 However, the effect was an extremely low literacy rate (in 1897, 18% for males and 4% for females) rather than denationalization.Some Romanian historians claimed that a strong sentiment of frustration and resentment to the Russian control had started to appear before the beginning of World War I.World War I brought a rise in political and cultural (national) awareness in the population, as 300,000 Bessarabians enrolled in the Russian Army formed in 1917, within bigger units several "Moldavian Soldiers' Committees".