The territory of Bessarabia, at different times depending on the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate, became part of the Russian Empire in 1812 under the Bucharest Peace Treaty.

In the 19th century, under the rule of Russia, Bessarabia, whose elites had repeatedly asked the Russian tsars to free them from the Turks, experienced a flourishing and economic modernization. Its population has grown 10 times - up to 2.5 million people. Immigrants from Bessarabia occupied high state posts in the empire. During the revolutionary events of 1917, the Moldavian Democratic Republic, which was part of federal Russia, arose in Bessarabia.

At the beginning of 1918, Romanian troops entered Moldova. In February, they were defeated by the Soviet units, and Bucharest guaranteed to the Soviets that it would liberate Moldova. However, then Romania took advantage of Moscow’s complicated negotiations with Berlin and other problems of the Soviets in order to annex Bessarabia. Soviet Russia, and then the USSR, Bucharest’s actions refused to officially recognize.

Start of war

Bessarabia under the rule of Romania was a poorly developed periphery, the local population gravitated to the Soviet Union. In 1940, the leadership of the USSR presented an ultimatum to the Romanian authorities and introduced the Red Army into Bessarabia. On the returned territories, the Moldavian SSR and the Izmail Region were formed as part of the Ukrainian SSR.

In September 1940, the Romanian government was led by former Defense Minister Ion Antonescu, who initiated a sharp rapprochement of the country with the Third Reich. Romania joined the Triple Pact; repressions against the opposition began in the country. In the first half of 1941, a group was created on the territory of Romania to invade the USSR, consisting of the 11th German, 3rd and 4th Romanian armies. In the event of successful aggression against the Soviet Union, the leadership of the Third Reich promised Antonescu to transfer Bessarabia and the southwestern part of the Ukrainian SSR to the Southern Bug.

June 22, 1941 German-Romanian troops invaded Bessarabia. However, the night before, the chief of staff of the Odessa military district, Matvey Zakharov, relying on intelligence and fleet data, convinced the commander of the district, Yakov Chervichenko, to put the troops on combat alert and withdraw them from their places of permanent deployment. As a result, on the morning of June 22, the losses of Soviet forces were minimal. Despite the fact that on the Danube in the Ismail region, the Romanian units had an eightfold numerical superiority, the personnel of the NKVD, the Danube Flotilla and the 51st Infantry Division repelled the enemy’s attacks, and on 24 June landed an airborne assault and established a bridgehead on the territory of Romania.

  • German engineers build a bridge over the Prut River in Romania during an attack on Uman
  • © Bundesarchiv

On June 27, German-Romanian troops were stopped on the Prut River. The Moldavian SSR and the Izmail region were subjected to brutal bombing. However, the local population did not give up. Residents of border areas enlisted in the militia in large numbers and helped build defenses.

Despite the success of the troops of the Odessa Military District and the Danube Flotilla, in July they had to start a retreat. Hitler's forces quickly advanced in the north - in Belarus and in the Kiev direction. The Soviet group in the Northern Black Sea region could be cut off from the main forces. On July 16, German-Romanian troops occupied Chisinau. On July 22, the Red Army left Ishmael, and on July 23 Bender. July 26, 1941 under the control of the Nazis passed the entire territory of Bessarabia.

Occupation regime

The territories of Moldova to the west of the Dniester and the Izmail region under the Romanian occupation became part of the Bessarabian governorate. And the Soviet lands in the interfluve of the Southern Bug and the Dniester were called Transnistria.

A brutal occupation regime was established in the Soviet territories controlled by Bucharest, which served as the raw material base for the invaders. Corporal punishment was introduced for the local population. Every tenth resident of Moldova was subjected to physical abuse. Of the more than 200 thousand victims, 22.7 thousand people died under torture.

Livestock was requisitioned from the local population. Products were issued on cards. A person was supposed to only 150-200 grams of bread per day. Due to malnutrition and poor sanitation, epidemics of infection have begun in Bessarabia. In the first two years of the Romanian occupation alone, about 200 thousand local residents died of starvation and disease.

Romanian-German invaders massively seized Russian-language books, films, records. In Tiraspol, the invaders burned 250 thousand books, in Balti - 15 wagons. For conversations in Russian in public places, one could be imprisoned for three years.

  • Jews at lunch break in Chisinau
  • © Bundesarchiv

The Antonescu regime, just like the Hitler regime, took part in the Holocaust. A network of ghettos and concentration camps was created on the territory of Bessarabia and Transnistria. During the occupation, Romanian-German punishers destroyed about 300 thousand Jews and 50 thousand gypsies. Occupants most often took Moldavian Jews to the Bogdanovka concentration camp in the territory of modern Nikolaev region, where they were shot or burned alive.

The local population was not going to put up with the actions of the invaders. In the territory of Moldova and the Izmail region, underground organizations and partisan detachments were created. About 3,500 people fought in their composition. About 400 more people were transferred by the Soviet special services from the territory of the Ukrainian SSR.

Iasi-Chisinau operation

In March 1944, Soviet troops liberated the Rivers of the Southern Bug and Dniester from the Romanian-German occupiers. On March 17, the Red Army entered the territory of the Moldavian SSR. However, in early April, the front stabilized along the Pashkani – Orhei – Dubossary line. The Nazis began to send reinforcements to Romania and Moldova. However, Operation Bagration and the offensive of Soviet troops in Western Ukraine confused Adolf Hitler's cards. 12 divisions were hastily redeployed from Bessarabia to the north.

“Despite the decrease in the number of personnel, the Soviet offensive in Bessarabia did not promise to be easy. According to Hitler’s decision, the Nazi and Romanian troops turned each settlement into a fortress, taking advantage of the relief features, ”military historian Yuri Knutov told RT in an interview.

According to him, the defense of the Romanian-German troops was deeply layered and consisted of 3-4 lines of fortifications.

“The Hitlerites expected the Red Army to strike the shortest path - to Chisinau. The best German units were concentrated in this direction. However, the Soviet command envisioned this and decided to hit the flanks on which the less efficient Romanian units stood, ”said Yuri Knutov.

The German-Romanian group in Bessarabia numbered about 900 thousand people. She was opposed by about 1.3 million troops of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts, as well as the Black Sea Fleet.

On August 20, a mass offensive by Soviet troops began.

“The actions of infantry and armored vehicles were preceded by a double artillery rampart. First, Soviet artillerymen destroyed the first line of defense of the enemy, and then accompanied the attack with their fire, ”Knutov specified.

  • Parts of the 49th Guards Rifle Division of the 5th Shock Army of the 3rd Ukrainian Front on the march during the Iasi-Chisinau Operation
  • © Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

According to him, as a result of powerful Soviet shelling, the enemy’s trenches and trenches were filled up and turned into small ditches. And German and Romanian soldiers in shelters died from air pressure and suffocation.

On the very first day of the operation, Soviet tankmen managed to break through the enemy defenses. On August 21, the breakthrough was expanded to 65 km. By the evening of the same day, the 6th German army was surrounded near the village of Leuseni. Her commander fled. On August 20-21, seven Romanian and two German divisions were defeated.

On August 22, the Hitlerite command decided to begin the withdrawal of their troops for the Prut. On the same day, the Danube Flotilla, together with the forces of the 46th Army, crossed the Dniester estuary and developed an offensive in the territory of the Izmail Region. On August 24, the 5th shock army liberated Chisinau. 18 Hitler divisions were surrounded on the territory of Moldova.

On 23 and 24 August, the Danube flotilla landed troops in Zhebriyany and Vilkovo. About 800 Soviet paratroopers destroyed and captured about 7.5 thousand Nazis, while losing 18 people killed.

  • Soviet troops entered Bucharest on August 31, 1944, 2 days after the end of the operation

On August 26, the territory of the Moldavian SSR and the city of Izmail were liberated from the Nazis. Three days later, Soviet troops destroyed the Nazi group, which managed to cross to the west bank of the Prut. The Iasi-Chisinau operation has ended. German-Romanian troops lost over 330 thousand people killed, wounded and captured. The losses of the Red Army and the Navy of the USSR amounted to 67 thousand soldiers, of which about 13 thousand were killed.

“This was one of the most anemic operations of the Soviet troops during the Great Patriotic War. The main directions of the Red Army’s strikes were skillfully chosen, the pace of the offensive was extremely high, the interaction of various arms was brilliantly organized, ”Boris Sokolov, Methodist of the Victory Museum, said in an interview with RT.

According to Yuri Knutov, the Iasi-Chisinau operation is considered one of the most successful during the years of World War II.

“The Soviet command effectively used the factor of distraction of Hitler forces to the battles in Poland. Successful operations of the Red Army and the Black Sea Fleet allowed the liberation of Bessarabia. In addition, a road was laid to the Balkans, ”concluded Yuri Knutov.