Sultan 

Suleiman I taking control of Moldova

Stephen III was succeeded by increasingly weaker princes, and in 1538

Moldavia became a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, to which it owed a
percentage of the internal revenue, that in time rose to 10%. Moldavia
was forbidden to have foreign relations to the detriment of the Ottoman
Empire (although at times the country managed to circumvent this
interdiction), but was allowed internal autonomy, including sole authority
over foreign trade. Turks were legally forbidden to own land or build
religious establishments in Moldavia. Prince Vasile Lupu had secured
the Moldavian throne in 1634 after a series of complicated intrigues, and
managed to hold it for twenty years. Lupu was a capable administrator
and a brilliant financier, and soon was the richest man in the Christian
East. Judiciously placed gifts kept him on good terms with the Ottoman
authorities.[9][10]
In the 18th century, the territory of Moldavia often became a transit or
war zone during conflicts between the Ottomans, Austrians,
and Russians. In 1774, following a victory in a war against the Ottomans,
Russia occupied Christian Moldavia, still a vassal of the Ottoman Empire
at the time.[11] In 1775, the Habsburg Monarchy annexed ca 11% of the
territory of Moldavia, which became known as Bukovina. By the Treaty of
Bucharest following the Russo-Turkish War (1806–1812), Russia had
annexed further 50% of its territory, which became known
as Bessarabia.

Part of the Russian Empire[edit]

Gubernya of Bessarabia, 1883

Main article: Bessarabia Governorate

With the notable exception of Transnistria, the territory of
today's Republic of Moldova covers most of the historical region
of Bessarabia. Until 1812, the term "Bessarabia" referred to the region
between the Danube, Dniester, the Black Sea shores, and the Upper
Trajan Wall, slightly larger than what today is called Budjak. By
the Treaty of Bucharest of May 28, 1812 between the Ottoman
Empire and the Russian Empire — concluding the Russo-Turkish War,
1806-1812 — the latter annexed the eastern half of the Principality of
Moldavia.[12] That region was then called Bessarabia.[13]
Initially, after being annexed by the Russian Empire, Bessarabia enjoyed
a period of local autonomy until 1828. Organized as an imperial district
(oblast), it was governed by a "provisional government" with two
departments: a civil administration and a religious administration, the
former led by the aged Moldavian boyar Scarlat Sturdza, the latter – by
the archbishop Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni. On top of these was the
Russian military administration of Governor General Harting. However,
already in 1813, the civil administration was handed to the Governor
General. In 1818, reform-minded Russian tsar Alexander I passed
a Settlement of the establishment of the region of Bessarabia which
divided the legal power between the tsar-appointed Governor General
(Bakhmetiev) and a 10-member High Council of the Region with 4
members appointed by the tsar and 6 elected by the local nobility. In lieu
of the older 12 lands, the region was divided into 6, later 9 counties. In
1828 however, the conservative tsar Nikolai I abrogated
the Settlement and passed a new regulation which endowed the
Governor General with supreme power, with the regional council having
only advisory functions and meeting twice a year. Article 63 of the
regulation stated that all administrative personnel must know and
perform their duties in Russian. Nevertheless, Romanian language
would occasionally appear in documents up to 1854.[14]
At the end of the Crimean War, in 1856, by the Treaty of Paris, the
southern parts of Bessarabia (including a part of Budjak) were returned
to Moldavia, which organized the territory into the districts
of Cahul, Bolgrad and Ismail. Consequently, Russia lost access to
the Danube river. In 1859, the Principalities
of Moldavia and Wallachia united and formed the Romanian United
Principalities, a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire.
In 1870, the institution of zemstva was instated in the Bessarabian
oblast. Cities, communes, counties, and the entire region would elect
each a local council representing noblemen, merchants and peasants.
They had substantial authority in economic and sanitary areas, including
roads, posts, food, public safety and education. On the other hand,
political (including justice courts of all levels) and cultural matters
remained an exclusive domain of the Governor General and were used
as a vehicle of Russification. With the accomplishment of these
introductions, in 1871, Bessarabia was transformed into a governorate.[15]
The defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War 1877–
1878 and the subsequent signing of the Treaty of Berlin granted
independence to Romania.[12] Although the treaty of alliance between
Romania and Russia specified that Russia would defend the territorial
integrity of Romania and not claim any part of Romania at the end of the
war, the southern part of Bessarabia was re-annexed to Russia. In
exchange, Romania was given Dobruja, which was at the time part of the
Ottoman Empire.[16]
Măzărache Church in the 19th century

Public education was entrusted to the religious establishment of the

region, which since 1821 had only Russian archbishops, and later also to
the zemstvos. Dimitrie Sulima (Archbishop in 1821–1855), and Antonie
Shokotov (1855–1871) allowed the parallel usage of
both Romanian and Russian in church, and did not take any measures to
infringe upon the linguistic specifics of the region. With the appointment
of Pavel Lebedev (1871–1882), the situation changed radically, and the
language of the locals was soon purged from the church. To prevent the
printing of religious literature in Romanian, Lebedev closed down
the printing press in Chișinău, collected from the region and burned the
already printed books in Romanian (in the Cyrillic alphabet). The
following archbishops Sergey Lapidevsky, Isakyi Polozensky, Neofit
Novodchikov eased some of Lebedev's measures to help quell the
serious dissatisfaction of the population. The next Archbishop Iakov
Pyatnitsky (1898–1904) discovered that his desire to popularize a
Christian culture and a moral education faced a language barrier, and in
1900 convinced the Russian High Synod to allow the publication of
religious pamphlets in Romanian, while his follower Archbishop Vladimir
allowed the printing of books, and from 1908 even of a regular religious
journal "Luminătorul" by Constantin Popovici and Gurie Grosu. The last
Russian Archbishops, Serafim Chichyagov (1908–1914), Platon (1914–
1915) and Anastasius (1915–1918) tried to preserve the privileged status
of the Russian language in the church in Bessarabia, but did not
introduce any new anti-Romanian measures. In 1918, after the
installation of the Romanian administration in Bessarabia, Archbishop
Anastasius refused to subordinate his eparchy to the Romanian
Orthodox Church, and was forced into exile.[17] The new authorities
entrusted the archbishopric to the Bishop Nicodem de Huși from
Romania, who appointed a local Archbishop Dionisie Erhan. Then the
Clerical Congress on February 21, 1920 elected Gurie Botoșăneanu as
the highest church official in Bessarabia, which afterwards was raised
from Archbishop to Metropolitan.[18]

Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni