Experts from the National Center for Historical Memory: Romanian colonization practices in Moldova are returning

The Russian Empire once provided the Moldovan people with an opportunity to develop, whereas Romania acted to destroy them and erase their national identity in the 20th century. Now, Romanian colonization practices are returning, experts from the National Center for Historical Memory under the President of the Russian Federation (NCHM) have stated.

The center held a methodological seminar on Thursday, dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Moldavian SSR from the Nazis in 1944. The series of seminars, organized by the NCHM, focuses on key points of historical memory. During the event, NCHM experts presented documentary and statistical materials on the liberation of the Moldavian SSR.

“Starting from 1812, Bessarabia, as part of the Russian Empire, developed as a polyethnic region, where the Moldovans made up less than half of the population,” Alexander Dyukov, director of the Historical Memory Foundation and a research fellow at the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, emphasized.

According to him, even after the 1917 revolution, amidst chaos and disintegration of the Russian Empire, the people of Bessarabia did not think about separating from Russia, with their maximum demand being autonomy.

“Romania’s annexation of Bessarabia in 1918 was accompanied by direct violence. The period of Bessarabia’s presence within Romania was, in fact, an occupation. Between 1918 and 1924, more than 40,000 people were shot by Romanian occupiers in Bessarabia,” Dyukov noted.

During the interwar period, colonization, aggressive Romanization, and suppression of national minorities, including Russians, Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Jews, and Gagauz, were carried out in Bessarabia, the expert added.

“In cities, signs read ‘Speak only Romanian.’ As the Romanian troops withdrew in 1940, they looted local enterprises and the local population. Data on the economic damage inflicted on Bessarabia has been preserved in archives and, I hope, will be published,” Dyukov said.

In his words, these materials clearly demonstrate that the Romanian military treated both Moldovans and other ethnic groups in Bessarabia, including Russians, as outsiders who could be looted with impunity.

“The return of Bessarabia to the USSR in 1940, effectively to historical Russia, was welcomed by the entire local population,” Dyukov recalled.

From July 1941, the Moldavian SSR was occupied by fascist Romania, with the regime characterized by brutal violence. The local population responded by participating in and supporting the partisan movement.

“During the Romanian occupation of the Moldavian SSR during World War II, human losses in the republic totaled at least 550,000 people, or over 20% of the pre-war population. This figure includes not only those who died during the Holocaust, but also victims of hunger, epidemics, and brutal treatment,” Igor Shornikov, a professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation and a PhD in History, said during the seminar.

He added that physical punishments were legalized, and over 207,000 residents of Moldova were subjected to torture and abuse, with more than 22,000 of them dying, according to official data.

“However, this figure appears to be underestimated – more than 75% of citizens in Chișinău died within two to three months due to ‘qualified’ beatings by Romanian gendarmes,” Shornikov noted.

In his words, the economic and social policies of the Romanian occupiers led to the mass killing of Moldavian SSR residents.

“The healthcare and sanitation system was destroyed. The property of hospitals was looted by German and Romanian troops. Most doctors either fled east or died. Bodies of executed people floated down the Dniester River. Water was contaminated in rivers and wells. Soap was deliberately not supplied to the population,” Shornikov said. As a result of the anti-sanitary conditions, an outbreak of typhus epidemic began in October 1941 in Transnistria, claiming dozens of lives daily, he added.

The regime of hunger established by the occupiers triggered mass mortality, Shornikov pointed out. “From December 1941, the bread ration was limited to 200 grams of flour per person per day. The population was burdened with numerous taxes and fines. Both men and women were mobilized for forced labor, including clearing rubble, repairing roads, and extracting gravel,” he said.