How the Russians Attempted to "Recover" Bessarabia in 1924: The Tatarbunar Uprising and the Trial of the 500

A revolt took place in southern Bessarabia, categorized by communist propaganda as "the culmination of the struggle for the liberation of Bessarabia from the Romanian yoke." The trial of the more than 500 people arrested, the creation of the RASSM on the left bank of the Dniester, and the change in the tactics of the USSR's secret services were among the immediate consequences of this uprising.

Who were the "revolutionaries"?

One of the leaders of the "revolutionaries" group was Andrei Klushnikov alias Nenin, who had previously worked at the Putilov plant in Petrograd. He fought during the First World War on the Romanian front, and during the revolution of 1917, he became a Bolshevik and remained in southern Bessarabia, in the Danube Delta area. He was officially working as a paramedic in Ismail Prefecture.

Frequent business trips allowed him to get in touch with many locals, mostly peasants, and to carry out several actions to form groups of revolutionaries. However, in 1919 he was arrested by the authorities, but for unknown reasons, escaped from prison and continued his clandestine activity. At the end of 1923, he became the head of the Committee of the Communist Party of Southern Bessarabia, which was subject to the Ukrainian branch and not to the Romanian or Bessarabian branch. Security considered Kluishnikov an agent of the OGPU, while prosecutors considered him an agent of the Soviet secret services.

Another member of the group was Ossip Poliakov, also known as Platov. He was a Russian native from all parts of the country and was born in Vilkov in 1886. After being noted for organizing the communist committees in southern Bessarabia on August 12, 1924, he was appointed by the Third International Sub-Presidency in Odessa, as military commander of the uprising in southern Bessarabia. He was responsible for creating groups of at least 30 people in the villages in the region and for gathering the necessary weapons and ammunition, according to the Romanian authorities and the American professor Charles Clark Upson.

The professor Charles Clark Upson

However, at the time of the uprising, Platov was not in Bessarabia, being in Odessa, which probably made it easier for the authorities to repress the riots. Poliakov ended up as a victim of the Great Terror in 1938.

Proof of the connection between the two was found even in Nenin, who at the time of his shooting had a letter from Platov on him, in which the former demanded about 300 bombs and information about the location of Romanian troops in the area. claiming that he already knew of a 5,000-strong division stationed in the southern region.

"The process of the 500"

After an investigation that lasted more than a year, on August 24, 1925, the meetings began in the process of the Tatarbunar uprisings, also called "The Trial of the 500". Thanks to Soviet propaganda, it attracted the attention of international public opinion, especially intellectuals from the Old Continent. In fact, in November 1925, a group of French intellectuals led by the pro-communist writer Henri Barbusse came to Chisinau to attend court hearings.

Of the more than 500 people arrested, 279 were sent to trial and given the status of defendants. Their defense was provided by lawyer M. Costa-Foru, who was praised and supported by Moscow in a telegram sent on June 16, 1925.

"On behalf of lawyers from different countries, we express our gratitude for the courageous decision to defend the workers in Romania. We are convinced that this case was fabricated by the secret services, which are acting against the 500 peasants of Tatarbunar, and that you will take all measures to save the lives of these innocent victims of unprecedented administrative terrorism in Bessarabia. The President of the International Legal Bureau warmly greets you, in person, you and all those of the Romanian intellectuals ", it was shown in the telegram sent to the lawyer, who also represents the official position of Moscow.

Renowned personalities have risen to defend the rebels, such as Albert Einstein, Maxim Gorky, Romain Rolland, Louis Aragon, and George Bernand Shaw. Some personalities supported Romania's position, such as Professor Charles Upson Clark of Columbia University in the USA, who claimed that "the Tatar-Bunar rebellion was essentially the most striking example of a communist raid, organized from outside (...) and not a local revolution against the intolerable conditions due to the Romanian oppression, as it was presented by the socialist press from all countries ”.

The case, in this case, was very large, with over 70,000 pages, and a sentence of 180. The vast majority were acquitted by the court but at the same time, 85 defendants were sentenced, most to prison with terms of six months. and six years, two for 15 years of forced labor, and one of the leaders of the uprising, Iustin Batishcev, was sentenced to life in prison. An important aspect to mention is that none of the convicts were of Romanian ethnicity.

At the same time, in Bucharest, the Romanian parliamentarians thanked the German settlers, who during the uprising were on the side of the Romanian gendarmerie and supported it in the fight against the rebels. Both the Undersecretary of State for the Interior, Gheorghe Tătărescu, and the Minister of Public Instruction, Ion Inculeț, addressed the settlers in German and promised them that they would be able to keep their schools teaching in their mother tongue.

Across the Dniester, a new republic and communists are banned in the country

The failure of the events in Tatarbunar forced the USSR leadership to change its strategy in the region. Thus, on October 12, 1924, an artificial state called the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (RASSM) was established on the left bank of the Dniester, with its capital in the city of Balta (and later in Tiraspol). The new state was part of the Ukrainian SSR and was 210 km long and 95 km wide.

Moldovan Socialist Soviet Republic

Moreover, the capital of the new state was declared the city of Chisinau, and the border was established on the Prut, which was prevented from being carried out due to the "temporary occupation" of Bessarabia. Needless to say, Moldovans did not make up the majority of the population in this new "state of their own", with Ukrainians being the majority ethnic group.

In Romania, by a decree of King Ferdinand, the Government led by the liberal Ionel I.C. Brătianu decided to ban the Communist Party once and for all, after having previously applied the so-called "Mârzescu law".

The source:  agora.md.