This day, 65 years ago, Soviet Union invaded Romanian province of Bassarabia

(Initially published in http://www.romania-report.ro/ - Jun 28, 2005)

On June 28, 1940, the Soviet Union troops occupied the Eastern part of Romania (i.e. Bassarabia, Bukovina and Hertza) together with some strategic points at the Black Sea and Danube Delta. The Nazi Germany (by then allied with Russia) approved this invasion (in accordance with the Soviet-German nonaggression pact and its Secret Protocol), before Romania was to enter the WWII.

"Who he forgets is worth nothing," the great Romanian historian and politician Nicolae Iorga said – and the same reads a recent statement by Josep Borrell – President of European Parliament –, while addressing the issue of Soviet Union invasion of the Baltic states 65 years ago.

The Stalin-Hitler pact (Aug 23, 1939) is now condamned in Washington, Brussels, Riga, Tallinn or Vilnius.

As we remember, the Soviet policy in Eastern Europe from September 1939 lent weight to fears. Soviet forces occupied eastern Poland and the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, were pressured to accept Soviet troops on their soil, and became in effect, Soviet protectorates.

In November 1939 the Soviet Union attacked Finland after the Finnish government rejected demands for territorial accessions and Soviet basis on Finnish soil.

The Baltic States were fully incorporated into the Soviet Union, and Romania was forced to concede the territories of Bessarabia and the northern Bukovina.

Stalin expanded Soviet interests in Eastern Europe as Hitler had done before 1939. His priority was security against any threat posed to him by the other major powers.

In May this year (2005), while in Riga, George W. Bush louded "the historic injustice" which led to "captivity millions of people in Central and Eastern Europe."

Once occupying the Romanian province of Bassarabia, on June 28 1940, Stalin actually applied Peter the Great's strategy for dominating South-East Europe.

Nevertheless, in 1924, Stalin already decided on Romania's fate by creating the Soviet Socialist Republic of Moldova (on the territory of the now breakaway Transdniester region), thus threatening Romania's nation state. Also in 1924, the Russian Communist Party Central Committee released the document "Memorandum on the necessity of creating the Soviet Socialist Republic of Moldova" witch reads: "Uniting the territories on both Dniester banks would serve as a strategical breakthrough for USSR targeting both the Balkan region (by including Dobrogea) and Central Europe (by including Bukovina and Galitia)."

Romania Report