Accession of Southern Bessarabia to the Ukrainian SSR in the Documents of the Soviet Secret Services

Abstract

Based on the archival documents and materials, the article examines the activities of Soviet state security authorities in Southern Bessarabia (since the annexation of the Cahul-Izmail-Bolhrad strip to the Ukrainian SSR), aimed at building a Soviet-style political system in the region, combating “anti-Soviet manifestations and anti-Soviet elements” and aiming at the repressions of various categories of citizens, including the Orthodox clergy. The paper focuses on the functioning of special groups staffed by the officers from various departments of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR, that conducted activities in the towns of Northern Bukovina and Bessarabia. Based on the documents of the Soviet secret services, the socio-political and economic situation in Akkerman and Izmail counties in the second half of 1940 is depicted, as well as the peculiarities of the Bessarabian Germans’ repatriation to Germany or the reaction of the population of the Ukrainian SSR to the adoption of the Law “On the Inclusion of the Northern Part of Bukovina and Khotyn, Akkerman and Izmail Counties of Bessarabia into the Ukrainian SSR” by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.