Moldovanul (Newspaper, 1907-1908)

“Moldovanul” («Молдованул», The Moldavian) was a Bessarabian Romanian-language weekly newspaper funded by the provincial authorities. It was published from January 14, 1907, to October 15, 1908. The editor and publisher was Gheorghe V. Madan.

The initiative to launch the Moldovanul newspaper belonged to the Governor of Bessarabia, A. N. Kharuzin. The publication was funded using government subsidy, though official authorities did not publicly acknowledge their involvement in the venture. Through the newspaper, the provincial authorities aimed to counter the “separatist” and revolutionary ideas promoted by the newspaper Basarabia. At the same time, the authorities turned a blind eye to the promotion of “cultural nationalism” by Madan himself. Despite the fact that one of the paper’s goals was to counter Romanian irredentism, Madan interpreted Bessarabian Moldavians as part of the Romanian nation.

The early issues of the newspaper were characterized by a rather sharp polemic between Madan and journalists from Basarabia regarding political and agrarian questions. Madan referred to members of the “Union of the Russian People” as the true friends of the Moldavian people. After Basarabia was shut down in March 1907, political topics almost completely disappeared from the pages of Moldovanul. During this period, moderate nationalists from P. Dicescu’s “Moldavian Society”, as well as several former staff members of Basarabia, began to group around Moldovanul. The author of the vast majority of articles in Moldovanul was Gheorghe Madan (under various pseudonyms). Apart from him, the newspaper published works by Pavel Dicescu, the poet Tudose Roman, the priest Bobeică, the student Vasile Bârcă, the diocesan missionary Gurie (Grosu), the teacher G. Racu, and others.The newspaper published a large volume of Romanian classical literature, folklore as well as historical content. The newspaper also published various articles of a practical nature: advice on agriculture, livestock breeding, medicine, home economics, and similar topics.

The newspaper ceased publication in October 1908, which was apparently linked to the resignation of A. N. Kharuzin, without whose support the paper lost its funding.