Bessarabian Peasants' Party

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The Bessarabian Peasants' Party (Romanian: Partidul Ţărănesc din Basarabia) was an agrarian political party active in Romania, founded in Chişinău, Bessarabia, on 23 August 1918. The party's program called for all large estates to be distributed to the peasants, universal suffrage for men and women, the development of cooperation among villages, state-funded primary education and a decentralised administration. The grouping was led by Pan Halippa (1918-1921) and Ion Inculeţ (1921-1923).

The party helped to push through a radical land reform in Bessarabia's legislature, Sfatul Ţării (November 1918). Its leaders were in charge of the Directorates, which handled current affairs in Bessarabia, and worked to include their party in a political structure that would encompass the whole country. Internal divisions caused the party to split, with one group led by Sergiu Niţă joining the People's League (April 1920); another, headed by Halippa, joining Ion Mihalache's Peasants' Party (July 18, 1921);^[1] and the third, led by Inculeţ, joining the National Liberal Party on 20 January 1923.^[2]

The merger between Halippa's group and the Old Kingdom party headed by Mihalache ensured an important Bessarabian electoral basis for the latter.^[3]

 

Historical political parties in Romania (1856-1947)

Liberal: National Liberal Party, Free and Independent Faction, National Liberal Party-Brătianu, National Liberal Party-Tătărescu Conservative: Conservative Party, Conservative-Democratic Party, Constitutional Party Agrarian: National Peasants' Party, Bessarabian Peasants' Party, National Agrarian Party, Peasants' Party, Ploughmen's Front, Socialist Peasants' Party Fascist, corporatist, and far right: Iron Guard, Crusade of Romanianism, National-Christian Defense League, National Christian Party, National Fascist Movement, National Italo-Romanian Cultural and Economic Movement, National Renaissance Front, National Romanian Fascia, National Socialist Party, Romanian Front Communist, socialist, and social democratic: Romanian Communist Party, Romanian Social Democratic Party, Romanian Social-Democratic Workers' Party, Romanian Social Democratic Party of Bukovina, Social Democratic Party of Transylvania and Banat, Socialist Party of Romania Nationalist: Democratic Nationalist Party, National Party, People's Party, Romanian National Party Ethnic minority: German Party, German People's Party, Hungarian People's Union, Jewish Party, Magyar Party Other: Union of Patriots

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Enciclopedia de istorie a României, Editura Meronia, Bucharest, 2000
• Vasile Niculae, Ion Ilincioiu, Stelian Neagoe, Doctrina ţărănistă în România. Antologie de texte ("Peasant doctrine in Romania. Collected Texts"), Editura Noua Alternativă, Social Theory Institute of the Romanian Academy, Bucharest, 1994