Andrei Cușco, „Alternative Scenarios” of Bessarabian Identity in the Early Twentieth Century: Ethnic Mobilization, Uncertain Romanian-ness and Nation-Building in a Borderland Province / „Scenariile alternative” ale identității basarabene la începutul secolului al XX-lea: mobilizare etnică, românitate incertă și construcție națională într-o provincie de frontieră

This article discusses the various forms of resistance to and / or noninvolvement in strategies of national mobilization in early-20th century Bessarabia, as well as the alternative identity projects articulated by local elites. The region was the object of rival claims to inclusion in the Russian imperial and Romanian national space, with each of the two alternative centers competing for the loyalty of the local population. However, the extent to which the Bessarabian population responded to these signals and messageswas rather limited. Early 20th-century Bessarabian society, and especially its nobility, clergy, and intellectual strata were slow in responding to nationalist signals coming both from the Russian center and from its Romanian rival.