Romanian military intervention in Bessarabia

The Romanian military intervention in Bessarabia took place between 19 January and 8 March ( Old Style .S.5 January – 23 February) 1918, as part of the broader Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. It pitted the Kingdom of Romania, Russian Republic, Ukrainian People's Republic and anti-Bolshevik factions of the Moldavian Democratic Republic on one side, against the Bolshevik controlled Rumcherod and Odessa Soviet Republic, as well as pro-Bolshevik factions within the Moldavian DR. The intervention began when the Romanian army and its allies crossed into Bessarabia and launched an attack on Chișinău and Ungheni, capturing the latter.

On 19 January, the Bolshevik ''Frontotdel'' took hold of Chișinău, only to lose it to a second Romanian offensive on 26 January. On 29 January, Romanian troops besieged Bender; after much bitter fighting the defenders retreated from the city on 2 February. In northern Bessarabia, Romanian troops seized Bălți on 5 February. On 14 February, Vladimir Lenin appointed Mikhail Muravyov as the commander of the Bessarabia and Transnistria Front, reinforcing it with 3,000 soldiers. Muravyov went on a counter-offensive, achieving a number of victories, however his gains were erased when the Central Powers launched a large scale offensive against the Bolsheviks. In the south, Bolshevik sailors continued to control parts of the Budjak until early March, before retreating to Odessa.

Romania used the opportunity to break armistice negotiations with the Bolsheviks and occupy the last Bessarabian territories not under its control. On 6 February, Sfatul Țării, the Moldavian Democratic Republic's parliament, declared the country's independence. On 9 April 1918, the Moldavian Democratic Republic united with Romania.

Background

In 1812, as a result of the Treaty of Bucharest that followed the Russo-Turkish War of 1806-1812, and in spite of all protests, Moldavia lost to the Russian Empire its eastern part, between Prut and Dniester rivers. Becoming known as Bessarabia, the territory annexed by Russia and was then gradually colonized and Russianized. Education in the Romanian language was forbidden, and its use in the administration was also banned, while the Orthodox church in Bessarabia, detached from the Metropolitan Church of Moldavia and passed under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church, also became an instrument of the Russification policy. Following the union of Moldavia with Wallachia in 1859, and the establishment of the independent Kingdom of Romania in 1881, the foreign policy of the new state became strongly influenced by the ideas of the Romanian National Awakening, aiming at creating a Greater Romania which would incorporate all Romanian speakers, including the inhabitants of Bessarabia.

During World War I, in 1916–1917, Romania and Russia fought as allies, and during the winter of 1916/1917 the Russian command directed the 35th Infantry and 15th Cavalry divisions to the Romanian front in order to forestall the country's complete occupation. The southern part of Romania (72% of its territory) had already been occupied by the Central Powers, with the capital itself, Bucharest, having fallen on 4 December 1916. Romanian and Russian troops successfully defended against the German offensive, and the front was stabilized by mid-August 1917. In the meantime, news of the February Revolution which overthrew the Russian Tsar had reached Bessarabia. The first local soviet was created in Bender/Tighina on 21 March 1917, and by May 1917 soviets had been created in all district of Bessarabia. Concurrently, during the spring of 1917 peasants began dividing the land among themselves. The National Moldavian Party (NMP) was also created during the second part of March 1917, attracting primarily landowners. Gaining the support of the Romanian government, the party agitated for the introduction of Moldovan language in state institutions, solving the agrarian problem only in the interest of Moldavians, and gradually promoted a union with Romania. Though national polarization had emerged among the soldiers of the Russian army, the NMP failed to impose its goals on the various organizations emerging in the context of the revolutions: the April Provincial Congress of Public Teachers decided that both Moldavian and Russian should be used in education, while the First Provincial Peasants' Congress (3-5 June 1917) decided to transfer all land in public ownership, demanded equal treatment for all national groups, and decided for autonomy within Russia. Describing the situation, NMP politicians Grigore Cazacliu and Ion Văluță stated "the Moldavian people consider us their enemies". The party failed to gain popularity among the Bessarabians who voted in November 1917, in the Bessarabia electoral district, for the Russian Constituent Assembly elections, and received only 2.3 percent of the vote. However, three of the five deputies representing the Soviet of Deputies of the Peasants, led by Ion Inculet and Pantelimon Erhan, and also including Teodor Cojocaru, elected to the All-Russian Constituent Assembly, which obtained 36.7% of the votes in the November 1917 elections in the Bessarabia Electoral District, out of the 13 elected from the province, eventually supported Bessarabia's union with Romania on March 27/April 9, 1918.

Besides the marauding and violence by deserters, usual in regions near the front line such as Bessarabia, the February Revolution further eroded discipline among Russian soldiers, resulting in a surge in the number of deserters; instances of brigandage and looting multiplied. In August 1917, after the July Days, the newly created Central Moldovan Military Executive Committee in Chișinău, supported by the Chișinău City Soviet, decided to establish ten Moldavian national units of 40 people each; these were initially called Cohorts, then mobile detachments. The Cohorts' main mission was to maintain order against domestic anarchy, but they were unable to do that in the context of social turmoil and rebellion among the Russian soldiers. Mikhail Meltyukhov claims that the units also intervened to prevent the peasants from dividing the lands of the large estates and helped restore the property of large landowners. Simultaneously, the internal situation in Russia also led to emergence of Bolshevik groups among the Russian soldiers: distinct organizations were created in Bessarabia and the Romanian Front during August and September. The Bolshevik influence came to manifest itself even among certain Moldavian detachments, prompting Ștefan Ciobanu to later declare that "it is precisely those few Moldavian units that were at the disposal of Sfatul Țării that were infected with Bolshevism". The peasants also radicalized, the Second Provincial Peasants' Congress (9–13 September 1917) calling for the transfer of all land, water, forests and resources to the public domain, mirroring the Bolshevik slogan "All land to peasants!". Beginning with 7 October, the Central Moldovan Military Executive Committee decided to create units under its sole command, and was supported with soldiers and officers by the Russian command of the Romanian Front and the Odessa Military District. The Committee also convened a Moldavian Military Congress, gathering around 600 delegates, mainly officers; on 3 November the Congress decided on the creation of a provincial assembly, Sfatul Țării, which would uphold Bessarabian autonomy.

According to Ion Giurcă, the overthrow of the Russian Provisional Government in Petrograd in October 1917 (also known as the October Revolution) and the seizure of power in Russia by the Bolsheviks led to disorganization and indiscipline in the Russian Army on the Eastern Front. On 5 December .S. 22 November1917, Soviet Russia signed in Brest-Litovsk a complete ceasefire with the Central Powers, calling for a peace without annexations and indemnities, and ordering its troops to stop fighting in view of an armistice with the Central Powers. Dmitry Shcherbachev, the head of the Russian troops on the Romanian Front, refused to comply with the Soviet Government's orders. Under these conditions, two opposing groups emerged in the local Russian armies: one that recognized the new Bolshevik leadership in Petrograd, determined to leave the front, and a second group under the command of general Shcherbachev, which sought to continue the war; disputes and armed confrontations soon erupted between the two groups. Despite Romanian military support, Shcherbachev, who according to van Meurs had become a "commander without an army", failed to subdue the local Bolshevik committee and ultimately agreed to sign an armistice with the Germans. Consequently, Romania and Russians under Shcherbachev signed an armistice in Focșani on 9 December .S. 26 November1917, six days before the armistice between Russia and the Central Powers.

Following the Bolshevik Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia, on 15 December .S. 2 December1917, Bessarabia proclaimed its autonomy within the Russian Republic, as the Moldavian Democratic Republic. The leaders of the newly created state were Ion Inculeț, the president of Sfatul Țării, the Moldavian legislative council, and Pantelimon Erhan, the chief of the Moldavian government (called the ''Council of General Directors''). The local leaders argued that Bessarabia should remain firmly within the new Russia, but with its status "like that of Finland in the tsarist empire or one of the cantons of Switzerland". Due to violence and the chaotic situation in the region, as well as the prevalence of illiteracy among the Bessarabian peasant masses, no general election took place and the seats in Sfatul Țării were distributed to various social groups, minorities, professional organizations, and interest groups. The delegates represented only four of the governorate's uyezds, which were primarily populated by ethnic Moldovans. In the Budjak where the majority of the population was non-Moldovan, Sfatul Țării's authority received limited recognition. The assembly and the Council of Directors were expected to administer the province until the Bessarabian Constituent Assembly could meet to decide the future of the province.

In the meantime, various soviets had emerged around Bessarabia, many of them controlled by Mensheviks, Esers, and Bundists, and initially without Bolshevik influences. The soviets and Sfatul Țării recognized each other, and the Esers and Peasant's Soviet had received seats in the assembly. Both the Petrograd Soviet and the Council of People's Commissars recognized the new Moldavian Republic, its Assembly and government. Conversely, several of local soviets also recognized Vladimir Lenin's government, and until mid-December the local soviets became "Bolshevized".

Mikhail Meltyukhov claims that, on 21 November, the Romanian ambassador in London indicated to the British leadership that the Romanian army was ready to participate in the struggle against the Soviets, and two days later the US president promised support for Romanian territorial claims in exchange for participation in an anti-Soviet intervention. Shcherbachev also agreed to transfer to Romania Russian weapons, ammunition and food supplies in exchange of 16 million rubles; part of these resources were to be transferred to General Alexey Kaledin, recognized by the Entente as the legitimate Russian representative.

While retreating from Romanian territory, groups of Russian soldiers and even whole units also started committing various acts of violence and robberies, resulting in a series of confrontations with the Romanian army in Socola, Galați, Pașcani, Spătăreşti and Mihăileni. However, according to Tutula, the main cause that led to Romanian actions against Russian soldiers was the chaotic state of the Russian army and the increased danger represented by the concentration of Bolshevik troops in Iași and its surroundings. According to Tutula, these troops aimed at suppressing Shcherbachev, dethroning King Ferdinand I and establishing a communist regime in Romania; such arguments determined the Romanian Government to adopt, on the night of 21 December .S. 8 Decemberto 22 December .S. 9 December1917, "exceptional measures". The Romanian army was ordered to allow only authorized travel for the Russian columns heading for the Prut, and to disarm all Russian troops in disorder.

Mikhail Meltyukhov notes that Romanian intervention was requested by Shcherbachev after the Bolsheviks under Semyon Roshal, with the support of the Socola garrison, announced they had seized power on the Romanian Front on 16 December. After failed negotiations in Iași, Ukrainian troops and four Romanian regiments arrested the Bolshevik negotiation team on 21 December, shot Roshal, dissolved the revolutionary committee and disarmed troops loyal to it. Dorin Dobrincu points out that, arriving from Petrograd with the mission to take control of the Revolutionary Military Committee of the Romanian Front, Roshal tried, with the help of some Bolshevik soldiers, to arrest General Shcherbachev; the general was saved by his Ukrainian guards and the intervention of the French and Romanian officers. According to Dobrincu, after being detained by the Romanians, Roshal ended up in "unclear conditions" in the hands of the anti-Bolshevik Russians; his body was later found near a railway line, possibly after being shot by "his Russian political and ideological opponents". The following days, the Romanians disarmed all Russian troops deemed "unreliable", and, according to Meltyukhov, severed Russian access to food depots and interned Russian servicemen in concentration camps. On the morning of 22 December .S. 9 December1917, the Romanian troops, with the help of Ukrainian soldiers loyal to General Shcherbachev, surrounded the Russian garrison at Socola and disarmed it. According to Dobrincu, no casualties were reported in this incident, and all 3,000 Russian soldiers were put on trains and sent across the Prut. Romanian troops in other settlements across Moldavia followed suit, however in several places their actions led to armed confrontation. According to Mitrasca, the Russian troops fleeing from Romanians passed through Bessarabia, robbing and pillaging. Meltyukhov however claims that, in order to justify its actions, the Romanian government propaganda began alleging that Russian troops had been perpetrating robberies and pogroms.

The actions of the Romanian troops "for the enthronement of the order" in the Romanian territory were categorized by the Soviet Government as "criminal", being followed by ultimatum notes which, according to Vasile Tutula, had the character of a declaration of war. The Commissar of Foreign Affairs, Leon Trotsky, reproached the Romanian representative in Petrograd, Constantin Diamandy, for interfering in Russia's internal affairs, while Diamandy replied Romanian actions were police measures against devastation by the Russian troops.

Prelude

The first Romanian forays in Bessarabia began in mid December (on 14 December .S. 1 December1917 according to some sources) when a small detachment took over the village of Leova, purportedly in order to protect the grain stores. This caused indignation among locals, which believed the troops came "to take away the gains of the revolution". Following a rally organized by the local soviet, the Romanian troops were repulsed, losing one officer (captain Popilian) and two soldiers. A member of the Cahul supply commission informed the Sfatul Țării that Romanian troops had intervened after he had requested to Shcherbachev a military guard for the local depots, however the Romanians were attacked by local armed bands. On 21 December the Romanians sent a two-regiment strong retaliatory expedition, occupied Leova, and, under treat of shooting every tenth local, demanded that the leaders of the local Soviet be surrendered. All four members of the soviet's executive committee, headed by I. Nestrat, were summarily tried and consequently shot, as they were deemed responsible for the earlier Romanian casualties.

Further forays took place throughout December: on the 20th Romanian troops surrounded Pogănești, Sărata-Răzeși and Voinescu and began shooting the locals, prompting Chițan, president of the Mingir