In the first decade following the annexation of Bessarabia, the Russian authorities simoultaneously pursued two different approaches without fully realizing their contradictions. On the one hand, they sought to win support of the Bessarabian nobility by recognizing their land titles in the former Hotin reaya and proclaiming local autonomy based on the law of the land. On the other hand, they sought to colonize the underpopulated lands of Southern Bessarabia by inviting transdanubian Bulgarians and other ethnic groups. Although both approaches envisioned the transformation of the new province into a new homeland for the co-religionist Balkan peoples, their combination provoked social tensions between the the Bessarabian landowners and the colonists. The paper argues that the prolonged conflict between the two groups ultimately illustrates the uncertainty of Bessarabia’s status in the political geography of the Russian empire during the first decades after 1812. While the regime of the nobility-based Bessarabian autonomy was not unlike various schemes of indirect rule adopted in Russia’s Western borderlands, the invitation of colonists continued the colonization policies characteristic of New Russia. In this respect, the placement of the province under the jurisdiction of the governor-general of New Russia in 1822 emphasized colonization at the expense of local autonomy and prepared the abolition of the latter in 1828.