 As part of this process, the Tsarist administration in Bessarabia gradually removed the Romanian language from official and religious use.The Treaty of Paris (1856) returned the southern part of Bessarabia (later organised as the Cahul, Bolgrad and Ismail counties) to Moldavia, which remained an autonomous principality and, in 1859, united with Wallachia to form Romania.In 1878, as a result of the Treaty of Berlin, Romania was forced to cede the three counties back to the Russian Empire.