Events
editSoviet occupation
editBessarabia was a part of Romania until 1940 when the USSR re-annexed the territory as well as Northern Bukovina.
The convention of October 28, 1920, whereby the British Empire, France, Italy, and Japan recognized Romanian sovereignty in Bessarabia, was rejected as invalid by the USSR. Moscow even denied the validity of that part of the convention that stipulated that, upon Russian request, the Council of the League of Nations could be empowered to arbitrate the Russo-Romanian dispute over Bessarabia. In short, the Kremlin insisted that Romania was illegally occupying Bessarabia. Moscow also encouraged revolutionary activities by Bolshevik elements in Bessarabia.
The exact position of the USSR on these issues is unknown except for Moscow's unwillingness to make any concessions to Bucharest on Bessarabian issues. Recent tracts by Romanian historians have emphasized the support given by Romanian Communists to the "democratic forces" opposed to alteration of the status quo in Transylvania in 1938 and subsequent years. True as this may be, there has been no evidence presented in support of any fundamental change in Moscow's positions with respect to Bessarabia in 1938 and subsequent years.
According to official NKVD documents, over 15,000 Romanians from Northern Bukovina were deported to Siberia in 1940 alone.[1] The Soviet action culminated with the Fântâna Albă massacre when 2,500 to 3,000 Romanian refugees who were attempting to leave Northern Bukovina for Romania were blocked by the USSR Border Troops and about 200 of them were shot, at a place called "Fântâna Albă" (White Fountain in Romanian). This policy resulted in a substantial shrinkage of the Romanian population in the province. By 1941, out of 250,000 Romanians in Northern Bukovina, only 192,000 were left.
The territory of the Moldavian SSR was composed of Bessarabia (except for Southern Bessarabia, assigned to Ukraine) and a part of the territory of the former Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Transnistria), founded in 1924 within the territory of Ukraine. In the document confirming the establishment of the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (MASSR) of 12 October 1924 the West frontier of the republic was traced out not along the Dniester River but the Prut River. In the MASSR the ideology of a separate Moldovan identity was pursued, including the introduction of Moldovan language, distinct from Romanian. The Cyrillic alphabet and abundant Russisms were introduced.
Another historical event which contributed to the future implementation of the anti-Romanian feelings constituted Romania’s behaviour in the World War II when the Romanian regime allied itself with Nazi Germany.
In Bessarabia, the Soviet government pursued a policy of assimilation of the native Romanian population. First, the province was divided into a "Moldovan" Socialist Republic and a southern region known as Budjak, which was renamed Izmail Oblast and attached to the Ukrainian SSR. Elite elements of the Romanian population were then deported to Siberia much like their Bukovinian counterparts. Russian and Ukrainian settlers were used to fill the vacant areas caused by the deportation of Romanians.[2] Romanians who continued to identify themselves as Romanians and not Moldovans were severely punished by the Communist regime.[citation needed]
In 1946-1947, as a result of the famine organised in the MSSR (according to some data of certain scientists; official data have not yet been published), around 300 thousand people died and many cases of cannibalism occurred. In addition, the population of the former MASSR, as a part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, also suffered from the artificial famine in the 1930s when several million people died in Ukraine (see also Holodomor).
The territory of Transnistria was more industrialised in comparison with the other part of Moldova and the industrialisation process of Transnistria was accompanied by a population flow from other areas of the USSR, especially from the Russian Federation. Although in the Republic of Moldova the level of population density was the highest one in the USSR, Moscow continued to stimulate the arrival of labour force from outside, including that with a poor qualification. Even Igor Smirnov himself, current leader of the separatist regime of Transnistria, was sent in 1987 from Russia to Bender to be the director of an enterprise. This process was also amplified by the excessive militarization of the area.
Many officers of the Red Army, serving in military units on the left bank of Dniester river, transferred to reserve, preferred to stay and live in Tiraspol and Bender. Therefore, although in the whole of the MSSR in 1989 the titular nationality's share of the population was about 65%, in Transnistria it stood at only 40%. Moreover, the majority of the Romance-speaking population on the left bank of the Dniester was dispersed in rural localities and it was more difficult for them to consolidate and to express themselves politically.
The 1989 adoption of the Law on state language (official language) and Law on functioning of languages on the territory of the MSSR generated an extremely negative reaction in the industrial centres of Transnistria, where the largely Russian-speaking population was not being consulted, and felt threatened by the prospects of Romanianization. These laws proclaimed the Moldovan (Romanian) language, written in the Latin alphabet, as the only state language. The fact that Moldovan and Romanian are identical was recognised. Although a majority of the Transnistrian population never read these laws which served as a reason for the conflict's outburst, they feared that by the application of the new linguistic legislation, Russian language speakers would become second-class citizens. At the industrial enterprises, including those of the military-industrial complex of the USSR, strikes occurred protesting against granting official language status to the Moldavian (Romanian) language.
Soviet politicide and ethnic cleansing
editBefore and after World War II, the Soviet Union transferred a significant number of people from Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to labour camps, where many died or were executed. The deportees were those who had been declared enemies of the working class by Stalinist policy. These included former policemen and soldiers, religious workers, larger landowners (nobility and kulaks, that is, richer peasants), members of certain political parties, as well as those who expressed any kind of dissent, which altogether constituted a significant part of the population and included the majority of the educated population, the bearers of Romanian culture. In addition, the ethnically Romanian population was resettled from the border regions. (See Population transfer in the Soviet Union and Involuntary settlements in the Soviet Union for similar processes all over the USSR.)
- Between 1939 and 1941, 300,000 Romanians were deported, of whom 57,000 were killed (not counting the Gulag).[3]
- Between 1941 and 1945, 390,000 Romanians were deported, of whom 51,000 were killed (not counting the Gulag).[4]
- Between 1945 and 1953, 1,654,000 Romanians were deported, of whom 215,000 were killed (380,000 more counting Gulag and terror killings).[5]
1940-1941
editIn every county center of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina there was an NKVD headquoters. Many arrested people were taken there to never be seen again. When the Romanian army arrived in July 1941, shallow graves were discovered in all of them in cellars, in courtyeards, or in wells. I read about those in Chisinau, Orhei, Tighina, Soroca, Cernauti, Cetatea Alba. None of them contained particular big number of people: generally around 40-50 each, with the exception of Chisunau, where there were more. However, the discovered remains showed horible signs of torture: missing limbs and fingers, hands and legs tied with metal ropes, etc.
- in the cellar of the NKVD building on 97, Viilor street, Chişinău were found 87 bodies, including 15 in a common grave, with tied hands and legs.
- in the courtyard of the former Italian consulate in Chişinău, where NKVD had another branch, 80 bodied were unveiled, the majority remained unidentified because of very much mutilation. It appeared that the people were burned during the interogation, and then treated with lime and acids after death. According to their cloves, the victims were mainly priests, students, school students, railroad workers.
- in the cellars of the Mitropolitan Palace in Chişinău were discovered "cells for Romanian nationalists". On 7 september 1941, in Chişinău took place the funerals of 450 people found dead in the Italian Consulate, in the Mitropolitan Palace, in the Faculty of Teology.
- in Ismail, in the cellar of the NKVD headquoters on General Vaiatoianu street were found 6 bodies (5 male, one female), with hands tied at their back.
- in Cetatea Alba, according to a investigation report from November 1941, from the begining of June till 20 July 1941, from the NKVD headquoters in the city were brought 19 bodies and buried in 16 graves. According to the cemetery guardian, the majority did not have cloves, had signs of torture, some where bandaged at the head and the limbs, and had their hands tied. Many more cases of people disapeared from the city were discovered, and it was believed they were deported inside USSR.
From spring till June 1943, in Tatarka, in the Romanian occpied Transnistria, a group of specialists from Odessa (Dr. K. Shapochkin, deputy chief of the Medical-Sanitar Direction of the Government of Transnistria, N. I. Grubianu, the admnistrator of the desinfection section, docentI. I. Fidloveski, chief of medecal-legal expertese and Grigore Tatarciuc, gandarm representative of the Odesa pretorial office) have searched a lot of land of 1000 sq meters, were a big number of bodies was found. At first, it was believed these were victims of NKVD repressions from 1938-40, and of deportees from Besarabia and Northern Bukovina, shot by the Soviets because they could no longer transport them. In order to facilitate the putrefaction process, the lot was covered with animal excrements.
A Romanian intelligence report from 1 June 1943, signed by leutenant-colonel Traian Borcescu states that "On the lot called Spolka, situated 7 km from the railline Odessa-Ovidiopol, between the suburb Tatarka [of Odessa] and the airfield, common graves of NKVD victims were found. The works to uncover the bodies have started on 22 April 1943 and were done by the Military Pretorial Service of Odessa. [...] From the declaration of inhabitants in the vicinity of the lot, it follows that the NKVD troops were bringing corpses during the night in a covered track, and were throughing them into the common grave, and immediately covered. It also follows from these declarations that the road parallel to the lot was totally forbidden to circulation, and were severely garded.
"The investigations show that the executions have increased in pace after 1940, once Bessarabia and Bukovina were occupied.
"Ioan Halip, Grigore Tatarcu and Alexandru Ivanov, from Bessarabia and Bukovina, currently living in Odessa, have recognized at the place among the bodies their relatives deported by NKVD after the occupation.
"The Commission to examine the corpses and determining the circumstances in which the victimes died has determined that the victims were generally shot in the back of the head from a very short distance. The age of the executions is estimated at 2-3 years, the cloves were characteristic to those of inhabitants of Bessarabia and Bukovina."
On 6 August 1943, the legal doctor Alexandru Birkle, oneof the members of the commission that studied the remains found at Katyn, presented a "Provisional medico-legal report on the investigations at Tatarka". In his commission also were members C. Chirila, subdirector of Health in the Government of Transnistria, and one representative each from the mayor office of Odessa, from the Gendarms unit of Transnistria and from the University of Odessa. According to the report, 42 common graves were discovered, and signs of 10-20 others. In each grave were found around 80 corpses. A total approximately 3,500 corpses lie in the 42 graves, and the total number is estimated at 5,000. Only 516 corpses were exhumated [so far], and of these 486 were already examined medico-legally with the following conclusions:
- cause of death: shot in the upper back part of the scull, in a few cases, in the lower back part of the scull.
- shots were delivered from military revolvers, caliber 7 mm and 5.5 mm from immediate distance to the target
- medico-legal researches have demonstrated that the age of the corpses is 3.5-5 years. From the study of several idenity papers found, it follows that some of the victims were from 4.5-5 years (1938)
- no lavrae of insects were found, showing tha the executions took place in a cold weather, and that the bodies were buried immediately after being shot
- the process of putrefaction has been slowed also due to a large number of corpses in a single place
- of the 486 examined corpses, all had hands tied at their back, with the exception of one, which had only the trace of the tied hands
- of the examined corpses, 7 were women and 479 were men, of which one was in military uniform
- 43 corpses had identity papers (exerpts of reports from their arrests and searches), which allowed their identification
- the ones identified were arrested on the territory controlled by USSR (including from 1940 on from Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina)
- of 486, 385 were buried, 131 not yet
- age: 20-30 years - 60; 30-40 years - 189; 40-50 years - 186; over 50 years - 81. 7 females and 509 males. 515 civilians and one military (by cloves)
Deportations, other than the above three
editPOWs, other
editForced labor
editOrganizations
edit
(Organizaţia revoluţionarilor din Basarabia)
Black Army (Armata Neagra}
Democratic Agrarian Party (Partidul Democrat Agrar)
Freedom Party Partidul Libertǎţii
(Uniunea Democratica a Libertatii)
National Patriotic Front
"Vasile Lupu" High School Group (Romanian:Grupul Liceul "Vasile Lupu") was one of the first organized anti-Soviet groups in Bessarabia in the wake of its occupation by the Soviet Union on June 28, 1940. It was formed by the students and some teachers of the "Vasile Lupu" high school in Orhei, which was renamed by the Soviets a Pedagogical School.
After a series of small actions, such as writing anti-Soviets slogans on public walls ("Death to the Stalinist occupiers!", "Go home, barbarians!", "Down with the executioner Stalin! Bessarabia to Bessarabians!", "Long live Romanian nation!"), and spread of anti-Soviet manifestos, they attempted what seemed at the time an extrodinary achievment: during the Christmas night 1940, they took down the Soviet red flags, and put up Romanian flags on top of several buildings in Orhei, including the city hall, the Communist Party building, the NKVD headquaters. In January 1941, NKVD managed to crack into the organization and arrest most of its members. The sentence was pronounced on June 24, 1941.
Members:
- Dumitru Avramoglo (born in 1922, in Puţintei), condemned to death
- Victor Brodeţchi (b. 1924), condemned to death
- Anatol Cotun, condemned to death
- Onisie Cozama (b. 1922), condemned to death
- Dumitru Dobândă (b. 1922), condemned to death
- Mihail Dobândă, condemned to death
- Antol Duca (b.1922), condemned to death
- Vichentie Eprov (b. 1923), condemned to death
- Haralambie Grăjdianu, condemned to death
- Mihai Grăjdianu (b. 1922), condemned to death
- Antol Guma (b. 1922), condemned to death
- Gheorghe Mihu (b. 1921), condemned to death
- Constantin Sârbu, condemned to death
Most of them were executed in Chişinău on June 27, 1941, according to a report of the Odessa Military Tribunal, signed Axelrod. Other members:
- Vlad Alexeev, condemned, dissapeared in Siberia
- Ion Bacalu (b. 1924), condemned to 25 years emprizonment, dead in detention
- Pavel Boguş (b. 1924, in Mana), condemned to 25 years, dead in detention
- Eugen Braşoveanu (b. 1924), condemned to 25 years, dead in detention
- Serghei Buiuc (b. 1924), condemned to 10 years
- Vsevolod Ciobanu, condemned to 10 years, dissapeared in Siberia
- Nicole Cuculescu (b. 1923), condemned to 20 years
- Oleg Frunză (b. 1928, only 13 years old), condemned to 10 years
- Victor Guma (b. 1923), condemned to 25 years, dead in detention
- Maria Manjaru, teacher, condemned to 10 years for not denouncing, survived
- Gheorghe Martânov (b. 1924), condemned to 25 years, freed in 1954
- Dumitru Munteanu, teacher
- Dumitu Stici, condemned to 10 years, dissapeared in Siberia
The investigation was led by G. Goldberg, chief of the Orhei County Section of NKVD, and was conducted by Konopekin, chief investigator, Terebilo, deputy, Cherepanov, Malinin, Morev, Nikitovich, Plotnikov, and Toporov, investigators.
237th NKVD Regiment was a convoy regiment of the NKVD, that operated in the Soviet occupied Bessarabia. It is responsible for hundreds, if not thousands of killings of civilians, for escorting political prisoners and deportees, and for protection of important Soviet buildings in the Moldavian SSR.
The regiment was created in July 1940 by order no. 00839 of NKVD. It was composed of three batalions, and had the headquaters in Chisinau, in the occupied Bessarabia. Its first commanding officer was major Semion Antonov. During 1940-1941 it had the mission of protection of the prisons in the cities of Chisinau, Balti, Soroca, Orhei, Ismail, Cahul, Tighina, to escort the prisoners and condemned, and "to roll the special operation of keeping the public order". On 4 June 1941, order no. 022 of the 13th NKVD Division awarded to the regiment the trasmisible Red Flag with mentions "To the best unit of the division for military preparedness".
On 22 June 1941, the unit has formally entered "the fight with the fascist agressors". For the regiment this fight consisted in "organization of the evacuation of the population, evacuation of the prisoners, prevention of prisoner escapes, taking under control and protecting special importance buildings in localities". During the retreat, on 1 August 1941, the Regiment is forced to the frontline near Novo-Ukrainka in southern Ukraine, to support the withdrawl of troops from the Soviet Southern Front, and has 39 KIA. The regiment continued to retreat to Dnepropetrovsk, Artyomov, Voroshilovgrad, Pyatigorsk, Makhachkala, executing "fighting and operative" tasks. It is transmitted to the guard unit commanded by general Maslennikov. On 23 May 1942, for successfully finishing the tasks given to the regiment, and for taking part in frontline action on 1 August 1941, by order no. 288 of NKVD, 1 auguast is declared "the birthdate of the regiment".
At the end of 1942, the regiment is part of the division commanded by general Rodimtsev near Stalingrad. In the down of the Battle of Romania (1944), the regiment is assigned to take hold of Chisinau after the end of the fights, to ensure public order, to protect buildings of special importance, to protect the prisons, and to escort the condamned and prisoners.
People
edit(wiki:ro)
(wiki:ro)
Bibliography
edit- ^ (in Romanian) Gabriel Gherasim, Românii din Ucraina (2), p. 3 ("Romanians in Ukraine (2)", p. 3), Noi, NU! Revistă de atitudine şi de cultură, August 7, 2005. Accessed online December 20, 2006.
- ^ (in Romanian) Nina Negru, Nu-i lua cu fericirile - disciplinează-i cu decalogul ("Don't reach out to them with promises of happiness, discipline them with the Ten Commandments"), Jurnal de Chişinău, Edition 409, 30 August 2005. Accessed online 20 December 2006.
- ^ 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.
- ^ R. J. Rummel, Table 7.A. 13,053,000 victims during World War II: sources, calculations and estimates, op.cit.
- ^ R. J. Rummel, Table 8.A. 15,6133,000 victims during the Postwar and Stalin's twilight period: Soviet murder: sources, calculations and estimates, op.cit.
