The inclusion of Bessarabia into the Russian system of food security was realised in 1830s-1840s, in particular by setting up of grain warehouses. Consecutive poor harvests years in the southern regions of the Russian Empire in the period 1832-1833 determined the Russian government to extend the existing legislative mechanism of restrictive measures also on Bessarabia. But for the province between Prut and Dniestr these measures were not really justified. Namely, in Bessarabia, the phenomenon of a total lack of grain for current consumption was not as present as in other Russian regions, where the problem originated from the persistence of the serfdom system. The problem of hunger in the Russian internal gubernias was determined by the spread of capitalist relations, under which landlords, eager for obtaining more profit, were selling all of the grain harvested without taking into account the needs for the feed of their serfs in case of unfruitful years. In Bessarabia, on the other hand, there were a large number of free peasants who worked their own or leased lands, and each family was aware of the need to make reservations for the next few years, which highly reduced the risk of hunger. Setting up of grain repositories would disfavour peasants against landlords by requirement to yield large quantities of harvested grain to reserve fund, thus hindering expansion of capitalist relations in their farms, and preserving landlords’ estates from any competition in this regard. The position of the ruling circles of Bessarabia to the measures intended by Russian government to ensure food security can be easily apprehended by the negative feedback given to the project of S.I. Malitov, member of the Imperial Free Economic Society. In their responses to the idea of maintaining of average prices on grain the Regional Council and the nobles’ marshal emphasized that Bessarabia is a province with a large opening towards the external market, thus prices formed independent of the internal Russian gubernias, and moreover, the province already had enough reserves for its consumer needs in the event of bad harvests.