On 5 November [O.S. 23 October] - 9 November [O.S. 27 October] 1917, the Soldiers' council proclaimed the autonomy of Bessarabia, and summoned for the election of a representative body (diet), called Sfatul Țării. The council prescribed the number of representatives allocated to each organization, and imposed a fixed ethnic composition, significantly different from the one recorded by previous Russian Imperial censuses. Of the 150 Diet members of Sfatul Țării, 105 were Moldavians, 15 Ukrainians, 13 Jews, 6 Russians, 3 Bulgarians, 2 Germans, 2 Gagauzians, 1 Pole, 1 Armenian, 1 Greek, 1 unknown.[1]
^Gh. Cojocaru, Itinerarul Basarabiei spre realizarea unității românești (1917-1918), in "Marea Unire din 1918 în context european". Coordonator: Ioan Scurtu. Ed. Enciclopedică, Ed. Academiei Române, București, 2003, pp. 110-111.