BUKOVINA

Bukovina is a region that straddles north-central Romania and southwestern Ukraine. First records of the region date back to the fourteenth century, when the whole territory was a constituent part of the Moldovan Principality.

From 1504, the region was drawn under indirect Ottoman rule. However, following the Russo-Turkish war of 1768–1774, the Hapsburg Empire annexed the region, in accordance with the 1775 Convention of Constantinople.

During the initial stages of Austrian rule, Bukovina's population expanded rapidly. The region's reputation for religious toleration and relaxed feudal obligations saw a wave of German, Polish, Hungarian, Ukrainian, and Romanian immigrants flood into the area.

The collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the aftermath of World War I gave rise to a brief period of dispute concerning rights to the region, with both Romania and briefly independent Ukraine claiming sovereignty. The Treaty of Saint Germain awarded the territory to a newly enlarged Romania.

Control over the region shifted following the enactment of the clandestine Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, as the Soviet Union seized northern Bukovina (to the Sereth River) on June 29, 1940. This move precipitated an exodus of the region's German settlers.

Germany's attack on the Soviet Union in 1941 saw the whole territory temporarily revert to Romania. Bukovina's sizable Jewish population suffered during this period. However, the region was retaken by advancing Soviet troops, and in September 1944 northern Bukovina was officially incorporated into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.

After a period of territorial stability under Communist rule, focus on the area returned during the 1990s. With an estimated 135,000 ethnic Romanians living in Ukrainian Bukovina, tentative calls were made by the Romanian government for a reversion to territorial arrangements that had existed prior to the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact. The Ukrainian government's unwillingness to engage Romanian demands meant the issue initially reached a stasis. However, Romania's application to join NATO forced a resolution of the dispute and, as such, a 1997 treaty mutually recognized the territorial integrity of the two states.

See also: moldova and moldovans; ukraine and ukrainians

bibliography

Fischer-Galati, Stephen. (1991). Twentieth Century Rumania. New York: Columbia University Press.

Roper, Steven D. (2000). Romania: The Unfinished Revolution. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers.

John Gledhill