At the beginning of 1918, Romania, with the consent of its masters - the Entente powers - against the will of the people, contrary to the right and obligations assumed, seized part of the territory of the Soviet country - Bessarabia. With loud phrases about justice, international law, and loyalty to their obligations, the Romanian money seekers tried to cover up the act of gross aggression. But all this deafening ringing betrays the uncertainty of the invaders in the rightness and strength of their business.
"They talk about international law, about international obligations," said Comrade Stalin. - But on the basis of what international character did the gentlemen "allies" cut off Bessarabia from the USSR and give it in slavery to the Romanian boyars?" (I. Stalin, Voprosy Leninizma, p. 359, 10th ed.).
Now that real law and justice have prevailed, and Bessarabia has once again been reunited with the entire Soviet land, there is naturally a growing interest in the question of how and under what conditions the capture of Bessarabia by Romania could have taken place.
1
The Romanian ruling circles have long cherished the dream of extending their rule to rich Bessarabia. For many years and even decades, the Romanian press and official science have been developing a "theory" that Bessarabia's eternal attraction to Russia and its more than century-long integration into the Russian state contradict the historical justice that supposedly consists in handing Bessarabia over to Romania. The Romanian boyars were particularly bold and loud in their claims to Bessarabia during periods of crisis that temporarily weakened Russia and deprived it of the ability to resist the invaders.
So, in 1859, after the end of the Crimean War, which was unsuccessful for Russia, the newly created Romania, with the direct support and instructions of England and France, included in its composition the southern part of Bessarabia adjacent to the Danube (Izmail, Cahul and Bolgrad counties).
By transferring these counties to Romania, England and France sought to distance Russia from the mouth of the Danube and to weaken its influence in the Balkans as much as possible. True, after the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878, which completely restored Russia's position on the Black Sea, Romania was forced to return to Russia the parts of Bessarabia it had captured. But the dream of capturing the last boyar Romania did not leave for an hour, impatiently waiting for another convenient moment. Such a convenient moment came during the imperialist war. It was extremely favorable for the implementation of Romania's aggressive plans that both belligerents were extremely interested both in attracting fresh forces to their side and in closing the markets for sales and raw materials in neutral European states to the opponents.
Romania has long hesitated in its choice of orientation, waiting for the advantage of one of the belligerents and hoping to secure its entry into the war with the greatest guarantees and obligations on the part of one or the other camp. Eventually, at the price of promising the territories of Transylvania, Banat, and Bukovina, the Entente induced Romania to enter the war against the Quadruple Alliance on August 27, 191b. The Anglo-French imperialists were not deceived about the strength and combat capability of Rumania, but sought first of all, with the help of the Rumanian armies, to achieve a temporary weakening of German pressure on the Western Front.
The Russian command, realizing that the entry of Rumania into the war could have nothing but a short-term and transitory effect, and that it would inevitably end in the defeat of the Rumanian army, opposed the policy of drawing Rumania into the war. The fears of the Russian command were fully justified: in two battles - at Hermannstadt (September 26-29, 1916) and at Kronstadt (October 7-9) - the Romanian army suffered a complete defeat. Austro-German troops entered the country and on December 6, 1916, without a fight, occupied the capital of the state - Bucharest. The Romanian government shamefully fled to the very Russian border, to the city of Iasi, and the Russian army had to take
take on the cover of the almost 600-kilometer Romanian front.
In the course of time, three Russian armies (9, 4, and 6) were concentrated on the Romanian front, about a little less than one-quarter of the total Russian armed forces. Only relying on Russian forces, the Romanian government retained a small part of the territory and the remnants of power.
It would seem that the unenviable situation in which Romania found itself, drawn into the struggle of the great powers, should have sobered the Romanian government and discouraged its appetite for aggression. But the unscrupulous and corrupt Romanian boyars were able to profit even from the fact of their complete and absolute powerlessness. After the February bourgeois-democratic revolution in Russia, the Rumanian rulers were more insistent than ever before in seeking "compensation" at the expense of Russia, blackmailing their allies and explicitly threatening them with a way out of the war and a possible transfer to the enemy's camp.
At the same time, Romanian agents Khalippa, Inkulets, Erhan and others launched increased subversive activities in Bessarabia. With the active participation of Inkulets, who was appointed assistant provincial commissar by the Kerensky government, Romanian spies formed a special "military-Moldavian alliance", and on October 20, 1917, they even convened a "military-Moldavian congress" in Kishinev, which was a bunch of unelected shady businessmen and Romanian agents specially arrived in Bessarabia. This "congress" decided to create the Bessarabian Regional Council (Sfatul-Ceria) and set up a special organizational bureau for this purpose.
Of course, such blatant subversive activities of Romanian agents in Bessarabia could only have taken place because they met with the support and sympathy of some local elements. The Bessarabian bourgeois-landowner circles, as well as the churchmen, who watched with fear and trepidation the irrepressible growth of the socialist revolution in Russia, resolutely preferred Rumanian rule to the power of the Soviets.
As for the command of the Russian army, it naturally saw in Boyar Rumania an ally against the Russian workers and peasants, and agreed to cede Bessarabia and other lands to the Rumanian boyars in exchange for Rumanian aid against the Russian revolution. Various Ukrainian nationalists who worked in the south-west of Russia also did not dare to contradict the Romanian rulers, realizing that in their person they would, under certain conditions, find active collaborators in the struggle for the preservation of the bourgeois-landlord system.
Thus, by the time of the October Socialist Revolution, an alliance of Russian-Ukrainian and Bessarabian counter-revolutionaries with Romanian boyars and capitalists had been formed. This alliance, directed against the socialist revolution, was supported by the entente imperialists.
2
The Great October Socialist Revolution echoed menacingly in Rumania and on the Rumanian front. The soldiers of the Russian military units, infecting the Roumanian soldiers and working people with their example, threw off the power of the counter-revolutionary officers, elected their own committees, expressed full solidarity with the decisions of the Second All-Russian Council of Soviets and were ready to fight and die for their implementation.
The influence of the Bolsheviks in the Russian troops grew from day to day and gradually reached the Romanian soldiers and workers. The activity of the Bolsheviks was especially intensified with the arrival of the Commissar of the Rumanian Front, Com-mand, appointed by the Soviet Government. Roshal. The Front Committee soon became Bolshevik; it moved from Yass, where there were no Russian units, to Sokoly station , a major railway junction and an important strategic point.
The workers and peasants of Roumania listened most attentively to the events beyond the Prut and rose up to fight their capitalists and landlords, following the example of the Russian workers and peasants.
The revolutionary movement " covered the entire unoccupied Romanian territory. "The fire will spread to Romania," Lenin wrote.
In an effort to extinguish the fire of the revolution and preserve their power, the Romanian ruling classes, Russian White Guards, Ukrainian, Moldavian and other nationalists united. They began to disarm the revolutionary units of the Russian army, shoot soldiers-activists, seize warehouses, bases, feeding points, etc.
The South-Western counter-revolution received particularly active support from the French imperialists. The plans of the latter included not only the desire to prevent Russia's exit from the voi at all costs-
In this way, the Kaiser's armies would put the Soviet government under attack, but also seize the dominant positions in the south of Russia. Immediately after the establishment of Soviet power in Russia, the Entente imperialists hastened to agree among themselves on the struggle against the socialist revolution and the division of Russia into zones of influence. This division of Russia found its diplomatic expression in the well-known Anglo-French agreements signed on December 23, 1917, which provided for the transformation of the entire south of Russia, west of the Don and Tsaritsyn, into a" French zone". Consequently, along with other lands of Bessarabia, it was destined to become a French colony. In order to make its way to the south of Russia and lay hands on the northern Black Sea coast, France used and actively supported the forces of the south-western counter-revolution in their struggle against Soviet Russia. France was therefore interested in strengthening the "friendship" between Rumania and the Entente, in creating conditions conducive to the unleashing of counter-revolutionary forces in southwestern Russia. Consequently, it was also in France's interest that the hostilities between Rumania and Germany should cease as quickly as possible, since it created the possibility of using Rumanian troops against the Soviet Country.
The command of the Russian troops of the Romanian Front, headed by General Shcherbachev, was entirely on the side of the Entente and was ready to serve it in any way in the fight against the Russian revolution. In the very first days of October, Kozel Poklevsky, an envoy of the tsarist and then Provisional Government in Rumania, telegraphed to Stavka that "a plan had been worked out in Iasi for the formation of a select military unit from the troops of the local front, which could be sent to the aid of the Provisional Government and would serve, if only to maintain order, at the front and in home front " (Bulletin of the All-Army Committee of the ER at Headquarters, No. 4 of October 31 (old style), 1917. Mogilev).
The French and other military missions in Romania have allocated up to 5 million rubles for the formation of a Russian volunteer shock unit. Colonel Drozdovsky, who later gained terrible fame, was put at the head of the formation. But the expectations of the White Guards and allies were not met: less than 2 1/2 thousand people joined the volunteer unit.
Simultaneously with the creation of selected counter-revolutionary units, it was planned to make General Shcherbachev commander-in-chief of the entire Russian army. At one time, negotiations were held with Dukhonin about this, and some French newspapers were already quick to announce that Dukhonin had transferred the performance of his functions to Shcherbachev. The defeat of the counter-revolutionary Headquarters in Mogilev and the murder of Dukhonin by soldiers prevented the implementation of this combination and served as a warning to its initiators. The same event put an end to the fluctuations in Iasi. In order not to lead the matter to an explosion of soldiers ' anger, General Shcherbachev, on the night of December 4, with the consent of the Romanian government and allied representatives, proposed to the command of the enemy armies to enter into armistice negotiations. On December 9, an armistice agreement was signed in Focsany on the Romanian front.
By this time, agents of the Romanian boyars staged the convocation of Sfatul-Cerium. II although the outcome of the elections to the Russian Constituent Assembly, during which only 14,000 of the 600,000 people who took part in the vote throughout Bessarabia gave a swap of votes to the "Moldavian national party" of Inculec - Calippa, served as a vivid illustration of the insignificance of Romanian influence on the population of Bessarabia, Romanian agents, without any embarrassment, on November 21, 1917 they hurried to open the Sphatulium Cerium.
Masquerading as revolutionary phrases, this rigged and sham parliament on December 2, 1917 " proclaimed Bessarabia a Moldavian Democratic Republic, part of the RSFSR. But at the same time, under the leadership of the Romanian counterintelligence officer, Ensign Krieggan, the creation of the national" armed forces "was started, which, as a certain French" scientist "Antonis Babel, an apologist of annexations and violence, had the task of stopping"bandit Russian soldiers".
3
Conclusion of a truce: on the Romanian front, while preserving the manpower of the Romanian and part of the Russian army, which was under the command of counter-revolutionary generals, in fact, it was reduced to turning the front against Soviet Russia. Therefore, the armistice on the Rumanian front did not raise objections from the Entente, which was extremely hostile to the news of the armistice between Russia and Germany. In addition, the Romanian government was quite transparent in making it clear that if its intention to withdraw from the war and thereby prevent a complete and final military defeat of Romania and a revolution inside the country was opposed, it would not be without benefits for the country.
he will go over to the side of the enemy and thus completely confuse the allied maps in the south of Russia. So, in the second half of November, the Odessa newspapers spread a message that Rumania, on the one hand, and Germany and Austria-Hungary, on the other, were negotiating that Rumania, in exchange for granting her Bessarabia in the whole of Southern Russia to the Dnieper, would enter into an alliance with the central powers and support the offensive Austrians on. Kyiv. Iasi hastened to categorically deny this report, but the hint contained in it was too clear, and the French President Poincare, in a public telegram to the Romanian king, assured him of France's full readiness to take into account Romanian interests. This meant that France agreed to Romania's seizure of Bessarabia. Although this significantly reduced the French share of Russia's division, the so-called "French zone", but it created the possibility of acquiring the rest of this share all the easier with the help of a satisfied Romania.
French projects for the use of Romania were intensively developed by the influential newspaper Le Matin, which in one of its articles, after a confused and rather incorrect description of the "ethnographic environment" adjacent to Romania from the East, developed the following plan: "Is it impossible to force Russian enterprises in Odessa and the Crimea to work for the Romanian army?.. Can't the railways of this area be taken 'under Allied control'?.. Is it possible to reconstruct the core of the resistance on the Black Sea coast?..
These questions are simple. The French officers who rebuilt the Romanian army will have to answer them."
The answer that Le Matin was seeking was not long in coming.
For the success of the White Guard-Rumanian-French plans, it was necessary to exterminate the leading Bolshevik staff of the Rumanian front committee (military revolutionary committee), which would undoubtedly raise a voice of protest and draw Russian military units along with it as soon as the intention of the counter-revolutionary command to direct them to attack Soviet Russia became clear.
Under the plausible pretext of "clearing up misunderstandings", Shcherbachev insidiously lured the front committee of the Sokoly party to Iasi during the meeting on December 19. In 1917, he was arrested by com. Roshal and other committee members. Tov. Roshal was handed over to the Romanian authorities and tortured by them. At the same time, arrests and shootings of elected commanders and the disarming of revolutionary units began all along the front. The headquarters were overwhelmed by Russian White Guards and Ukrainian Rada troops operating in full contact. At the same time, some Romanian units crossed the Russian border and occupied the town of Leovo.
French representatives played a role in these events not only as stage managers, but also as direct operational managers. The general's son, Shcherbachev, who served as an adjutant to his father, told about their active assistance to the Belarusians. After General Shcherbachev captured Roshal, the young Shcherbachev writes, "four French officers and a car were attached to the general. At night, the pope's chief of staff, General Bertello, a colonel, arrived. Two Russian-speaking officers of the French general Staff were assigned to Petya. Meanwhile, a Romanian regiment was sent to Sokoly to completely eliminate Bolshevism there and to expel the Bolsheviks from there outside Romania..." ("Chronicle of the Revolution" No. 1 (10) for January-February 1925, p. 108). By the morning of December 22, "everything was more or less" settled with the help of the allies, who immediately expressed their full readiness to help the pope... " (ibid.).
The events of December 19-22 marked the beginning of Romania's planned military operations against Soviet Russia.
4
The lack of normal communication with the south of Russia led to the fact that the Soviet government received fairly comprehensive information about the Belorumyn attack only on December 28. The next day, the NKID sent a note to the Romanian embassy, setting out the information received from Bessarabia, and demanding to report "during today's day everything that the Romanian embassy knows about this matter, as well as what measures the Romanian government has taken so far in order to punish criminal elements from the Romanian officers and the Romanian bureaucracy." who dared to raise their hand against the Russian revolution. We consider it necessary to warn the Romanian Embassy here, "the note went on," that we will no longer tolerate any reprisals on the territory of the Russian revolution, not only against Russians, but also against Romanian revolutionaries and socialists. Every Rumanian soldier, worker, and crestman-
Yanin will find the support of the Russian Soviet government against the arbitrariness of the reactionary Romanian bureaucracy. At the same time, we consider it necessary, through your embassy, to make it clear that the Soviet government will not hesitate to take the most severe measures against the counter-revolutionary Romanian conspirators, the accomplices of Kaledin, Shcherbachev and Rada, absolutely regardless of what positions these conspirators occupy in the Romanian hierarchy " (Izvestiya VTSIK, December 19 (old style) of 1917).
Undoubtedly, the Romanian Embassy in Petrograd was better informed than the Soviet government about both the events in western Bessarabia and the Iasi plans. There was a continuous exchange of information between Diamanti, the Romanian envoy to Russia, and the Romanian military mission, which was based under the auspices of the Ukrainian Rada in Kiev and from there maintained constant contact with Iasi. Diamanti had exceptionally close relations with the Allied representatives in Petrograd. With their help, anticipating the further course of events, Diamanti tried to take away the Romanian gold fund stored in Moscow. Intelligence Service agents Colonel Boyle and Captain Hill, who had arrived from Mogilev, were placed at Diamanti's disposal to carry out this operation. Taking advantage of the credulity of a number of Soviet people, these British counterintelligence agents fraudulently managed to get them a part of the Romanian fund and deliver CSOs from Moscow to Iasi. For their services to the Romanian oligarchy, Boyle and Hill received Romanian orders. The early removal of the Romanian fund once again underlines the purely planned nature of Romania's actions and the absolute consistency of these actions with anti-French circles.
In a reply note to the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, the Romanian Embassy wrote that due to the timely measures taken by the Romanian authorities, the events mentioned in the Soviet note did not develop further. While expressing regret for what happened, the Romanian embassy paid attention to the behavior of the Russian troops in Romania and, without denying Romania's ties with the Rada and Kaledin, explained them with Romania's food claims to the south of Russia. The NCID considered it necessary to state that the Romanian response was unsatisfactory.
While the exchange of notes between the Soviet Government and the Romanian Embassy was taking place in Petrograd, the Second Council of Soviets of the Romanian Front, the Black Sea Fleet, and the Odessa Region (Rumcheroda) met in Odessa, separated from the rest of Soviet Russia by territories captured by the Rada. At the beginning of the Soviet Union's work, a relative (and then after the departure of the Ukrainian Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, an absolute) majority was held by the Bolsheviks. A representative of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Tov,took a leading part in the work. Volodarsky.
The major events during the work of the s'ad were, on the one hand, the merger of the Romanian and Southwestern Fronts into the united Ukrainian Front under the command of Shcherbachev, led by Shcherbachev and Rada, and, on the other, the expanding invasion of Bessarabia by the Romanians. Convinced that it was impossible to reach an agreement with the headquarters of Shcherbachev, s'ezd demanded that the Rada and the Romanian government immediately stop violence and repression and decided to send authorized delegations to Iasi and Kiev. Meanwhile, the intensification of the Romanian intervention and the blatant violence against the revolutionary units of the Russian army raised the question of the need for the Soviet Government to resort to retaliatory repressive measures. The possibility of them was taken into account by the imperialists. As early as January 5, the French telegraph agency Havas reported from Petrograd that " if Rumania does not give a satisfactory answer to all the demands of Petrograd, Lenin's government will take extremely energetic measures in relation to Rumania..."
On January 12, 1918, the Soviet of People's Commissars, having received information about the Romanian attack on the 4th Revolutionary Division and the 194th and 195th regiments, "in order to prevent a war between Russian soldiers and Romanian soldiers, who would be unfairly punished for the excesses of their authorities," ordered the arrest of the Romanian diplomatic and military missions. he sent an ultimatum to the Romanian government over the radio. In the ultimatum, the Romanian government was asked to punish the perpetrators and give guarantees that such actions would not be repeated. The response time was set at 24 hours, and it was indicated that in case of non-receipt of the answer, "military measures will be taken up to the most decisive" (Pravda, January 16, 1918).
On January 13, at about 8 p.m., representatives of the Soviet government came to the Romanian embassy in Petrograd and, having issued a warrant, arrested Diamanti, as well as Lieutenant Crayo, the secretary of the military attache; later, Colonel Olada, the Romanian military attache, and Commandant Dragonesco, a member of the Romanian military mission, were arrested at the Astoria Hotel.
The behavior of the Allied diplomats in connection with this act of Soviet power once again shows that, despite the armistice of Rumania with Germany, the Entente powers continued to regard Rumania as their ally and took its interests to heart. At noon on January 14, the ambassadors and charge d'affaires of all the powers represented in Petrograd gathered at the house of Francis, the American Ambassador to Petrograd, who became head of the diplomatic corps after the subsequent departure of the British Ambassador Buchanan to London in January. They decided to protest Diamanti's arrest. Francis, on behalf of the diplomatic corps, asked V. I. Lenin by telephone to receive the diplomats. V. I. Lenin expressed his consent and set a time for the reception.
At the specified hour, foreign diplomats gathered in Smolny. This was the first and only time that the head of the Soviet government, V. I. Lenin, had to receive diplomatic representatives of imperialist states.
This first reception of the diplomatic corps was attended by Lenin's closest associate, I. V. Stalin.
U.S. Ambassador Francis introduced each of the diplomats in turn, and at 4: 16 p.m., the conversation began, lasting until 4: 45 p.m. Francis also read out a collective protest from representatives of the United States, Japan, France, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Belgium, Venezuela, Siam, China, Serbia, Portugal, Argentina, Greece, Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy and the United Kingdom over Diamanti's arrest. Avoiding discussing the reasons for the arrest, the diplomats in their oral statements urged the release of the Romanian envoy. In a correct conversation, only the words of the French diplomat Nulans sounded irritated and defiant, to whom V. I. Lenin had to explain that, from the Soviet point of view, "the lives of thousands of soldiers are more precious than the peace of one diplomat" (Pravda, January 16, 1918). At the end of the reception, Levin promised that the request of the diplomatic corps would be discussed at a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars.
On the evening of January 14, a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars was held. For a number of reasons, mainly because the Soviet armed forces were busy fighting the Rada and were still approaching southern Russia, the Council of People's Commissars considered it possible to grant the request of foreign diplomats and release Diamanti from custody; at the same time, the Council of People's Commissars demanded the release of Russian soldiers arrested in Romania within three days.
Demonstrating the unanimity of the French government with the Romanian one, Nulane himself went to the Peter and Paul Fortress for Diamanti and delivered him to the French embassy, where Francis was waiting for them.
Despite the measures taken by the Soviet authorities, the Romanian government continued to rapidly prepare for the complete seizure of Bessarabia. In order to divert attention, various telegraph agencies, especially the French agency Havas, which was known for its deceit, spread reports that the Soviet ultimatum was given a supposedly soothing answer, which Lenin recognized as quite satisfactory. Especially great efforts were made to create the impression that the population of Bessarabia, who had supposedly expressed their will through Sfatul-Cerius, was eager for the arrival of Romanians. In order to give Sfatul-Ceri the appearance of an authoritative and full-fledged institution, the French government hastened to declare recognition of the Moldavian Republic (though still as an integral part of the Russian Federation) and the appointment of Consul in Chisinau Sarre as the diplomatic representative of France to this republic.
Sarre handed the "Moldovan government" a letter from the French envoy to Romania, Saint-Oler, dated January 15, which officially confirmed that the actions of the Romanian army were approved by the ploughshares. In his letter, Saint-Oler, on behalf of the ambassadors of all the allied Powers, informed the "Government" of Bessarabia that the entry of the Romanians into Bessarabia corresponded to the wish expressed by all the Allied Powers. The "Moldovan government" has temporarily refrained from making public the allies ' kindly informed admission that they are the leaders and organizers of the Romanian intervention in Russia.
The Romanian authorities, who boastfully claimed through the mouth of General Prezan that they were not afraid of bloody clashes with the Russian army, were still afraid to expand the occupation zone. According to their plans, the decisive blow to the center of Bessarabia - the city of Chisinau - should be delivered from the Russian side of the newly formed Romanian-Russian front by Transylvanian and Romanian prisoners of war, parts of which, with the help of the Rada, were rapidly recruited by the Romanian military mission in Kiev.
On January 19, an echelon of Transylvanians under the command of Romanian officers arrived from Kiev to Chisinau and made an attempt to seize the city's railway station. To the great embarrassment of " mol-
the" Romanian government " and its Romanian masters, the Sfatul-Cerium military units immediately marched against the Transylvanians and drove them out with a fight. The leaders of Sfatul-Cerium then had to launch an intensive campaign for the" invitation " of the Romanian troops and publish the letter of Saint-Oler on January 24.
Having learned of the decision of the Sfatul-Cerium rulers to invite Romanian troops, the Rumcherod Central Executive Committee on January 21 decided to force the Romanians out of Bessarabia by armed force and demand that the Rada, Sfatul-Cerium and the Odessa consular corps support Rumcheror's demand for Romania to immediately withdraw Romanian troops. In Odessa itself, numerous arrests of Romanian political figures were made, a number of Romanian institutions were closed, and almost continuous demonstrations of protest against Romanian aggression took place in front of the Romanian consulate. Foreign consuls, trying to cover up the actions of Romania, appealed to Rumcerod with the assurance that Romania was not going to fight and that there was only a "sad misunderstanding" in Bessarabia.
On January 25, the Romanians began seizing Chisinau. The order issued by the" government "on the troops of the Moldavian Republic explicitly stated:" Today a combined detachment of allies enters the city (Kishinev-A.M.) to fight the Bolsheviks." Apart from the claim that a combined allied force was entering Kishinev - in fact, only the Romanians were entering-everything in this order was true: the Romanian occupation not only satisfied the predatory appetites of a second-rate imperialist power, but was also an act of armed intervention by the Entente against the Country of the Soviets. Ingulets spoke in Sfatul-Ceria on January 26: "The question of the entry of the Rumanian troops has been decided jointly with the allies, because they appealed to our reason and said that since the railways are occupied by the Bolsheviks, who do not allow anything to enter Rumania, then their duty and instinct of self-preservation push us to destroy the nest of Bolshevism." And in the official "government" message, which was supposed to bring Baluch under Romanian aggression, the role of France was particularly highlighted: "The question of the entry of Romanian troops into Bessarabia has been resolved by the Russian, Ukrainian and Romanian commands and allies. The Romanians will not interfere in internal affairs, and non-interference is guaranteed by France and other allies." A few days later, Sfatul-Ceria's declaration on the declaration of "independence" of occupied Bessarabia pharisaically stated:: "The guarantee that the Rumanian wars do not threaten our independence, our freedom and the right won by the revolution (!!! - AM) is the guarantee of France in agreement with England and America, as well as the statement of the representatives of Rumania."
It might seem that the French plan for connecting the Romanian armed sith, Shcherbachev's army, and troops. The Rada, which recognized the capture of Bessarabia, and the Cossack-volunteer counter-revolutionary detachments are being carried out successfully. Evidently, in commemoration of Romania's loyalty to the Entente, loyalty purchased at the price of granting Bessarabia to the Romanian boyars for the freedom and plunder, the French Prime Minister Clemenceau, the French Foreign Minister Nichon, the President of the French Chamber of Deputies Deschanel and the President of the French Senate Dubost received the Romanian parliamentary delegation in a solemn atmosphere.
But it was too early to triumph: the Rada was in a critical situation and was clearly living out its last days, and the Soviet government was not inclined to put up with imperialist violence and arbitrariness.
On January 27, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars issued a decree on severing diplomatic relations with Romania, detaining the Romanian gold fund, and declaring General Shcherbachev an enemy of the people and an outlaw (Pravda, January 27, 1918). At 2 p.m. on January 28, Diamanti and all the Romanian representatives were asked to leave Petrograd within 10 hours. Without bothering to ask again, Diamanti and the members of the Romanian embassy left for Stockholm in a hurry: via Finland.
The sharp deterioration of Romania's international situation caused by these circumstances led to a political crisis, which resulted in the resignation of the antantophile government of Bratianu on January 29. The formation of the new cabinet meant that, powerless to pursue an independent policy and unsure of Anglo-French guarantees, the ruling Romanian oligarchy, frightened by the consequences of the war it had provoked with Soviet Russia, was inclined to reorient itself in favor of the Quadruple Alliance.
At the same time, not content with the actual seizure of Transdniestria, the Romanians made an attempt to cross the Dniester. Rumcherod, as well as the Supreme Collegium for Russian-Romanian Affairs formed by the Council of People's Commissars, which focused on the following issues:
The leadership of all questions concerning relations with Romania was taken over, all workers were mobilized into the Soviet army, and preparations were made for the expulsion of the Romanians. The successful approach of Soviet troops from the north and the final revolutionary breakthrough in the Black Sea Fleet proved that the Romanians would have to deal not with "anarchy", but with a strong, organized enemy. On February 5, the Romanians were driven out of Bender by Grigory Kotovsky's unit, which showed miracles of bravery.
Representatives of the foreign consular board in Odessa and a member of the French military mission Ionino offered their services in "settling the conflict"in order to give the Romanians an opportunity to strengthen their forces and recover. On February 7, representatives of the Romanian command, with the active participation of the representative of the French military mission, Captain Reichtsammer, signed a 48-hour armistice agreement with the delegation allocated by Rumcherod. However, the Romanians had a very peculiar understanding of their obligations under the armistice. The Romanian Miska regularly observed them on the front line at Bender, where the superiority of Soviet forces was quite obvious, and at Ackermann, where the advantage was on the side of the Romanians, they insidiously attacked Soviet units and peasant partisan detachments. This coughing operation disrupted the armistice and caused the resumption of war on the entire front.
Fearing a bad outcome of the armed struggle for Romania, the Romanian government and allied diplomats decided to take the path of negotiations with the Soviet authorities. On February 11, the Odessa consular corps handed Rumcherod a note sent by the senior officer of the diplomatic corps in Iasi, Italian Ambassador Faschioti. Fascioti's note informed that the Romanian government had agreed in principle to the proposal of the Allied ambassadors to form a joint commission consisting of representatives of the Romanian Women, the Allies and Rumcerod to "review and determine" the facts on Romanian territory. As for the events on the territory of Bessarabia, a mixed commission has left, which is charged with investigating the events and establishing an agreement with Sfatul-Cerium on issues of mutual relations." Thus, by interfering in Soviet-Romanian relations, foreign diplomats tried to exclude the issue of Bessarabia from the competence of the Soviet government.
But refusing to negotiate, but not at all intending to exclude the issue of occupation from them. Bessarabia. Rumcherod assigned a special commission to demand the evacuation of the Romanian troops, the return of captured and removed property, the extradition of Shcherbachev, and the trial of the murderers of Comrades. Roshal, the release of arrested Russian soldiers, etc. The ongoing military operations were proceeding quite satisfactorily, and with the arrival of reinforcements from the north, the Romanians would be routed and driven out of Bessarabia.
Obviously, the Romanians themselves were sure of this: on February 14, representatives of the Romanian general staff, Colonel Rodlescu and Captain Cadern, arrived in Odessa. According to their compositions, the representative of the French military mission, Captain Reichtsammen, was supposed to present the terms of peace. In anticipation of these conditions, the Romanians requested a 48-hour truce. Rumcherod agreed - an agreement was concluded on the cessation of hostilities until 5 o'clock in the morning on February 16.
These delays did not correspond at all to the interests of Soviet Russia. Lenin on February 14, in a telegram to the military command, demanded that the Romanian front act "as vigorously as possible."
At the same time, it turned out that the representatives of the Romanian General Staff misled the Supreme Board, since Captain Reichtsammer, according to his own statement, was only authorized to propose the creation of a Soviet-Romanian joint commission, that is, in fact, to repeat the proposals contained in the Faschioti note received in Odessa on February 11. It was obvious that, given the difficult situation in which the Soviet country found itself due to the provocative behavior of the enemy of the people Trotsky in Brest-Litovsk, the Romanian rulers and their French leaders and advisers were trying to delay the solution of the question of Bessarabia and gain time. On February 15, the Supreme Collegium and Rumcherod, having announced on the radio about the unscrupulous and fraudulent tricks of the Romanian-French representatives, issued an ultimatum to Romania and warned of the resumption of hostilities from 5 am on February 16, from the moment of the expiration of the truce established by deception.
On February 17, Lenin ordered the transfer of the army, which had triumphantly completed operations against the Rada, to the Romanian Supreme Collegium. In a telegram announcing this order, Lenin wrote:: "We do not doubt for a moment that the valiant heroes of the liberation of Kiev will fulfill their revolutionary duty" (Lenin, Vol.XXIX, p. 482).
The next day, Soviet stocks began arriving in Odessa from Kiev. The Red Command developed an extensive war plan, which provided for the liberation of Bessarabia and the transfer of hostilities to Romania. Along the Dniester River, the troops intended for the offensive were concentrated. Combat operations began at sea, and a group of ships of the Black Sea Fleet under the command of the legendary hero sailor Zheleznyakov sank the Romanian monitor at the mouth of the Danube.
The French imperialists no longer had to worry about the fantastic plans of uniting the entire South Russian counter-revolution around the Romanians, but about saving the Romanian oligarchy itself.
On February 21, in a long telegram reflecting the near-hysteria of its drafters, the Italian envoy to Iasi, Faschioti, as head of the diplomatic corps, suggested that the Allied consuls in Odessa should seek the resumption of negotiations between representatives of the Allies, Romania and Rumcerod. Further, Faschioti recalled that the Romanian invasion of Bessarabia, which was carried out with the approval of the Allies, "is a military operation without any political character, undertaken... with an obviously humane (!?! - A. M.) goal-to guarantee the supply of both Russian and Romanian troops, as well as the civilian population" (cit. according to the collection "Civil War". Vol. II, p. 66. Moscow, 1933).
Having failed to get an answer to their new submission, the Anglo-French imperialists sent a special delegation to the Supreme Collegium (consisting of the British Colonel Boyle, who was treated kindly in Iasi, after he and Captain Hill delivered there part of the Rumanian gold fund fraudulently taken out of Moscow, and the French consul in Odessa, Colonel Arquier. The Anglo-French representatives again proposed the creation of a joint commission, without rejecting this proposal in principle, the Soviet authorities on February 24 set out as conditions for the creation of a joint commission a formal declaration of the Romanian government on the withdrawal of Romanian troops from Bessarabia, the immediate start of evacuation, refusal to interfere in the internal life of Bessarabia, etc.
Meanwhile, on February 24, the crossing of the Dniester River by Soviet troops began, and on February 28-March 1, the Romanian army was defeated in the battle of Rybnitsa.
General Averescu, President of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania, hastened to inform the Soviet authorities that, with the exception of minor details, the conditions set by the Anglo-French mediators Arquier and Boyle were accepted by Romania.
On March 5, 1918, in Odessa, the Soviet side signed a protocol on the settlement of the Russian-Romanian conflict, and on March 9, 1918, the head of the Romanian government, General Averescu, signed the same protocol in Iasi, drawn up on the basis of conditions put forward by the Soviet authorities and providing primarily for the purification of Bessarabia by the Romanians in two months, signed on the same day by Averescu The protocol was flown by Colonel Boyle to Odessa.
5
The conclusion of the Soviet-Romanian agreement on the elimination of the conflict and the withdrawal of Romanian troops from Bessarabia coincided with a sharp change in the international situation of Soviet Russia. The enemy of the people, Trotsky, having provoked a break in the negotiations between Russia and the Quadruple Alliance in favor of Anglo-French imperialism, put the socialist revolution under attack by the Kaiser's armies. By mid-March, German and Austrian troops had occupied almost all of Ukraine, and there was a vast zone of German occupation between Soviet Russia and Bessarabia. This circumstance was considered sufficient by the Romanian rulers to treacherously sabotage the fulfillment of their obligations.
By terrorizing the population, shooting people protesting against the Romanian invasion, the Romanians needed some "legal" grounds that would justify the seizure of Bessarabia. On March 27, 1918, after the arrests and shootings of a number of opposition-minded deputies, a meeting of the Sfatul-Cerium was convened, which took place in a threatening and ominous atmosphere: the surrounding streets and "streets where Sfatul-Cerium meetings took place were flooded with Romanian troops. Groups of armed soldiers and officers were brought into the meeting room, watching every word and gesture of the deputies. With a huge number of abstentions, who rightly argued that Sfatul-Cerius was not qualified to resolve such a question, a resolution was adopted on the annexation of Bessarabia to Romania on the basis of "broad local autonomy". In this way, Romania tried to create the appearance of a" free will " of the population of Bessarabia.
The actual will of the population has manifested itself in numerous, incessant, but fragmented, and therefore more or less easily suppressed vos-
and in the development of a partisan struggle against the Romanian invaders.
By the end of 1918, after the defeat of the Quadruple Alliance, the international situation again changed dramatically. Fearing that the restoration of Soviet power in the Ukraine would inevitably lead to the agitation of the question of Bessarabia, the Romanian government on the night of November 26, 1918, gathered a handful of the most obsequious and corrupt deputies of Sfatul-Cerius - only 46 people out of a total of 162 and, despite some objections, passed a resolution on the complete annexation of Bessarabia to Romania and its refusal of the Bessarabian Autonomous Region. Immediately after the adoption of the relevant resolution, the Sfatul-Cerium was declared disbanded and an undisguised dictatorship of the Romanian occupiers was established in Bessarabia.
The Anglo-French imperialists had no intention of punishing Rumania for its intrigues with Germany. Moreover, they continued to see it as the mainstay of their influence in Eastern Europe. In an effort to infringe on the vanquished and break their will to resist, they encouraged Rumania's aspirations for new conquests and pushed it to occupy Bukovina (whose population at the people's assembly decided to join Soviet Ukraine), Dobrudja, Transylvania and other foreign regions.
Thus, by the will of England and France, little Romania turned into a multinational patchwork state that served as a guardian of the Entente's interests in the Balkans and the Black Sea. The system of peace treaties that ended the first World imperialist War secured for Romania vast territories that had previously been part of Bulgaria and the disintegrated Austro-Hungarian state.
In March 1920, ignoring Soviet Russia, which had defeated its enemies, the Entente recognized Romania's "right" to Bessarabia by a special declaration, to which the United States refused to join, And on October 28, 1920, in Paris, Romania, France, England, Italy and Japan signed a special protocol on the annexation of Bessarabia to Romania. It should be noted that Italy and Japan have repeatedly stressed the conditional nature of their participation in the Paris agreement, but Japan has not ratified it, which, according to the article that stipulates the entry into force of the agreement only after ratification by all signatory Powers, completely deprives the Paris Protocol of any even formal significance.
The Soviet Government's declarations on this subject are known all over the world.
6
For 22 hard and painful years, the population of Bessarabia languished under the yoke of the Romanian boyars. Day after day, the regime established by the foreign invaders became more and more difficult and devastating. The rich country was rapidly becoming a land of indescribable national poverty and endless suffering. With fire and sword, with the help of the Church and the Romanized school, the vile and cowardly temporary masters of Bessarabia tried to extend their rule and force the Bessarabian people to submit. But, hating and despising the vile occupiers, the workers of Bessarabia cherished the dream of freedom, and in an incessant heroic struggle tried to throw off the yoke of Romanian oppression and join the friendly family of the peoples of the Soviet country.
The Soviet Union never put up with the fact of forcible rejection of Bessarabia and enslavement of the Bessarabian people. For many years, the Romanian Government rejected Soviet proposals for a fair resolution of the Bessarabian question. Unwilling to resort to force of arms, the Soviet Union, which long ago eliminated its temporary military weakness, which only allowed Romania to encroach on the inviolability of our borders in 1918, has always maintained its position on the Bessarabian question. This was clearly stated by the head of the Soviet Government, Comrade V. M. Molotov, at the sixth session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on March 29, 1940. Finally, on June 26-28, 1940, an agreement was reached on the peaceful disclosure of the conflict, and Red Army units crossed the Dniester River, which was artificially turned into a border, and brought liberation to the peoples of Bessarabia and the Ukrainian population of Northern Bukovina, who were languishing with them in the Romanian dungeon.
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