One of the important sources of the fragmentation of current Moldovan society has its roots in history, or rather in the different interpretation of important historical events, and June 28 belongs to this category. On June 28, 1940, Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and Hertsa Region were occupied by the Soviet Union, and the people treat this day differently, with epithets raging from “celebration to catastrophe”. The participants in IPN’s public debate “June 28, 1940 between celebration and catastrophe” discussed the context of that turning point for the fate of Moldovan society, as well as the reasons, actions and consequences of that distant day 84 years ago.

The permanent expert of IPN’s project Igor Botan said that the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, also known as the Stalin-Hitler Pact, was a nonaggression treaty between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed in Moscow on August 23, 1939 by the head of government and foreign minister of the USSR Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop.

“The pact, through the secret protocol, meant the division of the spheres of influence in Europe between the two powers. Basically, this nonaggression pact between the two great powers stipulated, between the lines, that each of the two signatory states was free to act according to its own political and territorial interests, provided that it did not do so to the detriment of the other side, and the core of the problem was actually the control over the European space between the two states,” explained the expert.

Igor Botan said that the ultimatum is usually a communiqué containing the irrevocable conditions that a power, a state, a proxy puts on another in order to solve a litigious situation on which their relations depend. “So, it is a diplomatic note by which a state presents another state with a definitive condition whose rejection entails the taking of coercive measures. Ultimatums are mainly used in politics and are sometimes preceded by a declaration of war,” noted the expert.

Political commentator Anatol Țăranu, a doctor of history, said that the problem of Bessarabia in international relations begins in 1812, when it was annexed by force of arms by the Tsarist Empire. “It was an act that was perfectly in line with the political and diplomatic realities of that period. At that time, the one who had the force of arms, who was strong also dictated the legal conditions of the relations with other states. We should remember here that the Principality of Moldavia, which existed at that time and which included the territory of Bessarabia, was later annexed by the Tsarist Empire. So, the Principality of Moldavia was not part of the Ottoman Empire, but was in suzerainty relations with the Empire. It was a situation of semi-dependence on the Ottoman Empire. That is the Principality of Moldavia enjoyed limited sovereignty and when Tsarist Russia annexed Bessarabia, in fact, the negotiations were not with this state that had sovereignty, but between the Ottoman Empire and the Tsarist Empire. Turkey did not have the legal right, even for that period, to do what it did – that is to cede a part of the Principality of Moldova to Tsarist Russia,” stated Anatol Țăranu.

The doctor of history noted that on March 27, 1918, as a result of the events that were happening in Russia, including the revolution, through the vote of the People’s Council – the representative body of Bessarabia at that time – this territory voluntarily became part of Romania. “It actually returned home to its space of ethnocultural and historical origin. In fact, the Act on Bessarabia joining Romania was legally recognized at the Paris Conference of 1920, a congress that put an end to World War I. At that congress, an agreement was signed recognizing that Bessarabia was part of Romania. This was the legal basis of Bessarabia’s belonging to Romania,” said the commentator.

According to him, the Soviet Union, during the interwar period, constantly contested the belonging of Bessarabia to Romania. But there were moments in the diplomatic struggle around the Bessarabian issue, when the USSR actually showed its willingness to recognize Bessarabia as part of Romania, under certain conditions. “They did not go beyond the initiative. But there are documents showing that the Soviet diplomatic service was ready to discuss this issue seriously. So, the Soviet Union understood that Bessarabia is Romanian land, that it belongs to Romania, but of course, for political and geopolitical reasons, the Soviet Union did everything possible not to recognize this and then, in 1940, it returned to the Bessarabian issue and, by force of arms, regained this territory,” stated Anatol Taranu.

Ion Varta, a doctor of history, said that the Peace Treaty of October 28, 1920, signed at the Paris Peace Conference, gave legitimacy to the historical act of March 27, 1918. That is the great powers recognized that, in fact, this territory had previously been seized against its will. When “returning home”, this territory returned to normality. However, under the Russian imperial occupation administration, the population of Bessarabia was actually denationalized.

“We were the most uneducated population after the Roma. The 1897 census showed that only 6.1% of the majority Romanian population was literate. Here, if we exclude the representatives of the aristocracy and the clergy, the literate peasants represented about 4%. But they didn’t study books in Romanian. They had been attending schools for one or two years, the so-called parochial or ministerial schools. There they started with the Russian alphabet, that is they were uneducated anyway. This was the dramatic aspect in which the Bessarabian Romanians found themselves, estranged and torn away from the matrix,” explained the historian.

According to him, with the reunification of this territory and the return to Romania, a lot of changes were witnessed. From a legal point of view, Bessarabia entered the European circuit. Western-type administrative institutions were established. “Finally, the whole of Bessarabia was profiting from those events and changes were instituted. There were constituted, by organic law, first, and then by royal decree, 738 communes with communal councils elected in perfectly valid competitions, between different political parties. That is Bessarabia entered a modern European circuit. From a cultural point of view, we had a real cultural revolution because, being almost totally illiterate, we were finally able to train our children in our mother tongue... At the end of our presence in the composition of the Kingdom of Romania, we were over 50% literate, including the adults who attended evening schools. Under the Soviets, when they reannexed, the locals were put in the category of illiterate population because they did not know the Russian language. Changes occurred in all respects,” stated Ion Varta.

The public debate entitled “June 28, 1940 between celebration and catastrophe” was the 39th installment of the project “Impact of the Past on Confidence and Peace Building Processes”. IPN Agency implements the project with the support of the German “Hanns Seidel” Foundation.