ABSTRACT
Bessarabia was part of the autonomous principality of Moldova under the Ottoman Empire, but in 1812 it was ceded to the Russian Empire. The Congress of Berlin in 1878 formally recognised Wallachia and the remains of Moldova as the independent state of Romania, but the whole of Bessarabia was declared to be Russian. This accounts for the continuing irredentist campaign and general dissatisfaction in Romania. In November 1918, a council set up by anti-Bolshevik forces reached agreement on unconditional union with Romania and this was recognised in the Treaty of St Germain. However, the transfer was not agreed by the Soviet Union which, in October 1924, established the autonomous Moldovan SSR in a strip of Ukrainian land on the east bank of the Dniester, as a prelude to taking over the whole of Bessarabia. The ethnic Russians in Transdniester number only some 170,000 and are therefore fewer than the Moldovans and the Ukrainians, but have the advantage of military backing.
