The accession of Bessarabia to Russia took place twice in modern history. First, this happened following the results of the Russo-Turkish war at the beginning of the 19th century, and then on the eve of World War II. In this article we will talk about the causes, facts and consequences of these events.
Historical area
Historians have mixed opinions about the consequences of Bessarabia’s joining Russia. Some believe that this had a positive impact on the region, while others emphasize the imperial ways of both the tsar and the Soviet leaders.
Bessarabia is a historical region located in southeastern Europe. It is located between the Prut, Danube, Dniester and the Black Sea rivers. Its name comes from the name of the governor, who ruled at the beginning of the XIV century. After joining Russia, Bessarabia became the region of the same name, and in 1873 received the status of a province.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, part of this territory became part of Ukraine. Chernivtsi and Odessa regions were formed. The city of Bender and some of its suburbs are located within the borders of Moldova, while the control on them is carried out by the unrecognized state of the Transnistrian Moldavian Republic.
The main population of this historical region is Romanians, Moldavians, Russians, Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Gypsies and Gagauzians. Until the middle of the 20th century, many Germans, Jews, Turks, Budjak Tatars, and Nogais lived.
Russian-Turkish war
The first time Bessarabia was annexed to Russia following the results of the Russo-Turkish War of 1806-1812. It became one of the links in a series of armed confrontations between the Ottoman and Russian empires.
During this war, the region was controlled by the Moldavian sofa, the so-called supreme legislative and executive authority in a number of Muslim states. Moreover, in fact, it was led by the Russians, who were directly subordinate to the commander in chief of the Russian army.
The reason for the outbreak of war was the resignation of the rulers of Wallachia and Moldavia in 1806. According to existing agreements, the displacement and appointment of new leaders was to take place with the participation of Russia. The troops of General Michelson were introduced into the principality, who could not convince the Turks that this was done only to save Turkey from the aggression of Napoleon Bonaparte.
War Results
The Russian army won a landslide victory. The result was the conclusion of the Bucharest Peace Treaty on May 16, 1812. This date is considered the year of accession of Bessarabia to Russia.
According to its results, free trade shipping of the Russian fleet along the Danube was guaranteed. At the same time, the Danube principalities themselves returned to Turkey, however, their autonomy was affirmed by the peace treaties concluded in the second half of the 18th century.
Serbia received internal autonomy, besides officials were allowed to collect taxes in favor of the Sultan. Turkey in the Transcaucasus recognized the expansion of Russian possessions, but regained the fortress of Anapa.
One of the main outcomes was that Bessarabia was annexed to Russia under the 1812 treaty concluded in Bucharest. At that time, it was the eastern part of the Moldavian principality, originally called the Pruto-Dniester interfluve. In Romanian historiography, this event is called the abduction of Bessarabia. However, it was in 1812 that Bessarabia was annexed to Russia. In this status, she remained for a century.
As part of the Russian Empire
When Southern Bessarabia became part of Russia, the region of the same name was created on this territory. This happened in 1818.
In 1829, according to the Adrianople Peace Treaty, which completed the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829, the Danube Delta also went to the empire.
After the territory of Bessarabia was annexed to Russia, the authorities became preoccupied with its structure following the example of internal provinces. In 1853, Russia sent troops to the territory of the Moldavian Principality, thereby provoking the outbreak of the Crimean War. After its completion, the southern part of the region had to be ceded. After such territorial losses, Russia lost access to the estuary of the Danube, strategically important for it. Moreover, 40 of the 83 Gagauz colonies fell under the rule of the Moldavian Principality. All this was negatively perceived by the Bulgarian colonists.
When Wallachia and Moldavia were united in 1859, Southern Bessarabia became part of Romania. The following territorial changes occurred in 1878 when the Berlin Treaty was signed. It was the result of a congress that changed the terms of the previously signed San Stefano Treaty. Most experts note that this was done to the detriment of Russia.
At the same time, Southern Bessarabia again became part of Russia, but without the Danube Delta. At the end of the XIX century, almost two million people lived in the province. Chisinau was the largest city with a population of more than one hundred thousand people. The census, conducted in 1897, indicates that the Russians played a prominent role in all areas related to the activities of state authorities and the administration, in particular, the police, courts, public, legal and estate services. Their number in these organs amounted to 60%.
At the beginning of the twentieth century
In April 1903, in Chisinau, one of the largest Jewish pogroms in the history of the Russian Empire took place. About 50 people were killed, at least 600 injured and crippled, one third of all houses in the city were damaged.
Important changes in the history of this region occurred in 1917 after the February Revolution. The national movement revived here, as in all regions where the Russians were in the minority. A regional parliament was formed on the model of the Ukrainian Rada. Soon after the October Revolution, the creation of the Moldavian Democratic Republic was announced. True, the history of her independence was short-lived.
In December, Romanian troops entered its territory, following the order of the White Movement leader, General Dmitry Shcherbachev, who commanded the Romanian Front. The advance of Shcherbachev’s units met fierce resistance from the retreating Red Army units. Chisinau was occupied on January 13, and soon other large cities.
Under the conditions of the intervention, on March 27, 1918, the Bessarabian parliament supported the accession to Romania by a majority of votes. The help of Soviet Russia in the negotiations with Romania was proposed by the Entente. An agreement was reached on the withdrawal of Romanian troops from Bessarabia within two months. However, it was broken. The Romanians took advantage of the difficult situation of the young Bolshevik state, which was preoccupied with the Civil War and the invasion of the Austro-German forces on the territory of Ukraine. In December 1919, the Romanian parliament legislatively approved the law on the annexation of Bukovina, Transylvania and Bessarabia. Due to the new regime in the coming years, about 300 thousand people left the region, which amounted to more than 10% of the population.
A year later, the accession of Bessarabia to Romania was recognized by the main European powers, considering it justified from a geographical and historical point of view.
The Soviet government did not finally recognize the annexation of Bessarabia. In 1924, a Tatarbunar uprising of peasants led by the Bolsheviks against the Romanian authorities broke out in southern Bessarabia. It was brutally crushed by the troops.
Bessarabian campaign
The next entry of Bessarabia into Russia took place in 1940. The Romanians even agreed to transfer the oil field in Ploiesti to the Germans in exchange for military and political protection.
On February 8, 1940, the Romanian authorities turned to the Hitler government regarding the likely aggression by the USSR. Ribbentrop responded by saying that the Germans were not interested in the situation in Romania. On March 29, Molotov officially declared that the Soviet Union did not have a non-aggression pact, due to the presence of an unresolved issue on Bessarabia, the capture of which Romania was never recognized by the Soviet government. This is considered the main reason for the accession of Bessarabia to Russia.
The Germans have repeatedly stated that Romania’s security is directly dependent on its fulfillment of its economic obligations to Germany. But on June 1 they broke the word by declaring neutrality in the event of an attack by the USSR on a neighboring state. At the same time, militarization of Romania takes place, the Germans continue to actively supply weapons in exchange for oil.
June 9 created the management of the Southern Front under the command of Georgy Zhukov. Already on June 17, a plan was developed to capture Bessarabia. Ten days later, a general mobilization was announced in Romania. On the same day, Molotov said that in case of non-compliance with Soviet requirements for the return of Bessarabia, the troops are ready to cross the border. During the day, the Romanian air force violated the airspace of the USSR several times, being subjected to shelling by the border troops.
On the same day, late at night, the Crown Council of Romania, having assessed the real state of affairs in the state, decided to fulfill the requirements of the Soviet Union. On the night of June 28, the Bessarabian regional committee of the Communist Party created an interim revolutionary committee, which appealed to citizens to maintain order and calm. In the morning, squads, temporary working committees, and people's police detachments began to be massively created. They took control of all important facilities and enterprises.
Since the conflict was resolved peacefully, the troops of the Southern Front entered the territory of Bessarabia in a limited composition. The operation to transfer control over the territory of the region took six days.
Deportations
After Bessarabia was annexed to Russia, the deportation of so-called "unwanted elements" began throughout the territory. The heads of families were taken to prisoner of war camps, and their relatives became special settlers. They were sent to Komi, Kazakhstan, Novosibirsk and Omsk region, to the Krasnoyarsk Territory. According to modern experts, more than 25 thousand people were deported. About four thousand people were sent to prisoner of war camps.
New authorities were promptly created.
Repression against Bessarabians in Romania
When Bessarabia became part of Russia, many residents of the region found themselves in other countries or in Romania itself, where they were working. Most of them attempted to return to their homeland, but the Romanian government prevented this.
Bessarabians, who served in the Romanian army, but then fled from it, returned in large numbers. For example, in Iasi, about five thousand inhabitants of this region were detained, who were kept by the Romanian authorities without food and water in the station building, and then, loaded into cars, they were expelled from the city.
Education of the Moldavian USSR
Once in Russia, Bessarabia was transformed into the Moldavian SSR. It included six of the nine counties of the Bessarabian province of the RSFSR, as well as six of the fourteen districts of the former Moldavian ASSR.
After an additional agreement between Molotov and Schulenburg, the German population from the south of Bessarabia and from Northern Bukovina was resettled to Germany (about 115 thousand people). The liberated lands were proposed to be occupied by Ukrainians, state farms were created for them. As a result of the redistribution of 96 settlements moved to the Ukrainian SSR, and 61 to the Moldavian.
As a result, almost three million people were on the territory of Moldova, 70% of whom were Moldovans. The capital of the republic officially became the city of Chisinau.
As part of the USSR
When Bessarabia was annexed to Russia, in the status of the Moldavian SSR, it began to have the same rights as the rest of the Soviet republics. After the war, 448 million rubles were allocated for the restoration of the local economy. In 1949, the deportation of wealthy peasants took place. Their livestock, implements, land, crops and machinery went to collective farms.
The republic received significant assistance from the center, but even this did not save it from the famine that collapsed in 1946. The food situation was extremely difficult. The difficult economic situation worsened after the drought of 1945. The number of crimes in the region has increased, especially theft. Because of this, peasants refused to hand over crops to the state, in some cases such a decision was made by entire collective farms. As a result, it was decided to free Moldova from the supply of certain products for the Red Army, while additional food supplies began to be imported into the republic.
In the postwar years, famine led to the intensification of the anti-Soviet movement. Leaflets appeared urging the government to resist. They were distributed mainly among the rural population, which suffered the most. In parallel, local religious sects became more active.
At the end of the 80s, the national movement played an important role in the republic. It began to put forward demands to expand the status of the Moldovan language and democratic change. A nationalist Popular Front of Moldova was formed, which called for accession to Romania.
In 1990, sovereignty was proclaimed. A few months later, the creation of the Transdniestrian Moldavian SSR was announced in Tiraspol, recognizing the territorial belonging to the Soviet Union.
In May 1991, it was officially decided to create the Republic of Moldova. In August, state independence was proclaimed. Mircea Snegur became the first president. Moreover, formally, the republic continued to be part of the USSR until the conclusion of the Bialowieza Agreement.
Thus, we talked about two historical facts of the accession of Bessarabia to Russia and described the causes of the events.