Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina

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Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina
Part of the military occupations by the Soviet Union

Soviet parade in Chișinău
Date28 June – 3 July 1940 (1940-06-28 – 1940-07-03)
Location
Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and Hertsa region, Kingdom of Romania
Result
Ukrainian SSR
Belligerents
 Romania  Soviet Union
Supported by:
 Germany[1]
Strength
  • 55–60 infantry divisions
  • 1 tank battalion
  • 32 infantry divisions
  • 2 mechanized divisions
  • 6 cavalry divisions
  • 11 armored brigades
  • 3 airborne brigades
  • 34 artillery regiments
Casualties and losses
  • 40,000 captured
  • 29 killed
  • 69 wounded
  • In one year of Soviet occupation (28 June 1940 – 22 June 1941), over 300,000 people, i.e. 12% of the population, were arrested, deported and murdered
[2]

The Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina took place from 28 June to 3 July 1940, as a result of an ultimatum by the Soviet Union to Romania on 26 June 1940, that threatened the use of force.[3] Those regions, with a total area of 50,762 km2 (19,599 sq mi) and a population of 3,776,309 inhabitants, were incorporated into the Soviet Union.[4][5] On October 26, 1940, six Romanian islands on the Chilia branch of the Danube, with an area of 23.75 km2 (9.17 sq mi), were also occupied by the Soviet Army.[6]

The Soviet Union had planned to accomplish the annexation with a full-scale invasion, but the Romanian government, responding to the Soviet ultimatum delivered on June 26, agreed to withdraw from the territories to avoid a military conflict. The use of force had been made illegal by the Conventions for the Definition of Aggression in July 1933, but from an international legal standpoint, the new status of the annexed territories was eventually based on a formal agreement through which Romania consented to the retrocession of Bessarabia and cession of Northern Bukovina. As it was not mentioned in the ultimatum, the annexation of the Hertsa region was not consented to by Romania, and the same is true of the subsequent Soviet occupation of the Danube islands.[3] On June 24, Nazi Germany, which had acknowledged the Soviet interest in Bessarabia in a secret protocol to the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, had been made aware prior to the planned ultimatum but did not inform the Romanian authorities and was unwilling to provide support.[7] On June 22, France, a guarantor of Romanian borders, fell to Nazi advances. This is considered to be an important factor in the Soviets' decision to issue the ultimatum.[8] The Soviet invasion of Bukovina in 1940 violated the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, since it went beyond the Soviet sphere of influence that had been agreed with the Axis.[contradictory][9]

A column of Soviet armored vehicles entering Bessarabia, June 1940

On August 2, 1940, the

Northern and Southern Bessarabia) were included in the Ukrainian SSR. A period of political persecution, including executions, deportations to labour camps
and arrests, occurred during the Soviet administration.

In July 1941, Romanian and German troops occupied Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and Hertsa during the

Second Jassy–Kishinev Offensive, the Axis war effort on the Eastern Front collapsed. The coup of 23 August 1944 caused the Romanian army to cease resisting the Soviet advance and to join the fight against Germany. Soviet forces advanced from Bessarabia into Romania, captured much of its standing army as prisoners-of-war and occupied the country.[10] On September 12, 1944, Romania signed the Moscow Armistice with the Allies. The Armistice and the subsequent peace treaty of 1947 confirmed the Soviet-Romanian border as it was on January 1, 1941.[11][12]

Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and Hertsa remained part of the Soviet Union until it

Declaration of Independence of Moldova of August 27, 1991, declared the Soviet occupation illegal.[13]

Background

See also: Moldavia

As a historical region, Bessarabia was the eastern part of the

Principality of Moldavia. In 1812, under the terms of the Treaty of Bucharest, the region was ceded by the Ottoman Empire, to which Moldavia was a vassal state, to the Russian Empire
.

Interwar Soviet-Romanian relations

See also: Polish–Romanian alliance
Interwar Romania (1920–1940)

The

guberniya of the Russian Empire, had a population that was 47.6% Romanians, 19.6% Ukrainians, 8% Russians, 11.8% Jews, 5.3% Bulgarians, 3.1% Germans and 2.9% Gagauz.[14][15] The figures showed a strong decrease in the proportion of Moldovans and Romanians compared to the census of 1817, which had been conducted shortly after the Russian Empire annexed Bessarabia in 1812. In that survey, Moldovans and Romanians represented 86% of the population.[16] The decrease seen in the census of 1897 was caused by the Russian policies of settling of other nationalities and of Russification in Bessarabia.[15][17]

During the 1917

national assembly was formed in Bessarabia to manage the province.[18] The assembly, known locally as Sfatul Țării, initiated several national and social reforms, and on December 2/15 1917, it declared the Moldavian Democratic Republic an autonomous republic within the Russian Federative Democratic Republic.[19][20]

The

Odessa, Christian Rakovsky, which provided that Romanian troops be evacuated from Bessarabia within two months in exchange for the repatriation of Romanian prisoners-of-war held by the Rumcherod.[28] After the White Army forced the Soviets to withdraw from Odessa, and the German Empire agreed to the Romanian annexation of Bessarabia in a secret agreement (part of the Buftea Peace Treaty) on March 5/18,[26][29] Romanian diplomacy repudiated the treaty by claiming that the Soviets were unable to fulfill their obligations.[27]

On March 27/April 9, 1918, the Sfatul Țării voted for the Union of Bessarabia with Romania, conditional upon the fulfilment of an agrarian reform. There were 86 votes for union, 3 votes against, 36 deputies abstaining, and 13 deputies absent. The vote is regarded as controversial by several historians, including Romanian ones such as Cristina Petrescu and Sorin Alexandrescu.[30] On April 18 Georgy Chicherin, the Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs, sent a note of protest against the incorporation of Bessarabia into Romania.[31]

Back in August 1916, the Entente and the neutral Romania signed a secret convention that stipulated Romania would join the war against the Central Powers in exchange for several territories of

Czernowitz, declared Northern Bukovina, populated by a Ukrainian majority, part of the West Ukrainian People's Republic.[34] On October 27, the Romanians followed suit, proclaiming the whole region united with Romania,[35] and calling in Romanian troops.[26] The Romanian intervention quickly established the Romanian Assembly as the dominant force, and on November 28, a Congress of the Romanians, Germans, and Poles voted to unite with Romania. The representatives of the Ukrainian and Jewish populations boycotted the Congress, and the struggle between ethnic factions continued for several months.[34]

During the

Romanian intervention in Hungary. A massive rebellion in Ukraine prevented further Soviet advances.[26][36][37]
Soviet Russia would continue its policy of non-recognition of Romanian sovereignty over Bessarabia, which it considered Romanian-occupied territory, until 1940.

During the negotiations before the

White Russians, only to be rejected again.[39] The Soviets would continue to press for a plebiscite during the following decade, only to be dismissed every time by the Romanian government.[40]

Romanian sovereignty over Bessarabia was

Baltic States, it insisted that Bessarabia was a territory under Romanian military occupation and incorporated the Bessarabian emigration quota into the Russian one in 1923.[45] In 1933, the US government tacitly included the Bessarabian emigration quota into that of Romania, an act that was considered a de facto recognition by Romanian diplomacy.[46] However, during World War II, the US argued it had never recognized Bessarabia's union with Romania.[47]

In 1924, after the failure of the

Ukrainian SSR. The Romanian government saw that as a threat and a possible staging ground for a communist invasion of Romania. Throughout the 1920s, Romania considered itself a pillar in the cordon sanitaire, the policy of containment of the Bolshevik threat, and avoided direct relations with the Soviet Union.[citation needed
]

On August 27, 1928, both Romania and the Soviet Union signed and ratified the

Kellogg-Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of national policy.[48] On February 9, 1929, the Soviet Union signed a protocol with its western neighbors, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, and Romania, confirming adherence to the terms of the Pact.[49] In signing the Pact, the contracting parties agreed to condemn war as a recourse to solving conflict, to renounce it as an instrument of policy and to agree that all conflicts and disputes would only by peaceful means.[50] At the time, the Soviet ambassador, Maxim Litvinov, made it clear that neither the pact nor the protocol meant renunciation of Soviet rights over the "territories occupied by Romanians".[51]
On July 3, 1933, Romania and the Soviet Union were signatories the London Convention for the Definition of Aggression, Article II of which defined several forms of aggression: "There shall be recognized as an aggressor that State which shall be the first to have committed one of the following actions: First—a declaration of war on another State. Second—invasion by armed forces of the territory of another State even without a declaration of war. (...)" and "No political, military, economic or other considerations may serve as an excuse or justification for the aggression referred to in Article II."

In January 1932 in Riga and in September 1932 in Geneva, Soviet-Romanian negotiations were held as a prelude to a non-aggression treaty, and on June 9, 1934, diplomatic relations were established between both countries. On July 21, 1936, Litvinov and Nicolae Titulescu, the Soviet and Romanian Ministers of Foreign Affairs, agreed upon a draft of a Mutual Assistance Pact.[52] It was sometimes interpreted as a non-aggression treaty, which would de facto recognize the existing Soviet-Romanian border. The protocol stipulated that any common Romanian-Soviet action should be approved by France ahead of time. In negotiating with the Soviets for the agreement, Titulescu was highly criticized by the Romanian far right. The protocol was to be signed in September 1936, but Titulescu was dismissed in August 1936, leading the Soviet side to declare the agreement null and void. Subsequently, no further attempts were made to reach a political rapprochement between Romania and the Soviet Union.[53] Moreover, by 1937, Litvinov and the Soviet press revived the dormant claim over Bessarabia.[54]

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and aftermath

Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov signs the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Behind him are (left) German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin.

On August 23, 1939, the

sphere of interest
by the Pact. Article III of its Secret Additional Protocol stated:

With regard to Southeastern Europe attention is called by the Soviet side to its interest in Bessarabia. The German side declares its complete political disinterestedness in these areas.[55]

On 29 March 1940, Molotov declared on the Sixth session of the Supreme Soviet: "We do not have a pact of non-aggression with Romania. This is due to the presence of an unsolved issue, the issue of Bessarabia, the seizure of which the Soviet Union never recognized although it never raised the issue of returning it by military means".[56] That was seen as a threat to Romania.

International context

Planned and actual divisions of Eastern Europe, according to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
Animation of the European Theatre

Assured by the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of Soviet non-interference, Germany started World War II one week later by

invading Poland from the west on September 1, 1939. The Soviet Union attacked Poland from the east on September 17, and by October 6, Poland had fallen. Romanian Prime Minister Armand Călinescu, a strong supporter of Poland in its conflict with Germany, was assassinated on September 21 by elements of the far-right Iron Guard with Nazi support. Romania remained formally neutral in the conflict but aided Poland by providing access to Allied military supplies from the Black Sea to the Polish border and also a route for the Polish government and army to withdraw after their defeat. The Polish government also preferred a formally neutral Romania to ensure the safety from German bombardments of supplies transported through Romanian territory. (See also Romanian Bridgehead
.)

On June 2, 1940, Germany informed the Romanian government that to receive territorial guarantees, Romania should consider negotiations with the Soviet Union.

From June 14 to 17, 1940, the Soviet Union gave ultimatum notes to

occupy those territories
.

The

Fall of France
on June 22 and the subsequent British retreat from the Continent rendered the assurances of assistance to Romania meaningless.

Political and military developments

Soviet preparations

By directives OV/583 and OV/584 of the Soviet People Commissariat of Defense, military units of the

5th, 9th and 12th Armies. The Southern Front had 32 infantry divisions, 2 motorized infantry divisions, 6 cavalry divisions, 11 tank brigades, 3 paratrooper brigades, 30 artillery regiments and smaller auxiliary units.[57]

On 25 June, the Soviet Southern Front received a directive:[58]

1. The soldiery and the bourgeois-capitalist clique of Romania, preparing provocationary acts against the USSR, concentrated on the borders of the USSR large armed forces, increased the border posts to 100 persons, enlarged the number of commandos sent to guard the border and is with enforced tempo constructing defense facilities on its border and the close rear.
2. The commander of the Southern Front set the troops of the Southern district the task to: a) clear of mines, seize and hold bridges over the borderline rivers; b) firmly defend state borders in the front of the 12th army where the troops of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army are going to act; c) to provide the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army with guides; d) to cleanse the rear of the 12th army from possible pockets of enemy in the near-border belt of Romania.

Two action plans were devised. The first plan was prepared for if Romania did not agree to evacuate Bessarabia and Bukovina. The Soviet

Prut River towards Iași while the Soviet 9th Army was to strike westwards, south of Chișinău towards Huși. The objective of the plan was to surround the Romanian troops in the Bălți
–Iași area.

The second plan took into consideration the possibility that Romania would agree to Soviet demands and evacuate its military forces. In such a situation, Soviet troops were given the mission to quickly reach the Prut River and oversee the evacuation of Romanian troops. The first plan was taken as the default course of action. Along the portions of the border in which the offensive was planned to take place, the Soviets prepared at least a triple superiority of men and materiel.[57]

Soviet ultimatum

On June 26, 1940, at 22:00,

Germans in Bessarabia to be 100,000, and affirmed that Soviet demands regarding Bukovina were new.[62] He also pointed out that Germany had strong economic interests in the rest of Romania.[a]

The text of the ultimatum note sent to Romania on June 26, 1940, incorrectly stated that Bessarabia was populated mainly by

invasion of Poland, in the sense that both had been part of Austria-Hungary from the second half of the 18th century to 1918. Northern Bukovina was inhabited by a compact Ukrainian population, which outnumbered Romanians,[63] but Bessarabia was regarded as having a Romanian majority even though most of the population adopted a "Moldavian" identity.[64]

On the morning of June 27, a mobilization of Romanian troops started.[65] In the early hours of June 27, King Carol II had a meeting with his prime minister, Gheorghe Tătărescu, and his minister for external affairs, Ion Gigurtu, and he summoned the ambassadors of Italy and Germany. Carol communicated his wish to stand against the Soviet Union and asked for their countries to influence Hungary and Bulgaria in the hopes of not declaring war against Romania and to reclaim Transylvania and Southern Dobruja. Stating that it would be "in the name of peace" to accede to Soviet demands, the ambassadors urged the King to stand down.[66]

On June 27, Molotov declared that if the Romanians rejected Soviet demands, the Soviet troops would cross the border.[65] Molotov gave the Romanian government 24 hours to respond to the ultimatum.[60]

On the same day, the Romanian government replied by suggesting it would agree to "immediate negotiations on a wide range of questions".

Cernăuți.[68]

On the morning of June 28, 1940, following advice by both Germany and Italy, the Romanian government, led by Gheorghe Tătărescu, under the semi-authoritarian rule of Carol II, agreed to submit to the Soviet demands.[69] Soviet forces also occupied the Hertsa region, part of the Romanian Old Kingdom, which was in neither Bessarabia nor Bukovina.[69] The Soviets said that was "probably a military error".[69] As well, the final border line cut off about 1.7 km2 from Maramures, as the extending westerly border line ran south of the old historical border between Maramureș, Bukovina and Galitzia, which extended to the north to the Muncel river and border marker N542 (as seen on cold war Soviet military cartography maps), a tributary of Pârcālab river, which flows into Ceremuș river.

The decision to accept the Soviet ultimatum and to start a "withdrawal" (avoiding the use of ceding) from Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina was deliberated upon by the

Romanian Crown Council
during the night of June 27–28. The second (decisive) vote outcome, according to the journal of King Carol II, was:

The same night, Carol II also convinced Alexandru Vaida-Voevod to be sworn in as minister. Vaida, along with all of the above, signed the final Crown Council recommendation in which Carol II ordered the army to stand down.

Romanian withdrawal

The division of Bukovina after June 28, 1940. The region labelled as Herța (Hertsa) and the land in white just to the right of Northern Bukovina between the rivers Nistru (Dniester) and Prut (Prut) were also taken by the Soviet Union.
Soviet Marshal Semyon Timoshenko in Bessarabia

On June 28, at 9:00, Communique no. 25 of the General Staff of the Romanian Army officially announced the terms of the ultimatum to the population, its acceptance by the Romanian government, and the intent to evacuate the army and administration to the Prut River. By 14:00, three key cities (Chișinău, Cernăuți, and Cetatea Albă) had to be turned over to the Soviets. The military installations and casemates, built during a 20-year period for the event of a Soviet attack, were relinquished without a fight, the Romanian Army being placed by its command under strict orders not to respond to provocations. In a declaration to the local population, the Soviet command stated: "The great hour of your liberation from the yoke of Romanian boyars, landowners, capitalists and Siguranța has arrived".[65]

Cernăuți
in 1940

Part of the population left the regions with the Romanian administration. According to the April 1941 Romanian census, the total number of refugees from the evacuated territories amounted to 68,953, but as the ultimatum came unexpectedly, many people did not have time to evacuate, and over 70,000 request for repatriation to Romania were later recorded. On the other hand, by early August 1940, between 112,000 and 149,974 people had left the other territories of Romania for the Soviet-ruled Bessarabia. That figure comprised Romanians of the region but also included Jews, both from Bessarabia and from the Old Kingdom, who wanted to escape the officially endorsed antisemitism in Romania.[70]

Incorporation of annexed territories into the Soviet Union

Main article:
Moldavian SSR
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Romania in 1940 with Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina highlighted in orange-red
Soviet military parade in Chișinău on July 4, 1940

As Romania agreed to satisfy Soviet territorial demands, the second plan was immediately put into action, with the Red Army immediately moving into Bessarabia and north Bukovina on the morning of June 28. By June 30, the Red Army reached the border along the Prut River. On July 3, the border was closed completely from the Soviet side.

One month after the military occupation, on August 2, 1940, the

Northern Bessarabia), Ismail, and Cetatea Albă (Budjak
) counties to the Ukrainian SSR.

In 1940 to 1941, political persecution of certain categories of locals took the form of arrests, executions and deportations to the eastern parts of the Soviet Union. According to Alexandru Usatiuc-Bulgăr,[71] 32,433 people received a politically motivated sentence, of which 8,360 were sentenced to death or died during interrogations.

Refugees after the occupation

Serious incidents occurred in Northern Bukovina, where attempts by the locals to force the border towards Romania resulted in the Soviet border guards opening fire against unarmed civilians. In one case, at Fântâna Albă, that resulted in a massacre in which between 50 and 3,000 Romanians were killed.[72][73] The situation was the same on the other side of the border: roughly 300 (or between 80 and 400, according to other sources[74]) civilians, most of them Jews, waiting to leave for Soviet-controlled Bessarabia were shot by the Romanian army in Galați railway station on June 30, 1940.[75]

The installation of the Soviet administration was also accompanied by major changes in the economic domain, as medium and large commercial and industrial enterprises were

collectivisation drive was also started in 1941, but the lack of agricultural machinery made the progress extremely slow, with 3.7% of the peasant households being included in a kolkhoz or a sovkhoz by the middle of year.[76] To bolster the government's image, much of the 1941 budget was directed towards social and cultural needs, with 20% allocated to health services and 24% to education and literacy campaigns. The theological institute in Chișinău was closed, but six new higher education institutions were created, including a conservatory and a polytechnic. Furthermore, the salaries of industrial workers and administrative personnel were increased two to three times the pre-Soviet levels.[77]

In September 1941, Romanian authorities uncovered evidence of torture perpetrated at the NKVD headquarters and in the basement of the Metropolitan Palace in Chișinău. Some 80 bodies were discovered, of which 15 in a common grave, with their hands and feet tied. The bodies had been mutilated and burned, then doused with quicklime and acids; from the remains of the clothing it was inferred that the victims were priests and students.[78]

Aftermath

International reactions

According to Time from Monday, July 1, 1940,

This week Soviet planes began making reconnaissance flights over Bessarabia. Then border clashes were reported all along the Dn[i]estr River. Though the Rumanian Army made a show of resistance for the record, it has no chance of stopping the Soviet without help, and Germany had already acknowledged Soviet's claim to Bessarabia in secret deals last year. Romania had accepted her destiny in the new Europe that Hitler plans. She will also lose Transylvania to Hungary and probably a part of the Dobruja to Bulgaria. (...) Soviet's Sphere. Soviet was preoccupied with consolidating her own position to the east of Hitler's Europe. On the heels of her occupation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, those three countries set up left-wing Governments that looked like steppingstones to complete sovietization. (...) Germany took the occupation calmly. Germany's calm was doubtless real, since last year's deals gave Soviet Union a free hand in the Baltic as well as Bessarabia.[79]

Political developments in Romania

A train with refugees

The territorial concessions of 1940 produced deep sorrow and resentment among Romanians and hastened the decline in popularity of the regime led by King

Axis camp on July 13. A series of measures taken by Gigurtu, including official persecution of Jews inspired by the German Nuremberg Laws in July and August 1940, failed to sway Germany from awarding Northern Transylvania to Hungary in the Second Vienna Award
on August 30, 1940.

Red Cross
helping refugees in Romania in a government newsreel

That led to a near-uprising in the country. On September 5, King Carol II proposed to General (later Marshal)

Hitler
. The authoritarian regime of Antonescu (1940–1944) did not restore political parties and democracy but only co-opted several individual civilians in the government.

Overall, the desire to regain the lost territories was invoked as a justification by Romania for its entry into World War II on the side of the Axis against the Soviet Union.

Romanian reoccupation

See also: History of the Jews in Romania § The Holocaust, and Moldovan resistance during World War II

On 22 June 1941, Romania, alongside the other Axis powers, commenced an invasion of the Soviet Union, with Romania's stated intent being the recovery of Bessarabia and Bukovina.[80] The Axis forces completed the occupation of these territories by July 26, 1941.

King

Michael I, alongside his mother Helen and Mihai Antonescu, participated in the opening ceremony for Liberation Tower in Ghidighici on 1 November 1942.[81]

On 27 July 1941,

Transnistria
, as well as sending expeditionary forces to support the German advance into the Soviet Union in several areas.

Military ordinance forbidding use of foreign languages and wearing of "Russian caps" in Bessarabia, 15 November 1941

In the context of increasing antisemitism within the country during the late 1930s, the Antonescu government officially adopted a narrative of

Cernăuți. Romanian gendarmerie units, alongside German troops and local militias, also carried out the destruction of the Jewish community in Transnistria, murdering between 115,000 and 180,000 people.[83]

Jews being deported to concentration camps by the Romanian Army

During the war, many young inhabitants of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina were recruited into the Romanian army. From February until August 1944, Romania struggled to defend itself in the face of Soviet counteroffensives, with the Antonescu regime ultimately being liquidated upon the country's total occupation by the Red Army in late 1944. Overall, the Romanian army suffered 475,070 casualties on the

prisoners of war were taken by the Red Army; the NKVD later counted 187,367 within their POW camps. As of 22 April 1956, 54,612 of these were counted as having died in captivity, with 132,755 counted as freshly released; the front levels of the Soviet Army counted 27,800 Romanians and 14,515 Moldovans as released.[84]

Restoration of Soviet administration

Soviet Operations 19 August to 31 December 1944
Main article:
Moldavian SSR

In early 1944, the Soviet Union gradually took over the territory through the

prisoners of war with little or no fighting. Some of the prisoners were Bessarabian-born. Michael acquiesced to Soviet terms, and Romania was occupied by the Soviet Army
.

From August 1944 to May 1945, about 300,000 people were conscripted into the Soviet Army from Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina and were sent to fight against Germany in Lithuania, East Prussia, Poland and Czechoslovakia.

In 1947, as part of the

Snake Island
, not mentioned in the treaty, were transferred from communist Romania to the Soviet Union in 1948.

Social and cultural consequences

Ethnic map of Interwar Romania based on the 1930 census.

At the moment of the Soviet occupation, the regions had a total population of 3,776,309 inhabitants. According to Romanian official statistics, this was distributed among the ethnic groups as follows: Romanians (53.49%), Ukrainians and Ruthenians (15.3%), Russians (10.34%), Jews (7.27%), Bulgarians (4.91%), Germans (3.31%), others (5.12%).[86][87]

Population movements

Volksdeutsche resettling after the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia

During the Soviet takeover in 1940,

Bessarabian Germans
(82,000) and Bukovinian Germans (40,000–45,000) were repatriated to Germany at the request of Hitler's government. Some of them were forcibly settled by the Nazis in the German-occupied Poland and had to move again in 1944–1945. The people affected by the resettlement were not persecuted, but they were given no choice to stay or live and had to change their entire livelihood within weeks or even days.

Deportations and political repression

Main article: Soviet deportations from Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina

anti-Soviet nationalist ideas occurred in 1940 to 1941 and 1944 to 1951. The deportations touched all local ethnic groups: Romanians, Ukrainians, Russians, Jews, Bulgarians, Gagauz. Significant deportations happened on three separate occasions: according to Alexandru Usatiuc-Bulgăr,[71] 29,839 people were deported to Siberia on 13 June 1941. In total, in the first year of Soviet occupation,[88] no fewer than 86,604 people from Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and Hertsa Region suffered political repression.[89] That number is close to the one calculated by Russian historians following documents in the Moscow archives, of ca. 90,000 people repressed (arrested, executed, deported or conscripted for work) in the first year of Soviet occupation.[90] The greater part of the figure (53,356) was represented by forced conscription for labour across the Soviet Union.[91] The classification of such labourers as victims of political repression is, however, disputed since the poverty of the locals and Soviet propaganda are also considered important factors leading to the emigration of the local workforce.[92] The arrests continued even after 22 June 1941.[93][94]

Based on postwar statistics, the historian

Kulaks did not become main targets of repression until the postwar period.[91] Before Soviet archives were made accessible, R. J. Rummel had estimated between 1940 and 1941, 200,000 to 300,000 Romanian Bessarabians were deported, of whom 18,000 to 68,000 were killed according to him.[95]

Religious persecution

Main article: Religious persecution during the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina

After the installation of the Soviet administration, religious life in

martyrdom to about 50 clergymen, who died in the first year of Soviet rule (1940–1941).[96]

Legacy

In the Soviet Union

In early

Soviet historiography, the chain of events that led to the creation of the Moldavian SSR was described as a "liberation of the Moldovan people from a 22-year-old occupation by boyar Romania." The Soviet authors [97] went into great length to describe scenes how the liberated Bessarabian people eagerly welcomed Soviet troops ending the "22 years of yoke under the Romanian capitalists and landowners", organized demonstrations under red flags and liberated imprisoned communists from the Siguranța torture chambers. In 1940 to 1989, the Soviet authorities promoted the events of June 28, 1940 as a "liberation", and the day itself was a holiday in the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic
.

However, in 2010, the Russian political analyst Leonid Mlechin stated that the term occupation is not adequate but that "it is more an annexation of a part of the territory of Romania".[98]

Pre-independence Moldova

From June 26 to 28, 1991, an International Conference "Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and its consequences for Bessarabia" took place in Chișinău, gathering scholars such as Nicholas Dima, Kurt Treptow, Dennis Deletant, Michael Mikelson, Stephen Bowers, Lowry Wymann, Michael Bruchis, in addition to other Moldovan, Soviet and Romanian authors. An informal Declaration of Chișinău was adopted, according to which the Pact and its Secret Protocol "constituted the apogee of collaboration between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, and following these agreements, Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina were occupied by the Soviet Army on June 28, 1940 as a result of ultimative notes addressed to the Romanian government". It further stated that the events were a "pregnant manifestation of imperialist policy of annexation and diktat, a shameless aggression against the sovereignty (...) of neighboring states, members of the League of Nations. The Stalinist aggression constituted a serious breach of the legal norms of behavior of states in international relations, of the obligations assumed under the Briand-Kellog Pact of 1928, and under the London Convention on the Definition of the Aggressor of 1933". The declaration stated that "the Pact and the Secret Additional Protocol are legally null ab initio, and their consequences must be eliminated". For the latter, it called for "political solutions that would lead to the elimination of the acts of injustice and abuse committed through the use of force, diktat and annexations,... [solutions] in full consensus with the principles of the Final Act of Helsinki, and the Paris Charter for a new Europe".[99][100]

United States

On June 28, 1991, the

US government
to

  1. support the right to self-determination of the people of Moldova and Northern Bukovina, occupied by the Soviets, and to draft a decision to this end;
  2. support the future efforts of the Government of Moldova to negotiate, if it desires so, a peaceful reunification of Moldova and Northern Bukovina with Romania, as established in the Treaty of Paris (1920), respecting the existing norms of international law and principle 1 of the Helsinki Act.

In the clauses of this Senate resolution it has been stated, among other things, that "(...) The armed forces of the Soviet Union invaded the Kingdom of Romania and occupied Eastern Moldova, Northern Bukovina and Hertsa Region. (...) The annexation was prepared beforehand in a Secret Agreement to a Non-Aggression Treaty signed by the Governments of the Soviet Union and the German Reich on August 23, 1939. (...) Between 1940 and 1953 hundreds of thousand of Romanian from Moldova and Northern Bukovina were deported by the USSR to Central Asia and Siberia (...)."[101][102][103]

Modern Moldova

  • Mihai Ghimpu, interim president of Moldova in 2010, has decreed June 28, 1940, as the Soviet Occupation Day. The move was met with disapproval and calls for the decree's revocation inside the ruling coalition and for Ghimpu's resignation by the opposition parties. Dorin Chirtoacă, mayor of Chișinău and member of the same party as Ghimpu, ordered the erection of a memorial stone in the National Assembly Square, in front of the cabinet building, where a Lenin monument used to stand.[104] The members of the coalitions argued that the time has not come for such a decree and that it would only help the communists win more votes.[105] The Academy of Sciences of Moldova declared that "in the view of recent disagreements regarding June 28, 1940 [...] we must take action and inform the public opinion about the academic community views". The academy declared: "Archival documents and historical research of international experts shows that the annexation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina was designed and built by Soviet Command as a military occupation of these territories. Ordinance of Interim President Michael Ghimpu reflects, in principle, the historical truth."[106] The Constitutional Court cancelled Ghimpu's decree on July 12, 2010.[107][108]
  • On June 30, 2010,
    Museum of Victims of Communism[109] and Vlad Filat opened the museum on July 6, 2010.[110]
  • The Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova, as well as the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova still regard the date of 28 June 1940 as the day of the Moldovan liberation from the Romanian occupation[111]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Moorehouse, Roger (2014). The Devils' Alliance: Hitler's Pact with Stalin, 1939–1941 (Kindle, Chapter 3: Sharing the Spoils; loc 1961 ed.). New York: Basic Books.
  2. ^ Olaru-Cemârtan, Viorica (2020). Teroarea stalinistă în RSSM, 1940–1941, 1944–1956: deportările, exilările în Gulag, foametea. Chișinău: Editura LEXON SRL.
  3. ^ a b Deletant 2006, p. 20.
  4. ^ King 2000, pp. 91–95
  5. ^ "Final Report of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania" (PDF). United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  6. ^ Motoc 2018, p. 216.
  7. ^ Bossy, G.H., Bossy, M-A. Recollections of a Romanian Diplomat, 1918–1969, Volume 2, Hoover Press, 2003.
  8. ISBN 0-295953-57-8
    , p.314
  9. ^ Brackman, Roman The Secret File of Joseph Stalin: A Hidden Life (2001) p. 341
  10. ISBN 9780313274978
    .
  11. ^ "The Armistice Agreement with Rumania; September 12, 1944". The Avalon Project. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  12. ^ United States Department of State. Foreign relations of the United States, 1946. Paris Peace Conference: documents Volume IV (1946)
  13. ^ "Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Moldova". Archived from the original on 30 August 2013. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  14. ISBN 9975-9719-5-4
    .
  15. ^ a b King 2000, p. 24
  16. ISBN 0-19-822126-6
  17. ISBN 978-0-87586-184-5
    .
  18. ^ Mitrasca 2002, pp. 32–33
  19. ^ a b Prusin 2010, p. 84
  20. ^ Mitrasca 2002, p. 34
  21. ^ Mitrasca 2002, pp. 35–36
  22. ^ a b c Mitrasca 2002, p. 35
  23. ^ "Sfatul Țării". 21 March 2023. Retrieved 7 April 2023 – via Wikipedia.
  24. ^ "Romanian military intervention in Bessarabia". 5 April 2023. Retrieved 7 April 2023 – via Wikipedia.
  25. ^ "Sfatul Ţării, Alexandru Marghiloman și Unirea Basarabiei cu România | Prof. Univ. Dr. Ioan Scurtu". Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  26. ^ a b c d Prusin 2010, p. 86
  27. ^ a b c Mitrasca 2002, p. 36
  28. ^ Mitrasca 2002, pp. 36–37
  29. ^ Wim P. van Meurs, The Bessarabian question in communist historiography, East European Monographs, 1994, p. 67
  30. ^ Cristina Petrescu, "Contrasting/Conflicting Identities:Bessarabians, Romanians, Moldovans" in Nation-Building and Contested Identities, Polirom, 2001, p. 156
  31. ^ Mitrasca 2002, p. 109
  32. ^ Livezeanu 2000, p. 56
  33. ^ Livezeanu 2000, pp. 56–57
  34. ^ a b Livezeanu 2000, p. 58
  35. ^ Livezeanu 2000, p. 57
  36. ISBN 0-7735-0828-7
    , pp. 113–114.
  37. ^ Mitrasca 2002, p. 110
  38. ^ Mitrasca 2002, p. 72
  39. ^ Mitrasca 2002, p. 86
  40. ^ Mitrasca 2002, pp. 111–112
  41. ^ Mitrasca 2002, p. 111
  42. S2CID 146890589. Scholar search
  43. ^ Mitrasca 2002, p. 411
  44. ^ Mitrasca 2002, p. 345
  45. ^ Mitrasca 2002, pp. 368–369
  46. ^ Mitrasca 2002, pp. 345, 386
  47. ^ Mitrasca 2002, p. 391
  48. ^ Kellogg-Briand Pact, at Yale University.
  49. ^ League of Nations Treaty Series, 1929, No. 2028.
  50. ^ League of Nations Treaty Series, 1928, No. 2137.
  51. ^ Mitrasca 2002, p. 124
  52. ^ Mitrasca 2002.
  53. ISBN 978-0-19-822126-5
  54. ^ Mitrasca 2002, p. 137
  55. ^ German-Soviet Non-Aggression Treaty of August 23, 1939. Complete text online at wikisource.org.
  56. ^ МИД. Министры иностранных дел. Внешняя политика России: от Ленина и Троцкого – до Путина и Медведева by Leonid Mlechin
  57. ^ a b Ioan Scurtu, Istoria Basarabiei de la inceputuri pana in 2003, Editura Institutului Cultural Roman, pg. 327
  58. ^ https://www.memo.ru/en-us/HISTORY/Polacy/g_2.htm/ [dead link]
  59. ^ "Ультимативная нота советского правительства румынскому правительству". ru.convdocs.org.
  60. ^ a b "Rumania Delays Official Action on Russian Ultimatum—Italy, Jugoslavia Also Consulted". Brooklyn Citizen. Brooklyn, New York: United Press International. 27 June 1940. p. 1.
  61. ^ (in Romanian) "Soviet Ultimata and Replies of the Romanian Government" Archived May 27, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, in Ioan Scurtu, Theodora Stănescu-Stanciu, Georgiana Margareta Scurtu, Istoria Românilor între anii 1918–1940, University of Bucharest, 2002
  62. ^ (in Romanian)"13.3. Nota lui Joachim von Ribbentrop către Viaceslav Molotov privitoare la Basarabia și Bucovina". Istoria Românilor Între Anii 1918–1940. June 25, 1940. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016.
  63. ^ Livezeanu 2000, p. 50
  64. ^ Livezeanu 2000, p. 92
  65. ^ a b c "Прутский поход 1940 года".
  66. ^ Ioan Scurtu, Istoria Basarabiei de la inceputuri pâna in 2003, Editura Institutului Cultural Român, pg. 333
  67. ^ The actual result of the first vote was 11 Reject the ultimatum, 10 Accept the ultimatum, 5 For negotiations with the USSR, and 1 Abstained.
  68. ^ a b c "Russia's Own Story of Grab in Romania". New York Daily News. 29 June 1940. p. 10.
  69. ^ a b c St. John, Robert (June 30, 1940). "Report Axis to Aid Romania if Reds Overstep". Associated Press. Daily News (New York, New York). p. 3C.
  70. ^ Dobrincu, Dorin (21 February 2013). "Consecințe ale unei cedări lipsite de onoare". Revista 22 (in Romanian). Archived from the original on 24 February 2018. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  71. ^
    ISBN 9975-939-36-8
  72. ^ "Expozitie cutremurătoare la Bruxelles: 75 de ani de la Masacrul de la Fântâna Albă". RFI România: Actualitate, informaţii, ştiri în direct. 6 April 2016. Archived from the original on 28 March 2023. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
  73. ^ Hakman, Serhiy (5 March 2021). "Заручники: перехід через кордон ініціювала румунська розвідка (до 80-річчя розстрілу людей 1 квітня 1941 року в урочищі "Варниця" біля села Біла Криниця)". Українська газета Час (in Ukrainian).
  74. ^ "Masacrul de la Galaţi din 30 iunie 1940". radioromaniacultural.ro. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  75. ^ Final Report of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania, pp. 85–86
  76. ISBN 9789975940290
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  77. ISBN 9789975940290
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  78. ^ Țăranu, Mariana S. (7 December 2013). "Cronologia terorii comuniste din prima ocupație sovietică a teritoriilor românești de la Est de Prut (1940–1941)" [Chronology of communist terror from the first Soviet occupation of the Romanian territories east of the Prut (1940–1941)]. Timpul de dimineață (in Romanian). Retrieved 8 April 2021.
  79. ^ "Hitler's Europe", Time, Monday, July 1, 1940
  80. ^ "Background Note: Romania", United States Department of State, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, October 2007. The text says: "Romania entered World War II on the side of the Axis Powers in June 1941, invading the Soviet Union to recover Bessarabia and Bukovina, which had been annexed in 1940."
  81. ^ Vasile Șoimaru. "Turnul Dezrobirii Basarabiei" (in Romanian). Literatura și Arta. Archived from the original on 9 March 2013. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  82. ^ (in Romanian) www.worldwar2.ro: Maresal Ion Antonescu
  83. ^ "The Holocaust in Romania" (PDF). Final Report of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania. Yad Vashem (The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 January 2016. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  84. ISBN 978-1-85367-280-4
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  85. ^ Treaty of Peace with Roumania at Australian Treaty Series 1948, No. 2
  86. ^ "Viata bucovineana in Ramnicu-Valcea postbelic" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 April 2014. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  87. ^ Atitudinea antiromaneasca a evreilor din Basarabia Archived 11 November 2016 at the Wayback Machine at historia.ro
  88. ISBN 978-973-50-1836-8
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  89. ^ Igor Cașu, ""Politica națională" în Moldova sovietică", Chișinău, Ed. Cartdidact, 2000, p. 32-33
  90. ^ (in Russian) Mikhail Semiryaga, "Tainy stalinskoi diplomatii", Moscow, Vysshaya Shkola, 1992, p. 270
  91. ^
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  92. ^ Comisia Prezidențială pentru Analiza Dictaturii Comuniste din România: Raport Final, p. 595
  93. ^ "Literatura și Arta", 12 December 1991
  94. ^ Report, p. 747-748
  95. ^ R. J. Rummel, Table 6.A. 5,104,000 victims during the pre-World War II period: sources, calculations and estimates, Freedom, Democracy, Peace; Power, Democide, and War, University of Hawaii.
  96. ^ a b (in Romanian) Martiri pentru Hristos, din România, în perioada regimului comunist, Editura Institutului Biblic și de Misiune al Bisericii Ortodoxe Române, București, 2007, pp.34–35
  97. ^ such as А. М. Лазарев "Год 1940 — продолжение социалистической революции в Бессарабии
  98. ^ "Un analist rus recunoaşte: URSS a anexat Basarabia la 28 iunie 1940 VIDEO". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  99. ISBN 5-88568-022-1
    , pp. 342–347
  100. ^ Dan Dungaciu, p.11
  101. ^ Gheorghe E. Cojocaru, Politica externă a Republicii Moldova. Studii., Ediția 2-a, Civitas, Chișinău, 2001, p. 126+128
  102. ^ Dan Dungaciu, p. 11-13
  103. ^ Resolution project published also in Moldova Suverană, 20 iunie 1991
  104. ^ "Primăria a instalat în fața Guvernului o piatră în memoria victimelor regimului comunist" (in Romanian). Publika TV. 26 June 2010. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  105. ^ "Meriți tot ce e mai bun! – JurnalTV.md". www.jurnaltv.md. Archived from the original on 25 July 2011. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  106. ^ "Poziția oficială a Academiei de Științe: 28 iunie 1940 a fost zi de ocupație sovietică" (in Romanian). Unimedia. 21 February 2011. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  107. ^ "Moldovan Leader: Court Ruling Against 'Soviet Occupation Day' Was Political". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. 12 July 2010. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  108. ^ Moldpres, Moldovan top court says presidential decree on Day of Soviet Occupation unlawful Archived 2011-07-22 at the Wayback Machine
  109. ^ "Prim-ministrul Vlad FILAT a prezidat astăzi ședința ordinară a Guvernului". Archived from the original on 23 October 2013. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  110. ^ "Prim-ministrul Vlad FILAT a participat astăzi la acțiunile consacrate memoriei victimelor deportărilor și represiunilor politice". Archived from the original on 23 October 2013. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  111. ^ "Comuniştii moldoveni au consemnat eliberarea Moldovei de sub ocupaţia română / Partide.md".

References

Further reading

  • Read, A., & Fisher, D. (1988). Deadly Embrace: Hitler, Stalin and the Nazi-Soviet Pact, 1939–1941. W W Norton & Co.
  • Rieber, A. J. (2022). Stalin as Warlord. Yale University Press.
  • Sontag, R. J., & Beddie, J. S. (Eds.). (2003). Nazi Soviet Relations, 1939–1941: Documents From The Archives Of The German Foreign Office. University Press of the Pacific.
  • Treptow, K. W. (2022). Romania and World War II. Center for Romanian Studies.

External links

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