinţă va sosi, şi că moştenirea lor străbună, tăiată prin graniţe nelegiuite, se va reîntregi prin realipirea Bucovinei la Moldova lui Ştefan, şi că au nutrit vecinic credinţa că marele vis al neamului se va înfăptui prin unirea tuturor ţărilor române dintre Nistru şi Tisa într-un stat naţional unitar; constată că ceasul acesta mare a sunat!
Astăzi, când după sforţări şi jertfe uriaşe din partea României şi a puternicilor şi nobililor ei aliaţi s-a întronat în lume principiile de drept şi umanitate pentru toate neamurile şi când în urma loviturilor zdrobitoare monarchia austro-ungară s-a zguduit din temeliile ei şi s-a prăbuşit, şi toate neamurile încătuşate în cuprinsul ei şi-au câştigat dreptul de liberă hotărâre de sine, cel dintâiu gând al Bucovinei desrobite se îndreaptă către regatul României, de care întotdeauna am legat nădejdea desrobirii noastre.
Drept aceea
Noi,
Congresul general al Bucovinei,
întrupând suprema putere a ţării şi fiind investit singur cu puterile legiuitoare,
în numele Suveranităţii naţionale,
Hotărâm:
Unirea necondiţionată şi pentru vecie a Bucovinei în vechile ei hotare până la Ceremuş, Colacin şi Nistru, cu regatul României”.
Sala Sinodului, unde s-a votat Unirea Bucovinei cu Țara
Congresul General al Bucovinei consfinţeşte Unirea
Pentru că unirea proclamată de adunarea de la 27 octombrie să fie făcută în completă legalitate, s-au strâns legăturile cu guvernul român aflat la Iaşi şi s-au pregătit toate etapele necesare unirii provinciei cu Regatul Român. Riscul era ca unirea să nu fie recunoscută pe plan internaţional, ceea ce s-a şi întâmplat într-o primă fază. Astfel, a doua zi după intrarea armatei române în Cernăuţi, Consiliul Naţional a adoptat o constituţie provizorie, care reglementa principiile fundamentale ale provinciei.
În fine, mult-aşteptatul Congres general al Bucovinei s-a desfăşurat la 15/28 noiembrie 1918 la Cernăuţi, în Sala Sinodală a Palatului Mitropolitan. Mii de locuitori din toate colţurile provinciei au venit la Cernauti să participe la marele eveniment. Au participat reprezentanţi ai naţionalităţilor conlocuitoare (români, polonezi, ruteni, germani). În fruntea adunării s-au aflat Iancu Flondor, Dionisie Bejan şi Ion Nistor. La propunerea lui Flondor, congresul a votat cu majoritate zdrobitoare de voturi „Unirea necondiţionată şi pentru vecie a Bucovinei în vechile ei hotare până la Ceremuş, Colacin şi Nistru, cu Regatul României”.
Era al doilea mare moment al Marii Uniri, după ce Basarabia se unise cu Ţara Mamă în aprilie. După Cernăuţi, toate privirile românimii se îndreptau către Alba Iulia, unde urma să aibă loc ultimul act din procesul de desăvârşire al României Mari.
Recunoaşterea Unirii
După congres, o delegaţie formată din mitropolitul Vladimir de Repta, Iancu Flondor, Ion Nistor, Dionisie Bejan şi reprezentanţi ai minorităţilor, a mers la Iaşi, unde se aflau încă guvernul şi curtea regală, şi a remis regelui Ferdinand I actul unirii Bucovinei cu România. La 18 decembrie era promulgat decretul lege pentru consfinţirea unirii Bucovinei. Acesta prevedea ca din partea Bucovinei să intre în guvern 2 miniştri de stat fără portofoliu, unul delegat cu administraţia la Cernăuţi, celălalt la Bucureşti.
La 18/31 Decembrie 1918 Regele Ferdinand ia act de hotararea unanima a Congresului General al Bucovinei de la Cernauti si decreteaza:
“Art. I. – Bucovina, in cuprinsul granitelor sale istorice este si ramane de a pururea unita cu Regatul Romaniei.
Art. II. – Presedintele Consiliului Nostru de Ministri este insarcinat cu executarea acestui Decret.”
Sa aflam ce s-a intamplat pana la acest Decret istoric:
Recunoaşterea internaţională a fost un proces complicat mai ales de refuzul Ucrainei de a recunoaşte unirea. Recunoaşterea internaţională a unirii avea să vină un an mai târziu, la 10 septembrie 1919, prin semnarea Tratatului de la Saint Germain dintre Puterile Aliate şi Austria.
Sursa: Enciclopedia Romaniei
Mai multe detalii și fotografii la Basarabia-Bucovina.Info
Mai jos prezentăm un Capitol despre Bucovina din excepționala lucrare a istoricului și ofițerului de informații american Charles Upson Clark, Greater Roumania (1922 – PDF AICI), autor și al volumelor “Basarabia – Rusia și România la Marea Neagra – PDF“ și “United Roumania” (fotografii), lucrări ce ar fi trebui tipărite în limba română în acest an Centenar. Dar n-au fost. În Capitolul de mai jos autorul redă în original și în traducere o parte din oda lui Eminescu adusă Bucovinei, cât și un poem al lui Alecsandri. Dumnezeu să ne ierte pe toți pentru că n-am făcut ca Bucovina să rămână, întreagă, pentru vecie, a României.
GREATER ROUMANIA
BY CHARLES UPSON CLARK, Ph.D.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS
NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
1922
CHAPTER X
This passage brings up two of the most interesting problems in connection with the Bucovina-the religious question, and the school situation. While Moldavian, the Bucovinans: had belonged to the Oriental Greek Orthodox Church; and this organization, which had very valuable property, was at first left untouched by the Austrians, though they dipped more and more into its income, and at the beginning of the World War seized all its fluid assets as a loan. The Ruthenians, however, belonged to the Greek Catholic (Uniate) Church, ever since the Pact of 1595 with Pope Clement VIII; their rite and belief coincide in general with those of the Greek Orthodox Church, but they owed allegiance to Rome. As these Galician Ruthenians crossed over into the Bucovina, where there were no Greek Catholic churches, they naturally joined the Orthodox congregations; and Rome saw with alarm the constant increase of the schismatic Oriental Church, at the expense of the Catholics of Greek rite. In 1780 the Papal Nuncio at Vienna was besought to appoint Greek Catholic priests and found churches for the Bucovina; the Council of War disapproved of the step; but in 1806 the Greek Catholic Archbishop of Lemberg in Galicia addressed a memorial to the Emperor Francis I, informing him that the Ruthenians of Greek Catholic rite who had entered the Bucovina in such numbers, would not join Catholic churches of Latin rite, but went instead to the Oriental churches, and begging him to use the Bucovina religious funds to establish Greek Catholic worship there-but again in vain. Proselyting went on, and in 1848 one of the counts against the government on the part of the Roumanian liberals was that they had countenanced the activities of missionaries from Galicia; but meanwhile the Ruthenians had discovered that their aim of becoming the predominant element in the Bucovina was better served by wresting the control of the Greek Orthodox Church away from the Roumanians; and in this the Austrian government gave them every assistance. Their policy was to eliminate the Roumanians as rapidly as possible, from fear of Roumanian irredentism, and give Ruthenians every possible privilege, with a view to effect in the Ukraine Austria’s dream being an expansion to Odessa, quite as much as to Saloniki. The Ruthenians therefore began a campaign to get control of the Greek Orthodox organization and funds in the Bucovina, and gave scant assistance to the Greek Catholic propaganda, which, beginning in 1861 with the founding of a Greek Catholic community in Czernowitz, had reached in 1910 a total of only 26,182 souls (falling to 20,783 in 1919). The Orthodox authorities had early given special privileges to the Ruthenians in their church services; in 1789, the new Bishop of Czernowitz, Daniel Wlachowicz, a Serb by birth, permitted them to use Church Slavonic instead of Roumanian in their services, and even imported Ruthenian priests for them from Galicia and the Ukraine. With the passage of time, they demanded and received in 1906 a Ruthenian Orthodox bishopric in the Bucovina; and at the beginning of the war it was understood that there should be a Ruthenian successor to the venerable and distinguished Archbishop of Czernowitz Vladimir de Repta, whom I had the privilege of seeing both in his magnificent palace at Czernowitz, and in the first Parliament of Greater Roumania, where it was reserved for him, as protagonist of the Roumanians outside the kingdom, to be the first presiding officer of the Roumanian Senate. I shall never forget his ascetic figure, in brilliant purple robes, as he listened to King Ferdinand’s inaugural address, with the tears running down his cheeks. His dearest prayer had been answered before he was gathered to his fathers.
Austria had also utilized the schools as a method of suppressing the Roumanian element. I wish however to avoid giving the impression that Austrian methods were in any degree as arbitrary and severe as Hungarian. Any one who travelled in Transylvania and then in the Bucovina, noted the difference at once. With the Roumanian occupation of Transylvania, one saw the exultation over Hungarian oppression in a hundred little ways; the railroad stations, for instance, which had, under Magyar jingoism, borne only the Hungarian name of the town, immediately blossomed forth with only the Roumanian name, which however more melodious than the Magyar designation-one need only compare Nagyvarad with Oradia Mare-is equally unintelligible to a Westerner who knows the town only as Grosswardein. But in the same month (November, 1919) I was amused to find the main square in Czernowitz, the capital of the Bucovina, still called the Franz-Josefsplatz, and the street-names (German in large type in the centre, Roumanian in small type above and Ruthenian below) still untouched. But apparently the live and let live methods of Austria were none the less effective-far more so than the brutal Hungarian system, which merely fanned Roumanian resentment to a flame; in the Bucovina, Roumanian national feeling was gradually dying out before this slow, unimpassioned encouragement of Ruthenians in religion-and Germans in schools, and before the social privileges which the Austrians never failed to accord to the Roumanian landed aristocracy in the Bucovina, to keep them contented.
The Austrians found a few Roumanian schools and one theological seminary in the Bucovina when they took over the province in 1774. These they closed and replaced with German schools, which they declared in 1815 Roman Catholic confessional schools depending on the Archbishop of Lemberg. That automatically excluded Roumanian Orthodox teachers. It was not till 1844 that permission was given to open Roumanian confessional schools also. In 1869 the schools ceased to be confessional and became governmental-which meant German. All the courses in the Czernowitz Normal School were given in German. In 1911 the census gave 82 German schools, 12 Polish, 126 Ruthenian, 179 Roumanian, 5 Magyar and 127 bi- or tri-lingual! No better evidence can be had of the diversity of the elements which form the Bucovina. The scholars were 14,500 German (which includes the Jews), 900 Polish, 40,000 Ruthenian, 40,100 Roumanian, 1800 Magyar and 15,000 other nationalities. There were 1289 men teachers in these schools, and 853 women. There were 10 gymnasia (lycees) for boys, with 5600 students (2946 Germans, 10 Bohemians, 238 Poles, 1194 Ruthenians, 1193 Roumanians) and one for girls, with 1343 pupils; one normal school, with 13 professors and 377 men students (78 German, 25 Polish, 151 Ruthenian, 123 Roumanian) and 164 girls (39 German, 12 Polish, 51 Ruthenian, 62 Roumanian and others); 17 technical schools, with 934 German pupils, 228 Roumanian, 3 Czech, 161 Polish and 153 Ruthenian; and three agricultural schools, with 25 professors and 65 students. The University of Czernowitz was founded in 1875, on the occasion of the centennial celebration of the incorporation of the Bucovina into Austria. Its avowed purpose was to become an outpost of German culture in south-eastern Europe; indeed, it was some years before it contained even a chair of Roumanian language and literature! In a recent session, in the various departments (Law, Theology, Philosophy and Pharmacy), there were 1180 students, of whom 575 were Germans, 279 Roumanians, 7 Czechs, 85 Polish, 207 Ruthenians, 8 Serbo-Croats. The University has an excellent library, of well toward 250,000 volumes, which luckily was spared under the various Russian occupations of the war; and it succeeded in attracting a number of distinguished German scholars. I had heard in Buda-Pesth (and the story was repeated to me by a non-Roumanian journalist in Czernowitz itself) that the Roumanian government, on occupying the Bucovina, had expelled the German professors, and made over the university into a Roumanian institution; but in a conversation with the Rector, Dr. Tarnavsky, I learned that these German scholars who left had done so because they felt themselves part of the German University system, and only after they had been urgently invited by the Roumanian government to remain. It was true, he said, that they hoped, as befitted a Roumanian institution, to make Roumanian the language of instruction; but the members of the present faculty who did not speak the language were to be given all the time necessary-two or three years if needful-to master it. I had the good fortune to make the acquaintance of a number of non-Roumanians in the faculty; and I have lately received a letter from one of them, a German Bohemian, who tells me that he is given every facility for his work by the Roumanians. But unfortunately the fall in value of the crown hampers all scholarly and university activity. The University Library allowance for the purchase of books and periodicals does not suffice to pay for the renewals of foreign periodicals alone! And the teacher crisis, which is enough of a problem even in the United States, is in the highest degree embarrassing in the Bucovina. It is true that in the gradual decay of culture which we are witnessing all over the world, 60% of American teachers have never reached the third year of high-school; but where is the Roumanian government to find its teachers for the Bucovina, where, according to a Roumanian author, thanks to the long Austrian embargo on Roumanian higher schools, 80% of the Roumanian population can neither read nor write?
Of the 811,721 inhabitants of the Bucovina, nearly one-quarter live in the city (91,852) or county (94,940) of Czernowitz. The city lies fan-shape upon the steep hills running down to the Pruth, and is quite Austro-German in its appearance and construction. Its business is largely in the hands of the 43,555 Jews and 14,597 Germans who live there; most of the Polish population of the Bucovina is concentrated there also (10,848). The city contains also 12,639 Roumanians and 9566 Ruthenians (census of 1919). I found it possible to make myself understood everywhere on the streets and in the shops with German or Roumanian. According to the non-Roumanian newspaper men with whom I talked, the new Roumanian administration was accommodating itself to the peculiar conditions in the Bucovina, after considerable friction at first; they themselves felt keenly the inconveniences of the difficulty of communication with Vienna, their chief source of news in the past, but found a gradual improvement there also. As everywhere, the lack of coal hampered all departments of life; beech-wood for burning had gone up from 35 crowns to 1680 crowns a cubic metre; all other commodities had risen in price enormously; but wages had also increased many times.
Politically, Roumania has had a serious problem here, as in Bessarabia, with Bolshevistic agitation among the Jews and Ruthenians. The latter, being Slavs, are fertile soil for Communistic propaganda, just like the Russians and Bulgarians; while the Roumanian peasant, being a hard-headed Latin like an Italian or Spaniard, is not at all receptive to Bolshevism. I had ocular demonstration of this the evening of November 17, 1919, in Czernowitz; Ruthenian soldiers who formed half of a regiment newly formed by the Roumanians out of returned war prisoners from the Bucovina, were tampered with by local Bolshevistic sympathizers, who persuaded them to mutiny and return to their homes; they shot up the town, seized a train and were nearly home when overhauled. The Roumanian half of the same regiment remained loyal!
According to the census of 1910, of the 800,098 inhabitants of the Bucovina, 273,254 used Roumanian as “Umgangsprache” (customary spoken language), 305,101 Ruthenian, 168,851 German, 36,210 Polish, 10,391 Magyar, 1005 Bohemian, 80 Slovak and 5206 Russian and other languages. first Roumanian census ( 1919) gave the Roumanians 378,859 and the Ruthenians 227,361. About 68% of the population is Greek Orthodox, 13% Hebrew, 12.3% Roman Catholic, 3.3% Greek Catholic, 2.6% Protestant. The farms are prevailingly tiny; this applies particularly to the Roumanian element, who occupy three-quarters of all the individual farms; but their farms make up only one-eighth of the whole farm area. Before the war there were 4 sugar refineries (all destroyed or dismantled by the Russians); 2 flour mills (both destroyed); 5 large distilleries (all destroyed) and 70 large farmer’s stills (all but 3 destroyed); etc. The combination of the Russian devastations, coal shortage and transportation crisis make it easy to dispose of the industrial situation in a few words! Co-operatives were well developed; in 1913 there were 90 co-operative stores (cooperative de consum); 71 village co-operatives; 20 city trades-union Cooperatives; and a few others. There was a Landesbank, for rural credits; a mortgage loan institution, 3 savings banks, one government pawn-shop, and a number of branches of Vienna banks, which had Bucovina deposits totalling about $8,000,000. There were 586 popular banks, 470 of the Reiffeisen system, and 114 of the Schultze-Delitzsch. The railroads totalled about 375 miles, and there were about 700 miles of improved high-way.
The Bucovina is a small district, neither wealthy nor fertile; and the joy over its return is disproportionately great in Roumania. It is much as if the State of Maine had been held by the British for over a century, during which it became half French-Canadian, and were then returned to us. The Bucovina has always been a favourite theme with the Roumanian poets; the Bucovina litterateur, S. F. Marian, has published a collection of the ballads and other poems which circulate among its Roumanian peasantry. One of the best of Alecsandri’s poems is that dedicated to the Bucovina:
| Dulce Bucovina, Vesela gradina Cu pomi roditori Shi mandri feciori! Cuib de paserele Albe, sprintinele, Care ‘n ochii lor Au foc rapitor.Tu ce eshti o floare Cazuta din soare Cu trei alte flori, A tale surori! Ele catra tine Privesc cu suspine, Shi tu le zimbeshti Cu zimbiri cereshti.Dulce Bucovina! Vintul ce inclina Cu aripa lui Iarba campului Nashte prin shoptire Scumpa amintire De-un trecut frumos, Mare, glorios.Fii in veci voioasa Pre cat eshti frumoasa! Fie traiul teu Dupa gandul meu! Ah! Cine te vede Chiar in raiu se crede. Cine-i trecator Te plange cu dor. |
Sweet Bucovina Blithe garden With fruitful trees And proud sons! Nest of birdlets White, quick, Which in their eyes Have ravishing fire.Thou who art a flower Fallen from the sun With three other flowers Ah, such sisters! They toward thee Look with sighing, And thou smilest at them With heavenly smiles.Sweet Bucovina! The wind that bends With its wing The grass of the field Rouses by its whisper The dear memory Of a beautiful past Great, glorious.Be ever happy As thou art beautiful! Be thy life After my plan (for thee). Ah! he who sees thee Actually believes Himself in Paradise. He who is a passer-by Mourns for thee with longing. |
And one of Eminesco’s most melodious poems is addressed to the Bucovina; I quote the last three stanzas:
| Cand pe bolta bruna tremura Selene Cu un pas melodic, cu un pas a lene Lin in calea sa; Eol pe-a sa arpa bland rasunatoare Cant’ a noptzii dulce, mistica cantare, Cant din Valhala. |
When Selene flutters through the dark arch With melodious step, with leisurely step Gently in her path; Aeolus on his harp, softly resonant, Sings the mystic song of the sweet night, Sings in Walhalla. |
|
| Atunci ca shi silful ce n’adoarme ‘n pace Inima imi bate, bate shi nu tace, Tremura usnor. In fantazii mandre ea ishi face cale, Peste muntzi cu codri, peste deal shi vale Mana al ei dor. |
Then like a sylph who cannot fall asleep in peace My soul beats, beats and will not keep still, Trembles easily. In proud imaginings she makes her way, Over mountains and forests, over hill and dale Urged on by fondness for her (i.e. Bucovina) |
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| Mana doru-i tainic colo inspre tine, Ochiul imi sclipeshte, genele-mi sunt pline, Inima mi-e grea; Astfel totdeauna, cand gandesc la tine, Sufletul mi-apasa nouri de suspine, Bucovina mea! |
Mystic longing for thee up there urges me on My eye glistens, my eye-lashes are full, My soul is heavy; Thus always, when I think of thee, My spirit rouses clouds of sighs, My Bucovina! |
Poezia originală:
La Bucovina
de Mihai Eminescu
N-oi uita vreodată, dulce Bucovină,
Geniu-ți romantic, munții în lumină,
Văile în flori,
Rîuri resăltînde printre stînce nante,
Apele lucinde-n dalbe diamante
Peste cîmpii-n zori.
Ale sorții mele plîngeri și surîse,
Îngînate-n cînturi, îngînate-n vise
Tainic și ușor,
Toate-mi trec prin gîndu-mi, trec pe dinainte,
Inima mi-o fură și cu dulci cuvinte
Îmi șoptesc de dor.
Numai lîngă sînu-ți geniile rele,
Care îmi descîntă firul vieții mele,
Parcă dormita;
Mă lăsară-n pace, ca să cînt în lume,
Să-mi visez o soartă mîndră de-al meu nume
Și de steaua mea.
Cînd pe bolta brună tremură Selene,
Cu un pas melodic, cu un pas alene
Lin în calea sa,
Eol pe-a sa arpă blînd răsunătoare
Cînt-a nopții dulce, mistică cîntare,
Cînt din Valhala.
Atunci ca și silful, ce n-adoarme-n pace,
Inima îmi bate, bate, și nu tace,
Tremură ușor,
În fantazii mîndre ea își face cale,
Peste munți cu codri, peste deal și vale
Mînă al ei dor.
Mînă doru-i tainic colo, înspre tine,
Ochiul îmi sclipește, genele-mi sunt pline,
Inima mi-e grea;
Astfel, totdeauna cînd gîndesc la tine,
Sufletul mi-apasă nouri de suspine,
Bucovina mea!
