Feliks Dutkiewicz and the union of Bessarabia with Romania

Feliks Dutkiewicz was born in 1872 in Lublin, but, in the 1900s, he was working as a judge in Chisinau. From this position, after the World War 1, when the Moldavian Democratic Republic was created, he was elected in its Parliament to represent the Polish population of Bessarabia.

When the union of Bessarabia of Romania was being discussed, most of the minorities where hesitant or completely hostile – except Dutkiewicz, who openly endorsed it. He declared:

I am sorry that on such an important day for the Moldovan nation I am forced to speak in Russian, which has been a symbol of the oppression of both the Moldovan and Polish nations. (…) On behalf of the Bessarabian Poles, I fully support the unification of Bessarabia with Romania, as desired by the Moldovans, the indigenous inhabitants of this country.

After establishment of Greater Romania and the re-establishment of the independent Polish state, he moved to Poland, where he became the president of the Court of Appeal in Warsaw, and, for a short term – even the Minister of Justice of Poland.

I think that it is such a shame that, on his birthday occasion, the embassies of Moldova and Romania in Warsaw don’t lay flowers at his grave. I hope this will change in the future.