Vladimir Herța

Vladimir or Wladimir Herța, also known as Hertza or de Hertza (Russian: Владимир Константинович Херца, romanized: Vladimir Konstantinovich Hertsa; 14 May 1868 – 3 August 1924), was a Bessarabian-born politician, entrepreneur, jurist, and amateur singer. He was initially active in the Bessarabia Governorate of the Russian Empire, where his family owned large estates that became his main source of revenue. He claimed descent from boyardom, and as such both Romanian ethnicity and inclusion within Russian nobility, but his account was disputed. Herța also trained as a lawyer and established a legal practice in Kishinev (Chișinău), where he built himself a Baroque Revival villa, used for political gatherings during and after the Russian Revolution of 1905. In that context, he was a liberal-conservative member of the zemstvo, who embraced some tenets of Romanian nationalism while criticizing its separatist aspirations in Bessarabia. Especially after the revolutionary events, he established himself in the Kingdom of Romania, alternating between Iași and Bucharest. Herța's capitalist ventures here included a cement factory in Dudești, as well as glassworks in Deleni-Maxut.

At the height of World War I, and in the context of the February Revolution, Herța came to lead the zemstvo of Orgeyevsky Uyezd, where he owned land at Onișcani. Alongside Vladimir Cristi, Vasile Stroescu, and Paul Gore, he represented the right-wing of Bessarabian autonomism. This group favored devolution under the Russian Provisional Government, while fighting against Bessarabia's absorption by the intermediary Ukrainian People's Republic. Though agreeing to merge into the National Moldavian Party, which had Herța as its vice president, the faction was somewhat adverse to the more left-wing agenda of younger nationalists such as Ion Pelivan and Ion Inculeț, being highly conservative on the issue of land ownership. Herța campaigned for the establishment of a Bessarabian assembly, which was finally established under the name of Sfatul Țării; the separatist drive coincided with the October Revolution—Bessarabian politicians coalesced around their opposition to Soviet Russia, forming the independent Moldavian Democratic Republic as a standalone, anti-communist, entity.

Herța subsequently endorsed the Romanian military intervention, and, in early 1918, cheered for the Moldavian republic's union with Romania. The new regime, which initially favored Bessarabian autonomy, assigned him as Mayor of Chișinău in September 1918. Upon the end of war, there was a regional power grab by Inculeț's Bessarabian Peasants' Party, which resulted in the purge of dissidents from the local administration. Herța, who lost office during these events, tried to establish his own opposition group, the Romanian League, which he aligned with the nation-wide People's Party. He remained committed to administrative devolution, and strongly objected to the land reform, but leaned on the side of national unity, including by participating as a Bessarabian landowners' delegate in the Paris Peace Conference; he was also vocal in his anti-communism and his opposition to Soviet expansionism. After a period of withdrawal from politics, Herța made a belated return as a local leader of the National Liberal Party in 1924, but died suddenly that same year, leaving his widow penniless and suicidal. His villa endures as a secondary venue for the Moldovan Museum of Fine Arts.