Considerations regarding Romania and the issue of Bessarabia during the Interwar period
(Abstract)
Starting with 1711, when Peter the Great’s armies reached the Dniester, the Romanians lived under the pressure of the Russian factor for over 300 years. Petersburg’s imperial plan of expansion in the Balkans and towards the „warm seas” (Aegean and Mediterranean) inevitably involved the occupation of the Romanian Principalities, followed by countless abuses, requisitions, iniquities. Annexed by the Tsarist Empire in 1812, Bessarabia united with Romania on March 27, 1918, a year considered in our historiography as an „astral moment” for every Romanian. However, the international confirmation of Bessarabia’s belonging to the Kingdom of Romania triggered a complex and complicated political-diplomatic process, at the same time, marked by actions, interventions, negotiations and significant moments from the perspective of asserting our legitimate rights over the Pruto-Nistrian space. If Bolshevik Russia and, subsequently, the USSR viewed this reality with increasing hostility, the „ordeal” of the Union’s international recognition, which began at the Peace Conference of Paris (1919-1920), continued in the Interwar period and was not completed – unfortunately – even nowadays, was maintained by petty political-economic, ideological and geopolitical interests, even by our former allies. At the same time, the union of Bessarabia with Romania was also aggressively „torpedoed” by the nostalgic exponents of the Orthodox, civilizing and liberating „messianism” of the imperial Russia, grouped in the White Guard armies and in exile organizations.
Cuvinte cheie: aliați, inamici, confirmare, conferință, diplomați, bolșevici, comuniști, albgardiști, ostilitate, agresivitate, subversiv, negociere, acord, tratat, expansiune, note ultimative, anexiune, tragedie
Keywords: allies, enemies, confirmation, conference, diplomats, Bolsheviks, communists, White Guards, hostility, aggression, subversive, negotiation, agreement, treaty, expansion, ultimate notes, annexation, tragedy