Southern Bessarabia is a territory that, as a result of the Crimean War, was transferred to the Moldavian Principality in 1856. As a result of the union of the latter with Wallachia, these lands became part of vassal Romania. The 1878 Berlin Treaty returned this region of the Russian Empire. Bessarabia included such regions as Moldova, Bukovina and Budzhak. Now their names, however, are almost forgotten.
Bessarabia - where is it now? The answer to this question is very simple. It is a fairly large historical region in Eastern Europe. Today, Bessarabia includes most (about 65%) of modern Moldova, with the Ukrainian Budzhak region covering the southern coastal region, and part of the Chernivtsi region of Ukraine - a small territory in the north. If you look at Europe from above, then this region is quite noticeable. Therefore, finding Bessarabia on the map is quite easy.
Territory Division
After the Russo-Turkish war (1806โ1812) and the ensuing Bucharest peace, the Ottoman vassal transferred the eastern regions of the Principality of Moldova along with some areas previously under direct Ottoman rule to imperial Russia. The acquisition was one of the last territorial conquests of the empire in Europe. The newly emerged territories were organized as the governorate of Bessarabia, adopting the name previously used for the southern plains between the Dniester and Danube rivers. These rivers are the natural borders of the region. After the Crimean War in 1856, the southern regions of Bessarabia were returned to the rule of Moldova. Russian rule was restored throughout the region in 1878, when Romania, as a result of the alliance of Moldova with Wallachia, was forced to exchange these territories for Dobrudja. Moldova on the map at that time seemed to be a much larger region than now.
Greater Romania
After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the territory became the Moldavian Democratic Republic, an autonomous part of the proposed Federated Russian State. Bolshevik agitation in late 1917 - early 1918 led to the intervention of the Romanian army, ostensibly to pacify the region. Soon after, the parliamentary assembly declared independence, and then an alliance with the Kingdom of Romania. However, the legality of these acts was challenged, especially in the Soviet Union, which considered this area as the territory occupied by Romania. This episode is now considered very shameful for the history of Romania.
As part of the USSR and during the war
In 1940, after obtaining the consent of Nazi Germany under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union put pressure on Romania. Under the threat of war, she left Bessarabia, allowing the Red Army to annex the region. The area was officially integrated into the Soviet Union: the core connected parts of the Moldavian ASSR to form the Moldavian SSR, and the territories inhabited by the Slavic majority in the north and south of Bessarabia were transferred to the Ukrainian SSR. Romania, aligned on the axis, re-captured the region in 1941 with the success of Operation Munich during the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, but lost it in 1944 when the course of the war changed. In 1947, the Soviet-Romanian border along the Prut was internationally recognized by the Paris Treaty, which put an end to World War II.
Between Moldova and Ukraine
In the process of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Moldavian and Ukrainian SSR proclaimed their independence in 1991, becoming the modern states of Moldova and Ukraine, while maintaining the existing section of Bessarabia. After a short war in the early 1990s, the Transdniestrian Moldavian Republic was proclaimed in Transnistria, extending its power to the municipality of Bender on the right bank of the Dniester.
A part of the Gagauz-populated areas in the south of Bessarabia was organized in 1994 as an autonomous region within Moldova. This autonomy still exists.
Southern Bessarabia: geography
This region is bounded by the Dniester in the north and east, the Prut in the west and the lower Danube River and the Black Sea in the south. It has an area of โโ45 630 km 2 . It is mainly represented by hilly plains with flat steppes, is distinguished by special fertility and has deposits of lignite and quarries. People living in the area grow sugar beets, sunflowers, wheat, corn, tobacco, wine, grapes and fruits. They also raise sheep and cattle. Currently, the main industry in the region is agricultural processing.
The main cities of the region are Chisinau (the former capital of the governorate of Bessarabia, now the capital of Moldova), Izmail and Belgorod-Dniester, historically called Cetatea Albฤ / Akkerman (currently both in Ukraine). Other cities of administrative or historical significance include: Khotyn, Reni and Kiliya (currently all in Ukraine), as well as Lipcan, Briceni, Magpies, Balti, Orhei, Ungheni, Bender / Tigin and Cahul (currently all in Moldova) .
History
At the end of the XIV century, the newly created principality of Moldova, which later became Bessarabia, was already known. Subsequently, this territory was directly or indirectly, partially or completely controlled: by the Ottoman Empire (as overlord of Moldova, with direct rule only in Budzhak and Khotyn), the Russian Empire, Romania, the USSR. Since 1991, most of the territory has been the core of Moldova with small plots in Ukraine.
The territory of Bessarabia has been inhabited by people for millennia. Kukuten-Tripoli culture flourished between the VI and III millennia BC. Indo-European culture spread in the region around 2000 BC. e.
In ancient times, the region was inhabited by the Thracians, as well as for shorter periods by the Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians and Celts, in particular, by tribes such as the Costoboks, Carps, Brigogali, Tiragetes and Bastars. In the VI century BC e. Greek settlers founded the Tiras colony along the Black Sea coast and traded with the locals. The Celts also settled in the southern parts of Bessarabia. Their main city was Aliobrix.
Dacia
The first state, which is believed to have included all of Bessarabia, was the Dacian state of Burebista in the 1st century BC. After his death, the state was divided into smaller parts, and the central ones were united in the Dacian kingdom of Decebal in the 1st century AD. This kingdom was defeated by the Roman Empire in 106. Southern Bessarabia was included in the empire before that, in 57 AD, as part of the Roman province of Lower Mezia, but was consolidated only after the defeat of the Dacian kingdom in 106. Romanians and Moldavians consider the Dacians and Romans as their ancestors. The Romans built defensive earthen walls in Southern Bessarabia (for example, the Lower Wall of Trajan) to protect the province of Lesser Scythia from invasion. Now in this region there are quite a lot of Roman buildings that attract tourists. With the exception of the Black Sea coast in southern Bessarabia, it remained outside direct Roman control; countless tribes there are called by modern historians free Dacians.
In 270, the Roman authorities began the withdrawal of their troops south of the Danube, especially from Roman Dacia, due to the invasion of the Goths and Carps. Goths - a Germanic tribe - poured into the Roman Empire from the lower Dnieper through the southern part of Bessarabia (Budzhak steppe), due to its geographical location and features (mainly the steppe), captured by various nomadic tribes for many centuries. In 378, the area was captured by the Huns.
After rome
From the 3rd to the 11th centuries, various tribes repeatedly invaded the region: Goths, Huns, Avars, Bulgars, Magyars, Pechenegs, Cumans and Mongols. The territory of Bessarabia was swept by dozens of ephemeral kingdoms, which were dissolved when another wave of migrants arrived. These centuries were characterized by insecurity and the massive displacement of these tribes. Later this period was known as the "dark ages" of Europe or the era of migration.
In 561, the Avars captured Bessarabia and executed the local ruler Mesamer. Following the Avars, Slavs began to arrive in the region and establish settlements. Then, in 582, the Onogur Bulgars settled in southeastern Bessarabia and northern Dobrudja, from where they moved to Lower Moesia (presumably under pressure from the Khazars) and formed the nascent region of Bulgaria. With the growth of the Khazar state in the east, invasions began to decrease and it became possible to create larger states. According to some opinions, the southern part of Bessarabia remained under the influence of the First Bulgarian Empire until the end of the 9th century. Bulgarians participated in the Slavicization of the local population.
Between the VIII and X centuries, the southern part of Bessarabia was inhabited by people from the Balkan-Dunab culture of the First Bulgarian Empire. Between the 9th and 13th centuries, Bessarabia is mentioned in the Slavic chronicles as part of the Bolohoven (north) and Brodnitsky (south) voivodships, which were considered the principalities of the early Middle Ages.
Principality of Moldova
After the 1360s, the region gradually became part of the Principality of Moldova, which by 1392 established control over the fortresses of Akkerman and Chile, and the Dniester River became its eastern border. Based on the name of the region, some authors believe that in the second half of the XIV century the southern part of the region was under the rule of Wallachia (the ruling dynasty of Wallachia during this period was called Basarab). In the XV century, the entire region was part of the Principality of Moldova. Stephen the Great ruled from 1457 from 1504, almost 50 years, during which he won 32 battles, defending his country from almost all his neighbors (mainly from Ottomans and Tatars, but also from Hungarians and Poles). During this period, after each victory, he built a monastery or church near the battlefield in honor of Christianity. Many of these battlefields and churches, as well as old fortresses, are located in Bessarabia (mainly along the Dniester).
In 1484, the Turks invaded and captured Chile and Chetatea Albe (Akkerman in Turkish) and annexed the coastline of the southern part of Bessarabia, which was then divided into two sanjaks (districts) of the Ottoman Empire. In 1538, the Ottomans annexed more Bessarabian lands in the south up to Tigina, while the central and northern parts of the region remained in the possession of the Principality of Moldavia (which became the vassal of the Ottoman Empire). From 1711 to 1812, the Russian Empire occupied the region five times during its wars against the Ottoman and Austrian empires.
As part of Russia
Under the Bucharest Treaty of May 28, 1812, which ended the Russo-Turkish War of 1806-1812, the Ottoman Empire ceded the territory between the Prut and the Dniester, including the Moldavian and Turkish territories of the Russian Empire. This whole region was then called Bessarabia.
In 1814, the first German settlers arrived, who mainly came to the southern regions, and Bessarabian Bulgarians began to settle in this region, establishing cities such as Bolgrad. From 1812 to 1846, the Bulgarian and Gagauz populations migrated to the Russian Empire across the Danube River, having lived for many years under the repressive Ottoman rule, and settled in southern Bessarabia. Their ancestors still live there. The Tรผrkic-speaking tribes of the Nogai horde also inhabited the Bujak region (Buchak in Turkish) in southern Bessarabia from the 16th to the 18th century, but were completely expelled until 1812.
Administratively, Bessarabia became the province of the Russian Empire in 1818, and the province in 1873.
Under the Adrianople Treaty, which ended the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829, the entire Danube Delta was included in the Bessarabian region. According to Stoika, an emissary of the Romanian government in the United States, in 1834 the Romanian language was banned in schools and public institutions, despite 80% of the population speaking this language. This will ultimately lead to a ban on Romanians in churches, media and books. According to the same author, those who protested against the ban on the Romanian language could be sent to Siberia. The history of the Black Sea has forever preserved these episodes.
At the end of the Crimean War, in 1856, in accordance with the Paris Treaty, the region described in the article was returned to Moldova, which led to the Russian Empire losing control of it. Russia has lost a large strip of territory overlooking the Danube River. The Cahul-Izmail-Bolgrad strip already then separated the southern part of the region from the rest. In our time, the situation has not changed much.
Independent Romania
In 1859, Moldova and Wallachia united to form the Principality of Romania, which included the southern part of Bessarabia. This is the most significant episode in the history of Romania.
The Chisinau-Iasi railway was opened on June 1, 1875 in preparation for the Russo-Turkish War (1877โ1878), and the Eiffel Bridge was opened on April 21, 1877, just three days before the war. The Romanian War of Independence was waged in 1877-1878. With the help of the Russian Empire as an ally, Northern Dobrogea was awarded Romania for its role in the Russo-Turkish war.
The interim government of the workers and peasants of Southern Bessarabia was founded on May 5, 1919. This happened just after the seizure of power in Odessa by the Bolsheviks. Part of the former Bessarabia subsequently withdrew to Romania, then to reunite with the Soviet Union.
Communist Temporary Parish
On May 11, 1919, the Bessarabian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed an autonomous part of the RSFSR, but this was canceled by the participation of the armed forces of Poland and France in September 1919. After the victory of Bolshevik Russia in the civil war in Russia, the Ukrainian SSR was created in 1922, and In 1924, the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was formed on a strip of Ukrainian land on the left bank of the Dniester, where Moldovans and Romanians made up less than a third of the inhabitants.
Under the rule of Great Romania
In Bessarabia under Romanian rule, there was a low population growth due to high mortality, as well as emigration. Bessarabia was also characterized by economic stagnation and high unemployment.
The Soviet Union did not recognize the accession of Bessarabia to Romania and throughout the interwar period was engaged in attempts to destabilize Romania and diplomatic disputes with the government in Bucharest on this territory. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed on August 23, 1939. In accordance with article 4 of the secret annex to the treaty, Bessarabia fell into the zone of interests of the USSR.
The Second World War
In the spring of 1940, Western Europe was captured by Nazi Germany. The attention of the world community was focused on these events. On June 26, 1940, the USSR issued Romania a 24-hour ultimatum, demanding the immediate transfer of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina under the threat of war. Romania received four days to evacuate its troops and officials. According to official Romanian sources, the two provinces had an area of โโ51,000 km 2 , and about 3.75 million people lived in them, half of which were Romanians. Two days later, Romania surrendered and began the evacuation. During the evacuation, from June 28 to July 3, groups of local communists and Soviet supporters attacked retreating forces and civilians who decided to leave. Many members of minorities (Jews, ethnic Ukrainians and others) joined in these attacks. The Romanian army was also attacked by the Soviet army, which entered Bessarabia before the Romanian administration completed the retreat. The victims reported by the Romanian army over the seven days were 356 officers and 42,876 soldiers who died or disappeared.
The political solution to the Jewish question, as was noted by the Romanian dictator Marshal Ion Antonescu, is more in exile than in extermination. The part of the Jewish population of Bessarabia and Bukovina that did not flee before the retreat of Soviet troops (147,000) was initially gathered in ghettos or Nazi concentration camps, and then deported during 1941-1942 in death marches to Transnistria occupied by Romania. Cahul (Moldova) suffered greatly from these ethnic cleansing.
End of war
After three years of relative peace, the German-Soviet front returned in 1944 to the land border on the Dniester. On August 20, 1944, the 3.4 million Red Army launched a major summer offensive, code-named "Iasi-Chisinau Operation." Within five days, Soviet troops captured Bessarabia during a bilateral attack. In the battles near Chisinau and Sarata, the German 6th army of 650 thousand people was destroyed. Along with the success of the Russian attack, Romania broke off relations with the Allies and switched sides. On August 23, 1944, Marshal Ion Antonescu was arrested by King Michael, and then transferred to the Soviets. Throughout the existence of the USSR, Bessarabia was divided between the Ukrainian and Moldavian SR. That is how it is now.
The Soviet Union restored the region in 1944, and the Red Army occupied Romania. By 1947, the Soviets introduced a communist government in Bucharest, which was friendly and obedient to Moscow. The Soviet occupation of Romania lasted until 1958. The Romanian communist regime did not openly raise the question of Bessarabia or Northern Bukovina in its diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. At least 100 thousand people died as a result of the post-war famine in Moldova.
Under the rule of the Soviets
Between 1969 and 1971, several young intellectuals in Chisinau created a secret National Patriotic Front with more than 100 members who vowed to fight for the creation of the Moldavian Democratic Republic, its separation from the Soviet Union and an alliance with Romania.
In December 1971, after an informative note by the President of the State Security Council of the Romanian Socialist Republic, Ion Stenscu, Yuri Andropov, the head of the KGB, three leaders of the National Patriotic Front, Alexander Usatyuk-Bulgar, Georg Gimp and Valeriu Graur, as well as Alexander Soltoian, leader of a similar underground movement in the northern part Bukovina (Bukovina) were arrested and then sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.
As part of independent Moldova and Ukraine
With the weakening of the Soviet Union in February 1988, the first unauthorized demonstrations took place in Chisinau. At the beginning of perestroika, they soon became anti-government and demanded the official status of the Romanian (Moldavian) language instead of Russian. On August 31, 1989, after a demonstration in Chisinau, numbering 600 thousand people, Romanian (Moldavian) became the official language of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. Moldova on the map is located between Romania and Ukraine.
In 1990, the first free parliamentary elections were held, in which the opposition Popular Front won. A government was formed, led by Mircea Druk, one of the opposition leaders. The Republic became the Moldavian SSR, and then the Republic of Moldova.
Many are interested in the question: "Bessarabia - where is it now?" Bessarabia is now divided between Moldova and Ukraine. Most of this region is part of the first. From the Ukrainian side, most of Odessa region and Chernivtsi region belong to this region.
The Republic of Moldova became independent on August 31, 1991. The young state adopted the invariable borders of the Moldavian SSR. One of the centers of the region to which the article is devoted is the city of Cahul, Moldova.