Polish Armenians in Bessarabia

Polish Armenians used to settle in Bessarabia since the early years of Russian rule in this province (after 1812). Initially their activities focused on the lease of land, rearing cattle and its export to Austria. In the second half of the 19th century the wealthiest representatives of these people (families such as Antoniewicz, Demianowicz, Negrusz, Ohanowicz, Szymonowicz) managed to accumulate considerable capital, owing to which they managed to purchase and acquire ownership of great estates in northern Bessarabia. The circumstances of their rise in economic status were a source of controversy and they were strictly associated with the problem of the estates of foreign religious orders. The peak of the influence of Polish Armenians in Bessarabia was associated with the final two decades of Russian rule in that province i.e. the turn of the 20th century. In this context, the figure of Antoni Demianowicz was crucial. He was a deputy during all four terms of the Russian State Duma and one of the principal Bessarabian politicians of this period. The outbreak of the Russian revolution put an end to the “golden age” of the Polish Armenians in Bessarabia, whose fate was sealed by the Romanian agricultural reform of 1920 and the deep crisis which struck this province in the inter-war period.