72 years ago USSR annexed Bessarabia, today Republic of Moldova
Today Moldova marks 72 years since the former Soviet Union annexed Bessarabia. The treaty was carried out under the provisions of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, and was eventually consented to by both the predecessor state, Romania and the international community, in the form of the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty.
Bessarabia consisted of today's Republic of Moldova, Northern Bucovina (today part of Ukraine) and Southern Bessarabia, Izmail town (also in Ukraine today).
In 1918, in the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution, Bessarabia as a whole joined Romania and was part of the sovereign state of Romania until 1940, when the latter surrendered it to the Soviet Union under the secret provisions of the secret Pact signed between Hitler and Stalin. In Russian practice, Bessarabia as a noun was officially pushed out of use after 1940, when the central part of its territory became a Soviet republic, under the name of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic.
The Secret Additional Protocol of Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact implied three articles. Article 3 referred frankly to Bessarabia. It stated the Soviet Union's interest in annexing Bessarabia from Romania and Nazi Germany's consent to that annexation. Subsequent separate agreements ensured the protection and orderly evacuation of the German ethnic population from the province. The incorporation of Bessarabia into the USSR was carried out through hasty military occupation, amidst episodes of unruly behavior and violence, during the week of 28 June-3 July 1940. The Soviet Law of 2 August 1940 officially established the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic on most of Bessarabia's territory and made it a component of the USSR.
The former Soviet Republic gained its independence from the USSR on August 27, 1991. Ever since it is called the Republic of Moldova.
After Andrei Brezianu’s and Vlad Spânu’s book “The A to Z of Moldova” published at The Scarecrow Press, USA
Moldova.ORG
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