English title: Monographic Research of the Village between the Prut and the Nistru. The Activity of the Romanian Social Institute in Bessarabia between 1934 and 1940
https://doi.org/10.47743/RRISXX.2025-3-5
Issue: 3/2025
Pages: 113-128
Language: Romanian
Author: Liudmila CHICIUC
Author affiliation: „Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu” State University of Cahul, Republic of Moldova
Abstract: The study aims at the monographic research activity of the village between the Prut and
the Nistru, undertaken by the Romanian Social Institute of Bessarabia between
1934-1940. In its capacity as a regional branch of the Romanian Social Institute of
Bucharest (1921-1948), the first scientific research institution in the social field in
Chisinau, it carried out 6 monographic research campaigns in the villages of the
historical province, respecting the methodology developed by the remarkable Romanian
scholar Dimitrie Gusti (1880-1955). The organization of the Institute’s monographic
teams and its research campaigns in the villages of Iurceni (1935) and Nișcani (1936) in
Lăpușna County, Copanca in Tighina County (1937), Popeștii de Sus in Soroca County
(1938), Dâșcova and Vâprova in Orhei County (1939) are elucidated. Based on period
sources, significant aspects of the organization of monographic field research are
elucidated, in particular: the particularities of regional applied research; methods of
selecting localities for investigation; the establishment of the Institute’s monographic
teams; the methodology of research conducted „on frames and manifestations”, the
themes and problems of the social reality subject to research and the solutions proposed
by the monographers; difficulties encountered in implementing the applied
methodology; the results of monographic research of rural social realities, etc. The
contribution of monographic research in Bessarabia to the cultural and scientific
edification of the province and to the development of Romanian applied sociology in the
interwar period is noted constantly.
Keywords: Romanian Social Institute of Bessarabia, monographic teams, Bessarabian
villages rural social problems, monographic campaigns