Bessarabian Soviet Socialist Republic
A short-lived Soviet revolutionary committee for Bessarabia.
The Bessarabian Soviet Socialist Republic was a revolutionary committee established under the patronage of Soviet Russia with the aim of creating a Soviet republic in Bessarabia. Its only territorial control was the town of Bender during an uprising in May 1919. The idea was revived during the Tatarbunary Uprising in September 1924, when another committee held control over some villages in southern Bessarabia for a few days.
Quick Facts
- Demonym
- Bessarabian
- Government
- Provisional revolutionary Committee
- Lifespan
- 1919
- Today
- Moldova; Ukraine
Facts from the source article.
History
In May 1919, Bolsheviks meeting in Odessa declared a provisional government in exile for Bessarabia, which they then set up days later in Tiraspol as a self-governing part of the Russian SFSR. Neither city was actually inside Bessarabia, and this government never held any territory there. Bessarabia had already joined Romania in April 1918, a union the Soviets refused to accept. The proclamation was a political step meant to set the stage for a future Red Army takeover.
This de facto government negotiated with French military officials about a resolution, but it was dissolved in September 1919 after Denikin’s forces seized the Odessa area. The major Western European powers later recognized Romania’s claim to Bessarabia through the 1920 Treaty of Paris. The United States, however, declined to sign the treaty because Russia had not been included in the talks. That refusal helped the Soviet Union maintain its ambition to reclaim Bessarabia, which it ultimately accomplished two decades afterward.
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