Der Landesrat in Bessarabien.

The article investigates the sociological composition of the Country Assembly of Bessarabia in 1917-1918. Representative institution of the people of Bessarabia, this parliament decisively influenced the history of this former Russian province during the period under investigation, declaring the autonomy and then the independence of the lands located between the Pruth and the Dniester rivers and then deciding on the union with Romania, in March 1918. The present analysis focuses, on the one hand, on the type of voting used in the election of representatives and, on the other, on the sociological composition of the elected representatives in terms of ethnicity, political orientation, age and level of education, throughout the entire activity of the Country Assembly. This comprehensive and detailed presentation of all the political and ethnic forces represented in the Bessarabian parliament also highlights the manner in which the Romanian-speaking representatives sought to represent and outline their ethnic and political bases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]