Aurel Onciul

Who is Aurel Onciul?

Aurel Onciul was a Romanian moderate political leader in the Austrian Bukovina, prior to its union with the Kingdom of Romania. He advocated a division of the province along ethnic lines, into a Romanian-controlled southern Bukovina, and a Ukrainian-controlled northern Bukovina. The borders envisioned by Onciul and as his Ukrainian counterparts correspond roughly to the present Romanian-Ukrainian borders in Bukovina.

He collaborated with Iancu Flondor, a boyar of Storozhynets, and tried to appeal to a social-democratic oriented segment of rural population, clergy, and rural teachers, as leader of the Democratic/Peasants' Party. Accused of machiavellianism, Onciul failed to attract the support of intellectuals, who were more concerned with the national question at the time, after the failure of the Ausgleich in 1909. Furthermore, in the Romanian parts of Bukovina, he failed to win popular support as he often sided with Ruthenian demands over lands in northern Bukovina.

As the Austrian governor surrendered power to Onciul in 1918, he and the Ukrainians proceeded to divide the former province between themselves much as Onciul had previously envisioned. His rival Iancu Flondor, leader of the National Party, denounced Onciul's intentions, and succeeded in convincing the delegates of all other ethnicities, except Ruthenian, in the General Congress of Bukovina to support union with the Kingdom of Romania. After the vote on 28 November 1918, Flondor proceeded to demand the intervention of Romania, which was answered a few days later, thus putting an end to the agreement by Onciul and the Ukrainians regarding Bukovina.