ABSTRACT
Aer the Russo-Turkish War of 1806-1812, the eastern half of Moldova (Bessarabia) was ceded to Russia, while Romanian Moldavia remained with the Turks. Romania took control of Russian-ruled Bessarabia in 1918 but was forced to cede it to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1940, when the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin established the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic by merging the autonomous republic east of the Nistru and the annexed Bessarabian portion. Stalin also stripped the three southern regions along the Black Sea coast from Moldova and incorporated them into Ukraine.
