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History Bessarabia & Transdniestr

Moldova today straddles two different historic regions divided by the Dniestr River. Historic Romanian Bessarabia incorporated the region west of the Dniestr, while tsarist Russia governed the territory east of the river (Transdniestr) after defeating the Turks in 1792.Bessarabia, part of the Romanian principality of Moldavia, was annexed in 1812 by the Russian empire. In 1918, after the October revolution, Bessarabia declared its independence. Two months later this newly formed Democratic Moldavian Republic decided to unite with Romania, angering Moscow. Russia never recognized this union.In 1924 the Soviet Union created the Moldavian Autonomous Oblast on the eastern banks of the Dniestr, incorporating Transdniestr within the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR). A few months later the Soviet government renamed the Oblast the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Moldavian ASSR). In 1929 it mooved the capital from Balta (in present-day Ukraine) to Tiraspol.

WWII

In June 1940 Romanian Bessarabia was occupied by the Soviet army in accordance with the  secret protocol attached to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The Soviet government immediately joined Bessarabia with the southern part of the Moldavian ASSR - namely, Transdniestr. This newly united territory was named the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (Moldavian SSR ). The remaining northern part of the Moldavian ASSR was given back to the Ukrainian SSR (presnt-day Ukraine). Bessarabia experienced terrifying Sovietisation, marked by the deportation of 300.000 Romanians. In June 1941, 5000 families from Bessarabia were deported to Siberia.In 1941 allied  Romanian and German troops attacked the Soviet Union. Bessarabia and Transdniestr fell into Romanian hands. Thousands of Bessarabian  Jews were rounded up in labour camps in Transdniestr, from where they were deprted to Auschwitz. In August 1944  the soviet army reoccupied Trnsdniestr and Bessarabia. Under the terms of the Paris Peace Treaty of 1947, Romania had to relinquish the region and Soviet power was restored in the Moldavian SSR.  

Sovietisation & Nationalism     

The Soviet authorities continued where they had left off in 1940. An immediate Sovietisation program was enforced in the Moldavian SSR. The predominantly Russian and Ukrainian population in Transdniestr - in Romanian hands between 1941 and 1944 - was relatively unaffected. Ethnic Moldovans (Romanians) in Bessarabia suffered worse. In July 1949, 25,000 Moldovans were deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan. The Cyrilic alphabet was imposed on the Moldovan language ( a dialect of Romanian) and Russian became the official state language. Street names were changed to honour  Soviet communist heroes, and Russian-style patronymics were included in people's names. In 1950-52 Leonid Brezhnev, then first secretary of central committee of the Moldovan Communist Party, is said to have personally supervised the deportation of a quarter of a million Moldovans. Ethnic Russians and Ukrainians were encouraged to settle in the region in order to dilute the Moldovan population further. Gorbachev's policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika(restructuring) from 1986 onwards paved the way for the creations of the nationalist Moldovan Popular Front in 1989. Under the leadership of communist Mircea Snegur as chairman of the Moldova's Supreme Soviet, Moldovan written in the Latin alphabet was reintroduced in August 1989 as the official state language. in February-March 1990 the first democratic elections to the Supreme Soviet (parliament) were won by the Popular Front with an overwhelming majority.

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