June 28, 1940 - Day of Soviet occupation: 81 years since the annexation of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina

Monday, June 28, marks 81 years since the Soviet Union (USSR) based on the previous agreement of August 23, 1939, with Nazi Germany, an agreement known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, demanded directly and without discussion Romania to cede Bessarabia. It was „annexed” by the Romanian state in 1918 „using Russia's military weakness.”

On June 28, 1940, the Soviet Union took Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, and Northern Transylvania was ceded to Hungary.

June 28, 1940, was declared the Day of Soviet Occupation, by a decree signed in 2010 by the then interim president of the Republic of Moldova, the liberal Mihai Ghimpu.

June 28, 1940

Following the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact - the non-aggression treaty signed on August 23, 1939, between Germany and the USSR - and the Secret Protocol, which divided the spheres of influence between the two imperialist powers, on June 26, 1940, the USSR sent Romania an ultimatum requesting „the return at all costs” of Bessarabia and the surrender of the northern part of Bukovina.

On June 28, at 11 o'clock, the Romanian government communicated its acceptance of the dictatorship, asking the Soviets to extend the evacuation period by four days from June 28, 1940; the Soviets set the end of the retreat for July 3, 1940, at 14:00 Moscow time.

3,776,309 inhabitants and an area of ​​50,762 km2 of Romania's body were left to the blind fury of the Russian hordes. On June 29, Russian tanks abusively occupied Herta Lithuania, near Bessarabia and northern Bukovina.

Northern Bukovina, Herta Land, northern and southern Bessarabia were incorporated by Stalin into the Ukrainian SSR.

On August 2, 1940 - the Moldavian RSSA - which was already part of the USSR - was divided into two: one part was incorporated into Ukraine, the other was annexed to the rest of annexed Bessarabia, constituting the Moldavian RSSA.

On August 7, 1940, the Chernivtsi region was created by linking the northern part of Bukovina with Herta County and most of Hotin (Khotyn) County in Bessarabia.

Immediately after the occupation, the extermination of the Romanians began: arrested, shot, tortured, deported to Siberia, subjected to famine caused by the Bolshevik regime. Between 1940 and 1950, according to official censuses conducted by the Russian authorities, a third of the Romanian population disappeared; of the 3,200,000 in 1940, only 2,229,000 remained in 1950.

On June 22, 1941, the Romanian Army will cross the Prut, starting the liberation of the lost territories, which will get rid, until 1944, of the Russian yoke. In the withdrawal from Bessarabia, the Russian army will apply the tactic of total destruction: 42 churches, 28 schools, 32 premises of some public institutions, 79 of the authorities were blown up.

Hundreds of thousands of more victims will be added in time, thousands more Romanians will be shot, tortured, skinned alive, crucified, arts, thrown into the Dniester; robberies, rapes, indignations, massacres, terrifying cruelties of the 14th Russian Army, guards and Cossacks during the 1992 Transnistrian War. forced Russification, destroyed destinies, transmitted stories in time.

The article was published on the Ziarul de Gardă website.