The Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, shortened to Moldavian ASSR, was an autonomous republic of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic between 12 October 1924 and 2 August 1940, encompassing the modern territory of Transnistria (today de jure in Moldova, but de facto functioning as an independent state; see Transnistria conflict) as well as much of the present-day Podilsk Raion of Ukraine. It was an artificial political creation inspired by the Bolshevik nationalities policy in the context of the loss of larger Bessarabia to Romania in April 1918. In such a manner, the Bolshevik leadership tried to radicalize pro-Soviet feelings in Bessarabia with the goal of setting up favorable conditions for the creation of a geopolitical "place d'armes" (bridgehead), in an attempt to execute a breakthrough in the direction of the Balkans by projecting influence upon Romanian Bessarabia, which would eventually be occupied and annexed in 1940 after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.
Creation
thumb|Resolution of the [[All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee on creation of the republic|left]]
thumb|The 1922 map of Odessa and Mykolaiv Governorates before the establishment of the Moldavian ASSR
thumb|The map of the Moldavian ASSR
The active propagandist of idea in creation of Moldavian autonomy on territory of Ukrainian Transnistria was Russian revolutionary and a native of Bessarabia Grigory Kotovsky (a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee). In February 1924, a memorandum directed to the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) and the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolshevik) of Ukraine and signed by Grigory Kotovsky, Bădulescu Alexandru, Pavel Tcacenco, Solomon Tinkelman (Timov), Alexandru Nicolau, Alter Zalic, Ion Dic Dicescu (also known as Isidor Cantor), Theodor Diamandescu, Teodor Chioran, and Vladimir Popovici, all signatories being Bolshevik activists (several of them from Bucharest). This purpose is explained in an article of the newspaper Odessa Izvestia (d:Q12170579) in 1924, in which a Russian politician, Vadeev says that "all the oppressed Moldavians from Bessarabia look at the future Republic like at a lighthouse, which spreads the light of freedom and human dignity," as well as in a book published in Moscow, which claimed that "once the economic and cultural growth of Moldavia has begun, aristocracy-led Romania will not be able to maintain its hold on Bessarabia." While the creation of ethnic-based autonomous republics was a general Soviet policy at that time, with the creation of the Moldavian ASSR, the Soviet Union also hoped to bolster its claim to Bessarabia.
On March 7, 1924, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Ukraine recognized a political prudence in creation of autonomy, yet to the final untangling of the question it was decided to return after a careful ascertainment of situation in the region.
Accepted on 29 July, the decision of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) contained categorical indication for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine on allocation of the Moldavian population into a special Autonomous republic as part of the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic and obligated it to report already after a month about the course of the relevant work.
Initially (March 1924) organized as an oblast (Moldavian Autonomous Oblast), it had only four districts, all of them having a Moldavian majority:
- Rîbnița – 48,748 inhabitants, of which 25,387 Moldavians – 52%
- Dubăsari – 57,371 inhabitants, of which 33,600 Moldavians – 58%
- Tiraspol – almost entirely Moldavians
- Ananiv – 45,545 inhabitants, of which 24,249 Moldavians – 53%
On 12 October 1924, the oblast was elevated to the status of an autonomous republic and included several other territories, including some with little Moldavian population, such as the Balta district (where the capital was located), which had only 2.52% Moldavians.
The official capital was proclaimed the "temporarily occupied city of Kishinev (Chișinău)". Meanwhile, a provisional capital was established in Balta and moved to Tiraspol in 1929, where it remained until part of the MASSR was integrated into the newly created Moldavian SSR, in 1940.
History
The Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was established inside the Ukrainian SSR, on 12 October 1924.
Collectivization in the MASSR was even more fast-paced than in Ukraine and was reported to be complete by summer 1931. This was accompanied by the deportation of about 2,000 families to Kazakhstan.
In 1932 and 1933 another famine, known as the Holodomor in Ukraine, occurred, with tens of thousands of peasants dying of starvation. During the famine, thousands of inhabitants tried to escape over the Dniester, despite the threat of being shot. The most notable such incident happened near the village Olănești on February 23, 1932, when 40 persons were shot. This was reported in European newspapers by survivors. The Soviet side reported this as an escape of "kulak elements subverted by Romanian propaganda."
On 30 October 1930, a 4 kW Soviet radio station began broadcasting in Romanian to Bessarabia (between the Prut and the Dniester, then part of Romania) from an improvised studio in Tiraspol; its main purpose was anti-Romanian propaganda. In the context in which a new radio mast, M. Gorky, built in 1936 in Tiraspol, allowed a greater coverage of the territory of Moldavia, the Romanian state broadcaster started in 1937 to build Radio Basarabia, to counter Soviet propaganda.
Demographics
thumb|Ethnic composition of MASSR, 1926
Moldavian ASSR had a mixed population, in which less than one third was Moldavian. of which:
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Ethnic<br />group
! colspan="2" | census 1926
! colspan="2" | 1936
|-
! Number
! %
! Number
! %
|-
| Ukrainians
| align="right" | 277,515
| align="right" | 48.5%
| align="right" | 265,193
| align="right" | 45.5%
|-
| Moldavians
| align="right" | 172,419
| align="right" | 30.1%
| align="right" | 184,046
| align="right" | 31.6%
|-
| Russians
| align="right" | 48,868
| align="right" | 8.5%
| align="right" | 56,592
| align="right" | 9.7%
|-
| Jews
| align="right" | 48,564
| align="right" | 8.5%
| align="right" | 45,620
| align="right" | 7.8%
|-
| Germans
| align="right" | 10,739
| align="right" | 1.9%
| align="right" | 12,711
| align="right" | 2.2%
|-
| Bulgarians
| align="right" | 6,026
| align="right" | 1.1%
| align="right" |
| align="right" |
|-
| Poles
| align="right" | 4,853
| align="right" | 0.8%
| align="right" |
| align="right" |
|-
| Romani
| align="right" | 918
| align="right" | 0.2%
| align="right" |
| align="right" |
|-
| Romanians
| align="right" | 137
| align="right" | 0.0%
| align="right" |
| align="right" |
|-
| Other
| align="right" | 2,300
| align="right" | 0.4%
| align="right" | 13,526
| align="right" | 2.4%
|-
| align="left" | Total
| colspan="2" | 572,339
| colspan="2" | 582,138
|}
Despite this extensive territory allotted to the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, about 85,000 Moldavians remained in Ukraine outside the territory of MASSR.<!--where? --> Italy and Germany, which needed a stable Romania and access to its oil fields urged King Carol II to comply. Under duress, with no prospect of aid from France or Britain, Romania ceded those territories. On June 28, Soviet troops crossed the Dniester and occupied Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and the Hertsa region. Territories where ethnic Ukrainians were the largest ethnic group (parts of Northern Bukovina and parts of Hotin, Cetatea Albă, and Izmail), as well as some adjoining regions with a Romanian majority, such as the Hertsa region, were annexed to the Ukrainian SSR. The transfer of Bessarabia's Black Sea and Danube frontage to Ukraine ensured its control by a stable Soviet republic.
On August 2, 1940, the Soviet Union established the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (Moldavian SSR), which consisted of six counties of Bessarabia joined with the westernmost part (with an area of ) of what had been the MASSR,