Ethnic Minorities at the Lower Danube and the Soviet Ultimatum (August 23, 1939 - June 28, 1939)

  • Leontin Negru
Keywords: Bessarabia, USSR, Ethnic Minorities, the Soviet-German pact, Molotov- Ribbentrop

Abstract

In August 23, 1939 Joachim von Ribbentrop and Veaceslav Molotov signed in Moscow a German-Soviet nonaggression treaty which had that USSR must to annex Bessarabia. In this situation the problem of the ethnic minorities living on the territory between Prut and Nistru rivers became a part of the Soviet-Romanian conflict. USSR used the minority population in the region as a device in its military and political aggressive operations. The hostility of the ethnic minorities in Bessarabia and especially that of the Jews was used by the Romanian authorities to distract attention of the public opinion from the incapacity of King Carol the II-nd government to oppose the Soviet aggression under specific circumstances: diplomatic isolation of Romania. The hostile action of the communist Jews created in that period the image of the "Bolshevik Jew" loyal to the interests of Moscow. This general image was the basis of the anti-Jews pogroms in the Romanian Kingdom and Bessarabia after June 22, 1941.

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Published
2005-10-31
How to Cite
Negru, L. (2005). Ethnic Minorities at the Lower Danube and the Soviet Ultimatum (August 23, 1939 - June 28, 1939). The Annals of "Dunarea De Jos" University of Galati. Fascicle XIX, History, 4, 267-276. Retrieved from https://www.gup.ugal.ro/ugaljournals/index.php/history/article/view/908
Section
ISTORIE CONTEMPORANĂ