P.V. SINADINO

A participant in the events unfolding 90 years ago in Chişinău, Pantelimon Victorovici Sinadino was a deputy in the Parliamentary Assembly (“Magazin istoric”, issue 12/1993) who voted in favor of the union between Bessarabia and Romania. He acted as president of the Greek community in Bessarabia until the outbreak of World War II.
He was born in 1875 in Chişinău. His father, Victor (1841-1904), a leading banker, acted as mayor of Chişină and leader of the Greek community. P.V. Sinadino carried on the family business, being appointed deputy in the Parliament of Petrograd. He had a tragic end, being shot by Soviet soldiers at the Chişinău station, on 28 June 1940, while waiting for the train by which he was supposed to take refuge to Romania. His wife and son had managed to leave town by another train. The last train...
His forefathers were the initiators of a beautiful church in Chişinău, “Sfântul Mare Mucenic Pantelimon”, erected between 1897 and 1891 according to the plans devised by the Italian architect A. Bernadazzi. Members of the Sinadino family had been laid to rest in the church crypt. When the Soviets took control over Bessarabia, the church – just like many other holy places – was desecrated, while the human remains were “thrown away together with the rubble by the Soviet authorities, which transformed the church first into a construction warehouse, then into a cinema movie storage place and finally into a wine exhibition, with the crypt itself becoming the actual hall for wine-tasting”. (Priest Constantin E. Moraitakis; volume compiled by Euripide C. Moraitakis; foreword by academician Virgil Cândea, Bucharest, 2004).
During the interwar years, P.V. Sinadino reminisced and put on paper the events unfolding at a time of groundbreaking changes for the Bessarabians. That marked the birth of his work Amintirile mele despre vremuri grele (“My Recollections of Harsh Times”), whose introduction is dated “18.8.1937, Vatra Dornei”.
He handed over the text, typeset in Russian, to his son, Victor, who – prior to going into exile in Belgium – relinquished it for safekeeping to Paul Petrescu, Ph.D., senior scientific researcher with the History of Arts Institute in Bucharest. In the summer of 1987, Paul Petrescu attended an aesthetics congress in Zürich and never returned to his homeland. Knowing that he would never return, prior to departure, he gave me a sealed envelope reading “a matter of interest to Bessarabia”.
I opened the envelope as late as October 1994, when Paul Petrescu – now in Bucharest – attended my father’s funeral, priest Paul Mihail (1905-1994; Magazin istoric, issue 7/1996). Victor Sinadino, who had handed him the envelope, had passed away as well, so he was now the actual owner of the text. He authorized me to translate and publish the aforementioned memoirs that bring such eventful times to the fore.
P.V. Sinadino’s recollections start with the February 1917 revolution in Petrograd, the activity deployed by the Kerenski government, as well as comments on the anarchy wreaking havoc on the Russian-German front and a description of the atrocities perpetrated by the mobs of defectors from the Russian army. The author also evokes the events unfolding in Chişinău under the terror of Bolshevik gangs, the Parliamentary Assembly’s efforts to maintain order and the steps taken towards unification with the Romanian Kingdom.
I have published several excerpts of P.V. Sinadino’s writings in Bulletin de la Société Roumaine des Études Néogrecques (Bucharest, I, 1999). Hereinafter, in an abridged form, are his recollections dating back to end-1917 and January 1918, which is the endpoint of the manuscript. Our observations are in between brackets.

Professor Zamfira MIHAIL, Ph.D.

“The Noblemen’s House”, a beautiful and spacious building, located on Sadovaia Street, hosting Boys’ School No. 3 and a boarding house, was designated to host also the plenary sessions of the Parliamentary Assembly, the chancelleries and the commissions.
The first solemn meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly was held on 21 November 1917 around noon, following a sermon in Romanian held by Bishop Gavriil [Gurie] attended by all clergymen in the city, the deputies and representatives of local and military authorities. After the sermon, the members of the Parliamentary Assembly invited the officials and the numerous audience over to the Festive Hall of the Boys’ School, where the first solemn gathering of the deputies in the Parliamentary Assembly was declared open by the late Nicolai Nicolaevici Alexandri, the eldest participant.
Afterwards, Pantelimon Vasilievici Erhan – President of the executive gubernial committee in Bessarabia and also member of the Parliamentary Assembly – proposed that the gathering elect Ioan Constantinovici Inculeţ as chairman. With 95 votes in his favor, he was unanimously elected in this position. The commissions returned to work during the following days.
I took part in the first gathering of the Parliamentary Assembly and I read a salutation message on behalf of the Greek minority, a speech that I had prepared some time before. I read it in Russian, immediately after the Polish representative, Pomorszkij, member of the Chişinău Regional Court.
I was not feeling very well and the physician’s diagnosis pointed to anthrax, so in the early days of December I underwent surgery at the Hârbovăţ Hospital. I was bedridden for almost a month.
Until the surgery itself, I attended two or three plenary sessions of the Parliamentary Assembly and I barely managed to work for a couple of days within the Commission drafting the Operating Guidelines of the general assemblies and commissions of the Parliamentary Assembly.
As far as I can remember, other members of the commission included N.N. Codreanu, who was at the time a young communications engineer, but had no knowledge of Romanian whatsoever; Grigorii Carpovici Kirkorov, lawyer with the Chişinău court – a good friend of mine and former classmate at School No. 1 in Chişinău; Ion Buzdugan [Magazin istoric, issue 6/2005], a young supply officer with one of the general staffs of the [Russian] army on the Romanian front. The latter also acted as a translator, since he knew Romanian very well. He was of peasant origin, coming from a village in Bălţi county, and a graduate of the Agronomic School in Chişcăuţi, Soroca county.
The overall state of affairs in Chişinău worsened to an alarming degree towards end-December. The ominous sign of bloody events loomed over the capital. High-ranked members of Bolshevik military organizations became increasingly active and shamelessly started requisitioning lodgings and furniture in Chişinău. It was obvious that they were getting ready for the decisive final step, namely dismissing all administrative bodies appointed by the Parliamentary Assembly.
During that time, scores of people from throughout the city were gathering in the German Square each and every day. They were coming to listen to a large number of ad-hoc orators who, perched up on top of barrels, tables or chairs, were holding fiery speeches on various revolutionary topics. Each such speech would conclude by rallying people against the bourgeoisie, in order to do away once and for all with clerks and landowners. In so doing, the counter-revolutionary Parliamentary Assembly needed to be disbanded and chased away.
Dressed up so as not to differ at all from the other women present there, my wife attended one of these rallies on 9 January 1918, when anonymous speakers were spreading the revolutionary propaganda. There were several orators speaking simultaneously in the German Square. Each one had hundreds of listeners of various social backgrounds next to him: the lower strata from the city outskirts, peasants from around Chişinău, servants of all types, shop-sellers, scores of Jews and soldiers that had deserted their barracks, without wearing a belt and enjoying sunflower seeds. One of the speakers on that particular day, who seemed to be the most successful and was surrounded by the largest number of listeners, started mentioning the bourgeois families in Chişinău that had to be done away with as fiercest enemies of the people. Among them, my family was the first to be mentioned. Upon hearing such terrifying things, my wife rushed back home and shared her experience with me.
In the early days of January 1918, on 7 January if I remember precisely, I went out with my brother Alexandru Victorovici and headed towards the former headquarters of the Noblemen’s and Peasants’ Bank, the Chişinău branch, which was now the head office of the General Council of Directors [the government of Bessarabia], with all the related chancelleries. I knew from various sources that none of the general directors, not even I.C. Inculeţ, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly, had been spotted around for days. Rumor had it that he had left incognito for Iaşi in order to call for Romanian army support, since peasants and Bolshevik soldiers could no longer be reined in by the authority of general directors, headed by their president Erhan. The concierge of the institution confirmed the rumor.
However, for the sake of historical truth, I should point out that neither Inculeţ, nor Erhan was present in Iaşi to meet with ministers of the Romanian government then or before. Moreover, within the last 10 days prior to the Romanian troops’ arrival, they did not show up at work at the head office of the General Directorate and kept a low profile around town so as not to trigger the people’s rage. All buildings of Princess Dadiani’s Gymnasium, on Kiev Street, had been requisitioned in order to host the General Staff of the Front, headed by defectors Peiper, Levensohn, Kabak and others. Among them was lately spotted Katovski [the author spelled the name according to its pronunciation; G.I. Kotovski, 1881-1925, a former fighter in the Bolshevik troops; in November 1917, he was at the helm of the 6th Army engaged on the Romanian front; at the end of 1917, he was leading the Bolshevik units fighting in Chişinău; one of the military leaders of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of Moldova; member of the communist party in the Soviet Union starting 1920], who had made “a name” for himself even before the war, as an outright thief on the Orhei-Chişinău road, plus other wrongdoings in Chişinău. Other members of the Parliamentary Assembly went to Iaşi for personal contacts and demand for assistance: I. Pelivan [Magazin istoric, issues 3, 4 / 2006], V. Ţanţu, Vl. Cristi and others. But, in the beginning, as long as there were still connections with Russia, the authorities in Iaşi refrained from promising any form of support whatsoever. Ionel Brătianu, Chairman of the Council of Ministers, was particularly reluctant with regard to this issue: minister Alecu Constantinescu was much more active in the relations with Bessarabians. It was thanks to his resoluteness and unyielding energy that numerous bands from the former Russian army could be annihilated, while also finding the necessary means for them to be disarmed and expelled from Moldova into Russia, of course by crossing Bessarabian territory.
The connection between the commandment of the Russian general Shcerbacev and General Prezan, as an agent of the recon-information service, was provided by lieutenant Andrei Scobiola, a former primary school teacher in rural areas, and then a middle-school teacher and a delegate in the Russian Constituent Assembly. Ion Buzdugan acted as translator. As far as the Russian Commandment was concerned, the connection on the part of the Romanian Army Staff was ensured by the former middle-school teacher Şt. Berechet, a graduate of the Theological Academy in Kyiv.
The man the officials trusted most in respect to the Bessarabian issue was Ion Pelivan, a former city judge in Bălţi, an enthusiast Romania-lover ever since graduating the Theological Seminar in Chişinău and attending Law school at the University of Dorpat (Iuriev); he had been imprisoned and deported to Arhanghelsk for propaganda and participating in student revolutionary movements. He had always overtly voiced his convictions. Moreover, in May 1912, while still acting as a judge in Bălţi, he put a black flag as a sign of mourning in front of his house upon celebrating the 100th anniversary of Bessarabia’s annexation by Russia. Of course, he was dismissed without delay via a telegram dispatched by the Minister of Justice, Shcelgovitov, which did not deter him from enrolling as a lawyer with the Chişinău Judge’s Office after a while. After talks with General Prezan, Alecu Constantinescu agreed to host the meeting between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the two delegates from Bessarabia in his own house, provided that the meeting is attended by Take Ionescu, Minister of Foreign Affairs, as well.
Pelivan and Scobiola were received at the end of October 1917. They brought news of the anarchy raging on in Bessarabia, of the collapse of the power both locally and in Petrograd, while voicing their opinion that energetic measures were needed in order to instate a local or national power favorable to Romania. As lieutenant Scobiola put it, in the absence of such measures, there was no chance in sight to rescue this piece of land from the Bolsheviks’ hands. Pelivan also expressed the desire to see Bessarabia reunite with Romania, given that the Russian state was disbanded in the aftermath of the revolution. Besides, there was a strong connection between Bessarabia and Romania in terms of language, kinship and nationality. Until 1812 it had been an integral part of the province of Moldova, while two [three] counties in the south, [Bolgrad], Ismail and Cahul, had belonged to the Romanian Kingdom during 1854-1878 following the Treaty of Paris.
Those were the reasons why both delegates insisted that the Romanian authorities deploy as soon as possible a trustworthy armed squad to Chişinău in order to secure the army’s equipment supplies in Bessarabia, as well as the grain barns and other storage places for army use.
Take Ionescu replied that he understood and empathized with their patriotic feelings and points of view, but this was an utterly complex issue, requiring a thorough analysis, since they were talking about a region incorporated in a country that Romania was an ally of.
He recommended that the Parliamentary Assembly be activated as soon as possible and try to peacefully appease the Bolshevik propaganda, while also starting to hand out ownership deeds to peasants over the plots of land.
Alecu Constantinescu encouraged the delegates and reassured them upon their departure: “we will see to it that your requests and complaints are properly dealt with; we will be there by your side”.
After slaughtering landowners, setting mansions on fire and looting everything in sight, the Bolshevik wave and acts of devastation gained momentum instead of slowing down. Pelivan şi Scobiola had another meeting in Iaşi with minister Alecu Constantinescu in early December. They repeated their October report, asking even more adamantly for the deployment of troops because, otherwise, the course of events could not be predicted, as Bolshevism of Russian inspiration overran entire Bessarabia. Minister Constantinescu promised to persuade Ionel Brătianu to deploy Romanian soldiers – with the approval of general Shcerbacev, the Russian supreme commander – in order to guard the army’s supply dumps. He also expressed his hope that the troops would reach Bessarabia soon enough.
Andrei Scobiola went to Iaşi for the third time and for the same reason, meeting I. [I.C.] Brătianu, Chairman of the Council of Ministers, on 16 December 1917. He pointed out that the Parliamentary Assembly and its directors did not actually hold the executive and administrative power, but rather had to accept a passive role. Moreover, amid the Bolshevik propaganda and seeing that the Romanians did nothing to help out the local power, peasants actually doubted the need for union. The Romanian soldiers’ support was needed to secure the army’s supply dumps located there.
The Chairman of the Council of Ministers, I. Brătianu, answered that he was familiar with the issue from Vasile Ţanţu (a former lieutenant, translator of the supreme commander of the Russian General Army Staff), Pelivan and other Romanian citizens of Bessarabian origin. However, he referred to the complexity of the issue and the need to have the approval of the commander-in-chief, general Shcerbacev, and implicitly of the ambassadors [ministers, since the countries were represented by legations] of France, England and the United States. “One way or another”, Brătianu added, “the Romanian troops will be in Chişinău on 22 December”. In reality, they arrived on 13 January 1918. Initially, following general Shcerbacev’s approval, the Romanian authorities had deployed a squad consisting of former Austrian prisoners but, by order of Peiper&Co at the Russian General Staff of the Front in Chişinău hosted by the Dadiani Gymnasium, they were disarmed at the very first train station in Bessarabia.
General Ernest Broşteanu marching into Chişinău in front of the 2nd Infantry Division on 13 January was an act of prudence, of political opportunity and meant the salvation of both the capital city and the entire province of Bessarabia.