The Bessarabian Soviet Socialist Republic or Bessarabian SSR was a revolutionary committee created under the patronage of Soviet Russia to establish a Soviet republic within Bessarabia. The only Bessarabian territory under the committee's control was the town of Bender during the uprising of 27−28 May 1919. While the government was disbanded later in 1919, the idea was revived during the Tatarbunary Uprising, when another committee held control over some villages in southern Bessarabia for a few days in September 1924.

History

The Bessarabian SSR was proclaimed on 5 May 1919 in Odessa at the 2nd Regional Bolshevik Conference as a "Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government in exile" and established on 11 May 1919 in Tiraspol as an autonomous part of Russian SFSR. Neither Odessa nor Tiraspol were part of historical Bessarabia. The self-proclaimed government of the Bessarabian SSR never managed to control any part of Bessarabia, which on 9 April 1918 united with Romania. Soviet authorities did not recognize the Union of Bessarabia with Romania, and the proclamation of the Bessarabian SSR was a political measure aimed at preparing a future invasion of Bessarabia by the Red Army. The de facto-government had talks with the French military authorities over the military and political settlement but was disbanded in September 1919 after Denikin's army took control of the Odessa region. The Western European powers recognised the union of Bessarabia and Romania by the Treaty of Paris (1920). However, the United States refused to sign the Treaty on the grounds that Russia was not represented at the conference. This aided the Soviet Union in its continued desire to retake Bessarabia, which it succeeded in doing twenty years later.

Government (Provisional Sovnarkom)

Sources