Moldavian ASSR
Encyclopedia
The Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Moldavian/Romanian
: Република Аутономэ Советикэ Cочиалистэ Молдовеняскэ, Republica Autonomă Sovietică Socialistă Moldovenească), shortened to Moldavian ASSR or, less frequently, Moldovan ASSR, was an autonomous republic
of the Ukrainian SSR
between 12 October 1924 and 2 August 1940, encompassing modern Transnistria
(now in Moldova
) and a number of territories that are now part of Ukraine
.
, Bădulescu Alexandru, Pavel Tcacenco
, Solomon Tinkelman (Timov), Alexandru Nicolau, Alexandru Zalic, Ion Dic Dicescu
(also known as Isidor Cantor), Theodor Diamandescu, Teodor Chioran, and Vladimir Popovici, all signatories being Bolshevik activists (many of them from Bessarabia
). Establishing the republic became a matter of dispute. Soviet commissar of foreign relations Chicherin
held that its establishment would be premature and would lead to the "expansion of Romanian chauvinism". On the other hand, Kotovski held that a new republic would spread Communist ideas into neighboring Bessarabia, with a chance that even Romania and the entire Balkan region would be revolutionized. On March 7, 1924, it was cautiously decided to create a Moldavian Autonomous Oblast
within the Ukrainian SSR
.
While the creation of ethnic-based autonomous republics was a general Soviet policy at that time, with the creation of the Moldavian ASSR, the Soviet Union
also hoped to bolster its claim to Bessarabia.
For the Soviets the republic was to be a way for winning over Bessarabians of Romania and the first step towards a revolution in Romania. This purpose is explained in an article of the newspaper Odessa Izvestia
in 1924, in which a Russian politician, Vadeev says that "all the oppressed Moldavians from Bessarabia look at the future Republic like at a lighthouse, which spreads the light of freedom and human dignity," as well as in a book published in Moscow, which claimed that "once the economic and cultural growth of Moldova has begun, aristocracy-led Romania will not be able to maintain its hold on Bessarabia."
and Podolia
regions of Ukraine. It accounted for 2% of the land and population of the Ukrainian SSR
at the time.
Initially, the oblast had four districts, all of them having a Moldovan majority:
On 8 October 1924 the oblast was elevated to the status of autonomous republic
and included several other territories, including some with little Moldavian population, such as the Balta
district (where the capital was located), which had only 2.52% Moldavians.
The official capital was proclaimed the "temporarily occupied city of Kishinev
". Meanwhile, a provisional capital was established in Balta and moved to Tiraspol
in 1929, where it remained until the MASSR was integrated into the newly created Moldavian SSR
in 1940.
MASSR had a mixed Ukrainian
(46%) and Moldovan
(32%) population, which was estimated at 545,500. Its area was 8,677 km² and included 11 raion
s on the left bank of Dniester.
According to the 1926 Soviet census, the Republic had a population of 572,339, of which:
Despite this extensive territory allotted to the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, about 85,000 Moldovans remained in Ukraine outside the territory of MASSR.
, the area of the Moldavian ASSR switched hands twelve times between the White Movement
, the Red Army
, the Cossacks, Ukrainian militias and roving hordes of bandits. After the victory of the Bolsheviks, in 1920, it became part of the Ukrainian SSR.
The area was quickly industrialized, and because of the lack of a qualified workforce, a significant migration from other Soviet republics occurred, predominantly Ukrainians and Russians. In particular, in 1928, of 14,300 industrial workers only about 600 were Moldovans.
In 1925 MASSR survived a famine.
In December 1927, the Time Magazine
has reported a number of anti-Soviet uprisings among peasants and factory workers in Tiraspol and other cities (Mogilev-Podolskiy
, Kamyanets-Podolskiy
) of southern Ukrainian SSR. Troops from Moscow were sent to the region and suppressed the unrest, resulting in ca 4000 deaths. The insurrections were at the time completely denied by the official Kremlin press.
Collectivization in the MASSR was even more fast-paced than in Ukraine and was reported to be complete by summer 1931. This was accompanied by the deportation of about 2,000 families to Kazakhstan
.
In 1932-1933 another famine, known as Holodomor
in Ukraine, occurred, with tens of thousands of peasants dying of starvation. During the famine, thousands of inhabitants tried to escape over the Dniester, despite the threat of being shot. The most notable such incident happened near the village Olăneşti
on February 23, 1932, when 40 persons were shot. This was reported in European newspapers by survivors. The Soviet side reported this as an escape of "kulak
elements subverted by Romanian propaganda."
The tenet that the Moldavian language is distinct from the Romanian language
was heavily promoted in the republic. Modern linguists generally agree that there is little difference between the two, mainly in accent and vocabulary. The republic also promoted irredentism
towards Romania, proclaiming that the Moldovans in Bessarabia were "oppressed by Romanian imperialists".
As part of the effort to keep the language in Soviet Moldavia ("Moldavian Socialist culture") far from Romanian influences ("Romanian bourgeois culture"), a reformed Cyrillic script was used to write the language, in contrast with the Latin script
officially used in Romania. The linguist Leonid Madan was assigned the task of establishing a literary standard, based on the Moldovan dialects of Transnistria and Bessarabia, as well as Russian
loanwords or Russian-based calque
.
In 1932, when in the entire Soviet Union there was a trend to move all languages to the Latin script, the Latin script and literary Romanian language was introduced in Moldovan schools and public use. Madan's books were removed from libraries and destroyed. This movement, however, was short lived, and in the second half of the 1940s a new trend of moving languages to the Cyrillic script started in the Soviet Union.
In 1937, during the Soviet Great Purge
, many intellectuals in the Moldavian ASSR, accused of being enemies of the people, bourgeois nationalist or Trotskyist
, were removed from their positions and repressed, with a large number of them executed. In 1938 the Cyrillic script was again declared official for the Moldovan language
and the Latin script was banned. However, the literary language did not fully return to Madan's creation and remained closer to Romanian. After 1956, Madan's influences were entirely dropped from school books.
This policy remained in effect until 1989. Use of Cyrillic is still enforced in the Moldova's breakaway region of Transnistria
, where it is claimed to be returning the language to its roots.
and Northern Bukovina. Italy
and Germany
, which needed a stable Romania and access to its oil fields urged King Carol II
to comply. Under duress, with no prospect of aid from France
or Britain
, Romania ceded those territories. On June 28, Soviet troops crossed the Dniester
and occupied Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and the Hertza region
. Territories where ethnic Ukrainians were the largest ethnic group (parts of Northern Bukovina and parts of Hotin
, Akkerman
, and Izmail
), as well as some adjoining regions with a Romanian majority, such as the Hertza region, were annexed to the Ukrainian SSR. The transfer of Bessarabia's Black Sea
and Danube
frontage
to Ukraine ensured its control by a stable Soviet republic.
On August 2, 1940, the Soviet Union established the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic (Moldovan SSR), which consisted of six counties of Bessarabia joined with the western-most part of what had been the MASSR, effectively dissolving it.
will study and analyze the 1917-1991 period of the communist regime.
Soviet People's Commissars
Supreme Council
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
: Република Аутономэ Советикэ Cочиалистэ Молдовеняскэ, Republica Autonomă Sovietică Socialistă Moldovenească), shortened to Moldavian ASSR or, less frequently, Moldovan ASSR, was an autonomous republic
Autonomous republic
An autonomous republic is a type of administrative division similar to a province. A significant number of autonomous republics can be found within the successor states of the Soviet Union, but the majority are located within Russia. Many of these republics were established during the Soviet...
of the Ukrainian SSR
Ukrainian SSR
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic or in short, the Ukrainian SSR was a sovereign Soviet Socialist state and one of the fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union lasting from its inception in 1922 to the breakup in 1991...
between 12 October 1924 and 2 August 1940, encompassing modern Transnistria
Transnistria
Transnistria is a breakaway territory located mostly on a strip of land between the Dniester River and the eastern Moldovan border to Ukraine...
(now in Moldova
Moldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
) and a number of territories that are now part of Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
.
Creation
The creation of the autonomous republic was initiated by a letter signed by Grigore KotovskiGrigore Kotovski
Grigory Ivanovich Kotovsky was a Soviet military leader and Communist activist.Kotovsky was born in Bessarabia, the son of a mechanical engineer. His father was of Polish ethnicity and his mother was an ethnic Russian. Kotovskt attended agricultural college and worked as an estate manager....
, Bădulescu Alexandru, Pavel Tcacenco
Pavel Tcacenco
Pavel Tcacenco or Tkachenko was a Russian-born Romanian communist activist, a leading member of the communist movements of Bessarabia and Romania in the 1920s.-Early life and the Russian Revolution:...
, Solomon Tinkelman (Timov), Alexandru Nicolau, Alexandru Zalic, Ion Dic Dicescu
Ion Dic Dicescu
Ion Dic Dicescu was a Romanian communist and journalist.Although born in Bucharest, he spend most of his life in Russia/Soviet Union . He became a member of the Bolshevik Party and from 1922 a teacher at various Moscow universities...
(also known as Isidor Cantor), Theodor Diamandescu, Teodor Chioran, and Vladimir Popovici, all signatories being Bolshevik activists (many of them from Bessarabia
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
). Establishing the republic became a matter of dispute. Soviet commissar of foreign relations Chicherin
Georgy Chicherin
Georgy Vasilyevich Chicherin was a Marxist revolutionary and a Soviet politician. He served as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs in the Soviet government from March 1918 to 1930.-Childhood and early career:...
held that its establishment would be premature and would lead to the "expansion of Romanian chauvinism". On the other hand, Kotovski held that a new republic would spread Communist ideas into neighboring Bessarabia, with a chance that even Romania and the entire Balkan region would be revolutionized. On March 7, 1924, it was cautiously decided to create a Moldavian Autonomous Oblast
Moldavian Autonomous Oblast
Moldavian Autonomous Oblast was created on March 7, 1924 within the Ukrainian SSR.The new oblast had four districts, all of them having a Moldovan majority:* Rîbniţa with 48,748 inhabitants, of which 25,387 Moldovans...
within the Ukrainian SSR
Ukrainian SSR
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic or in short, the Ukrainian SSR was a sovereign Soviet Socialist state and one of the fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union lasting from its inception in 1922 to the breakup in 1991...
.
While the creation of ethnic-based autonomous republics was a general Soviet policy at that time, with the creation of the Moldavian ASSR, the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
also hoped to bolster its claim to Bessarabia.
For the Soviets the republic was to be a way for winning over Bessarabians of Romania and the first step towards a revolution in Romania. This purpose is explained in an article of the newspaper Odessa Izvestia
Izvestia
Izvestia is a long-running high-circulation daily newspaper in Russia. The word "izvestiya" in Russian means "delivered messages", derived from the verb izveshchat . In the context of newspapers it is usually translated as "news" or "reports".-Origin:The newspaper began as the News of the...
in 1924, in which a Russian politician, Vadeev says that "all the oppressed Moldavians from Bessarabia look at the future Republic like at a lighthouse, which spreads the light of freedom and human dignity," as well as in a book published in Moscow, which claimed that "once the economic and cultural growth of Moldova has begun, aristocracy-led Romania will not be able to maintain its hold on Bessarabia."
Geography
The Moldavian ASSR was created from a territory previously administered as part of the OdessaOdessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
and Podolia
Podolia
The region of Podolia is an historical region in the west-central and south-west portions of present-day Ukraine, corresponding to Khmelnytskyi Oblast and Vinnytsia Oblast. Northern Transnistria, in Moldova, is also a part of Podolia...
regions of Ukraine. It accounted for 2% of the land and population of the Ukrainian SSR
Ukrainian SSR
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic or in short, the Ukrainian SSR was a sovereign Soviet Socialist state and one of the fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union lasting from its inception in 1922 to the breakup in 1991...
at the time.
Initially, the oblast had four districts, all of them having a Moldovan majority:
- RîbniţaRîbnitaRîbnița, also spelled Râbnița is a city in Moldova. The city is under the administration of the breakaway government of the Transnistria. According to the 2004 Census in Transnistria, it has a population of 53,648. Rîbniţa is situated in the northern half of Transnistria, on the left bank of the...
- 48,748 inhabitants, of which 25,387 MoldovansMoldovansMoldovans or Moldavians are the largest population group of Moldova...
- 52% - DubăsariDubasariDubăsari is a city in Transnistria, with a population of 23,650. The city is under the administration of the breakaway government of the "Transnistrian Moldovan Republic", and functions as the seat of the Dubăsari sub-district, Transnistria, Moldova.-Name:The origin of the town name is the plural...
- 57,371 inhabitants, of which 33,600 Moldovans- 58% - TiraspolTiraspolTiraspol is the second largest city in Moldova and is the capital and administrative centre of the unrecognized Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic . The city is located on the eastern bank of the Dniester River...
- almost entirely Moldovan - AnanivAnanivAnaniv is a town in Odessa Oblast, Ukraine. It stands on the Tiligul River. Population is 8,723 . The town belonged to MASSR from 1924 to 1940....
- 45,545 inhabitants, of which 24,249 Moldovans- 53%
On 8 October 1924 the oblast was elevated to the status of autonomous republic
Autonomous republic
An autonomous republic is a type of administrative division similar to a province. A significant number of autonomous republics can be found within the successor states of the Soviet Union, but the majority are located within Russia. Many of these republics were established during the Soviet...
and included several other territories, including some with little Moldavian population, such as the Balta
Balta, Ukraine
Balta is a small city in the Odessa Oblast of south-western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Baltsky Raion , and located approximately 200 kilometers from the oblast capital, Odessa...
district (where the capital was located), which had only 2.52% Moldavians.
The official capital was proclaimed the "temporarily occupied city of Kishinev
Chisinau
Chișinău is the capital and largest municipality of Moldova. It is also its main industrial and commercial centre and is located in the middle of the country, on the river Bîc...
". Meanwhile, a provisional capital was established in Balta and moved to Tiraspol
Tiraspol
Tiraspol is the second largest city in Moldova and is the capital and administrative centre of the unrecognized Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic . The city is located on the eastern bank of the Dniester River...
in 1929, where it remained until the MASSR was integrated into the newly created Moldavian SSR
Moldavian SSR
The Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic , commonly abbreviated to Moldavian SSR or MSSR, was one of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union...
in 1940.
Demographics
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
(46%) and Moldovan
Moldovans
Moldovans or Moldavians are the largest population group of Moldova...
(32%) population, which was estimated at 545,500. Its area was 8,677 km² and included 11 raion
Raion
A raion is a type of administrative unit of several post-Soviet countries. The term, which is from French rayon 'honeycomb, department,' describes both a type of a subnational entity and a division of a city, and is commonly translated in English as "district"...
s on the left bank of Dniester.
According to the 1926 Soviet census, the Republic had a population of 572,339, of which:
| Ethnic group |
census 1926 | 1936 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | % | Number | % | |
| Ukrainians Ukrainians Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens... |
277,515 | 48.5% | 265,193 | 45.5% |
| Moldovans Moldovans Moldovans or Moldavians are the largest population group of Moldova... |
172,419 | 30.1% | 184,046 | 31.6% |
| Russians Russians The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries.... |
48,868 | 8.5% | 56,592 | 9.7% |
| Jews Jews The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation... |
48,564 | 8.5% | 45,620 | 7.8% |
| Germans Germans The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages.... |
10,739 | 1.9% | 12,711 | 2.2% |
| Bulgarians Bulgarians The Bulgarians are a South Slavic nation and ethnic group native to Bulgaria and neighbouring regions. Emigration has resulted in immigrant communities in a number of other countries.-History and ethnogenesis:... |
6,026 | 1.1% | ||
| Poles Poles thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe... |
4,853 | 0.8% | ||
| Roma (Gypsies) | 918 | 0.2% | ||
| Romanians Romanians The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania.... |
137 | 0.0% | ||
| Other | 2,300 | 0.4% | 13,526 | 2.4% |
| Total | 572,339 | 582,138 | ||
Despite this extensive territory allotted to the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, about 85,000 Moldovans remained in Ukraine outside the territory of MASSR.
History
During the Russian Civil WarRussian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
, the area of the Moldavian ASSR switched hands twelve times between the White Movement
White movement
The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...
, the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
, the Cossacks, Ukrainian militias and roving hordes of bandits. After the victory of the Bolsheviks, in 1920, it became part of the Ukrainian SSR.
In 1925 MASSR survived a famine.
In December 1927, the Time Magazine
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
has reported a number of anti-Soviet uprisings among peasants and factory workers in Tiraspol and other cities (Mogilev-Podolskiy
Mohyliv-Podilskyi
Mohyliv-Podilskyi is a city in the Mohyliv-Podilskyi Raion of the Vinnytsia Oblast , Ukraine. It is located at , on the border with Bessarabia, Moldova.-History:The first mention of the town dates from 1595...
, Kamyanets-Podolskiy
Kamianets-Podilskyi
Kamyanets-Podilsky or Kamienets-Podolsky is a city located on the Smotrych River in western Ukraine, to the north-east of Chernivtsi...
) of southern Ukrainian SSR. Troops from Moscow were sent to the region and suppressed the unrest, resulting in ca 4000 deaths. The insurrections were at the time completely denied by the official Kremlin press.
Collectivization in the MASSR was even more fast-paced than in Ukraine and was reported to be complete by summer 1931. This was accompanied by the deportation of about 2,000 families to Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
.
In 1932-1933 another famine, known as Holodomor
Holodomor
The Holodomor was a man-made famine in the Ukrainian SSR between 1932 and 1933. During the famine, which is also known as the "terror-famine in Ukraine" and "famine-genocide in Ukraine", millions of Ukrainians died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of...
in Ukraine, occurred, with tens of thousands of peasants dying of starvation. During the famine, thousands of inhabitants tried to escape over the Dniester, despite the threat of being shot. The most notable such incident happened near the village Olăneşti
Olăneşti
Olăneşti is a commune in Ştefan Vodă district, Moldova. It is composed of a single village, Olăneşti....
on February 23, 1932, when 40 persons were shot. This was reported in European newspapers by survivors. The Soviet side reported this as an escape of "kulak
Kulak
Kulaks were a category of relatively affluent peasants in the later Russian Empire, Soviet Russia, and early Soviet Union...
elements subverted by Romanian propaganda."
Promotion of Moldovan identity
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
was heavily promoted in the republic. Modern linguists generally agree that there is little difference between the two, mainly in accent and vocabulary. The republic also promoted irredentism
Irredentism
Irredentism is any position advocating annexation of territories administered by another state on the grounds of common ethnicity or prior historical possession, actual or alleged. Some of these movements are also called pan-nationalist movements. It is a feature of identity politics and cultural...
towards Romania, proclaiming that the Moldovans in Bessarabia were "oppressed by Romanian imperialists".
As part of the effort to keep the language in Soviet Moldavia ("Moldavian Socialist culture") far from Romanian influences ("Romanian bourgeois culture"), a reformed Cyrillic script was used to write the language, in contrast with the Latin script
Romanian alphabet
The Romanian alphabet is a modification of the Latin alphabet and consists of 31 letters:The letters Q , W , and Y were officially introduced in the Romanian alphabet in 1982, although they had been used earlier...
officially used in Romania. The linguist Leonid Madan was assigned the task of establishing a literary standard, based on the Moldovan dialects of Transnistria and Bessarabia, as well as Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
loanwords or Russian-based calque
Calque
In linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation.-Calque:...
.
In 1932, when in the entire Soviet Union there was a trend to move all languages to the Latin script, the Latin script and literary Romanian language was introduced in Moldovan schools and public use. Madan's books were removed from libraries and destroyed. This movement, however, was short lived, and in the second half of the 1940s a new trend of moving languages to the Cyrillic script started in the Soviet Union.
In 1937, during the Soviet Great Purge
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
, many intellectuals in the Moldavian ASSR, accused of being enemies of the people, bourgeois nationalist or Trotskyist
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...
, were removed from their positions and repressed, with a large number of them executed. In 1938 the Cyrillic script was again declared official for the Moldovan language
Moldovan language
Moldovan is one of the names of the Romanian language as spoken in the Republic of Moldova, where it is official. The spoken language of Moldova is closer to the dialects of Romanian spoken in northeastern Romania, and the two countries share the same literary standard...
and the Latin script was banned. However, the literary language did not fully return to Madan's creation and remained closer to Romanian. After 1956, Madan's influences were entirely dropped from school books.
This policy remained in effect until 1989. Use of Cyrillic is still enforced in the Moldova's breakaway region of Transnistria
Transnistria
Transnistria is a breakaway territory located mostly on a strip of land between the Dniester River and the eastern Moldovan border to Ukraine...
, where it is claimed to be returning the language to its roots.
Disbanding
On June 26, 1940 the Soviet government issued an ultimatum to the Romanian minister in Moscow, demanding Romania to immediately cede BessarabiaBessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
and Northern Bukovina. Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, which needed a stable Romania and access to its oil fields urged King Carol II
Carol II of Romania
Carol II reigned as King of Romania from 8 June 1930 until 6 September 1940. Eldest son of Ferdinand, King of Romania, and his wife, Queen Marie, a daughter of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second eldest son of Queen Victoria...
to comply. Under duress, with no prospect of aid from France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
or Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Romania ceded those territories. On June 28, Soviet troops crossed the Dniester
Dniester
The Dniester is a river in Eastern Europe. It runs through Ukraine and Moldova and separates most of Moldova's territory from the breakaway de facto state of Transnistria.-Names:...
and occupied Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and the Hertza region
Hertza region
Hertza region is the territory of an administrative district of Hertsa in the southern part of Chernivtsi Oblast in southwestern Ukraine, on the Romanian border...
. Territories where ethnic Ukrainians were the largest ethnic group (parts of Northern Bukovina and parts of Hotin
Khotyn
Khotyn is a city in Chernivtsi Oblast of western Ukraine, and is the administrative center of Khotyn Raion within the oblast, and is located south-west of Kamianets-Podilskyi. According to the 2001 Ukrainian census, it has a population of 11,124...
, Akkerman
Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi
Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi is a city situated on the right bank of the Dniester Liman in the Odessa Oblast of southwestern Ukraine, in the historical region of Bessarabia...
, and Izmail
Izmail
Izmail is a historic town near the Danube river in the Odessa Oblast of south-western Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Izmail Raion , the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast....
), as well as some adjoining regions with a Romanian majority, such as the Hertza region, were annexed to the Ukrainian SSR. The transfer of Bessarabia's Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
and Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
frontage
Frontage
Frontage is the full length of a plot of land or a building measured alongside the road on to which the plot or building fronts. This is considered especially important for certain types of commercial and retail real estate, in applying zoning bylaws and property tax...
to Ukraine ensured its control by a stable Soviet republic.
On August 2, 1940, the Soviet Union established the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic (Moldovan SSR), which consisted of six counties of Bessarabia joined with the western-most part of what had been the MASSR, effectively dissolving it.
Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship
The Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in MoldovaCommission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Moldova
The Commission for the Study and Evaluation of the Communist Totalitarian Regime of the Republic of Moldova is a commission instituted in Moldova by acting President Mihai Ghimpu to investigate the Communist regime and provide a comprehensive report allowing for the condemnation of Communism as...
will study and analyze the 1917-1991 period of the communist regime.
Head of Government
Revkom- October 1924 - April 1925 Griogriy Stary (also Borisov)
Soviet People's Commissars
- April 25, 1925 - May 1926 Aleksey Stroyev
- May 1926 - 1928 Griogriy Stary
- 1928 - April 1932 Sergei Dmitriu
- April 1932 - June 1937 Griogriy Stary (arrested June 22, 1937)
- July 1938 - ? Fyodor Brovko
- February 1939 Georgiy Streshny
Chairmen of Council
Central Executive Committee- April 25, 1925 - May 1926 Griogriy Stary
- May 1926 - May 1937 Yevstafiy Voronovich (shot in 1937)
- May 1937 - July 1938 Georgiy Streshny (acting)
Supreme Council
- July 1938 - 1940 Tikhon Konstantinov
See also
- Grigore KotovskiGrigore KotovskiGrigory Ivanovich Kotovsky was a Soviet military leader and Communist activist.Kotovsky was born in Bessarabia, the son of a mechanical engineer. His father was of Polish ethnicity and his mother was an ethnic Russian. Kotovskt attended agricultural college and worked as an estate manager....
- Ecaterina ArboreEcaterina ArboreEcaterina Arbore, Arbore-Ralli or Ralli-Arbore , daughter of Zamfir Arbore , was a Romanian, Soviet and Moldovan communist activist and official.-Early life:She trained towards a medical...