Soviet deportations from Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina



The Soviet deportations from Bessarabia were part of Joseph Stalin's policy of political repression (see Population transfer in the Soviet Union). The deported were typically moved to so-called "special settlements" (спецпоселения) (see Involuntary settlements in the Soviet Union).

1941
On June 12–13, 1941, 29,839 members of families of "counter-revolutionaries and nationalists" from the Moldavian SSR, and from the Chernivtsi and Izmail oblasts of the Ukrainian SSR were deported to Kazakhstan, the Komi ASSR, the Krasnoyarsk Krai, and the Omsk and Novosibirsk oblasts. For the fate of such a deportee from Bessarabia, see the example of Eufrosinia Kersnovskaya. The Georgian NKVD official Sergo Goglidze, trusted henchman of Lavrenty Beria, was in charge of this deportation from Bessarabia.

1942
On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany, together with several other countries, including Romania, attacked the Soviet Union (see Operation Barbarossa). After the start of the war, further mass deportations occurred in the USSR. In April 1942, Romanians and some other nationalities were deported from Crimea and the North Caucasus. In June 1942, Romanians and others were deported from Krasnodar Krai and the Rostov Oblast.

1949
On July 6, 1949, 35,796 people from the Moldavian SSR were detained and deported on similar grounds to those in 1941.

1951
On February 19, 1951, Abakumov delivered to Stalin a secret notice which listed the planned numbers of deported "Jehovists" from Ukraine, Belorussia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Moldova, with 1675 persons (670 families) listed for the latter. On March 3, the USSR Council of Ministers issued the corresponding decree, followed by an order of the Ministry of State Security of February 6. On March 24, the Council of Ministers of the Moldavian SSR issued the decree on the confiscation and selling of the property of the deportees. Operation North started at 4:00 am on April 1, 1951, and the round-ups continued until April 2. The deportees were classified as "special settlers". In total, from the Moldvian SSR, there were 723 families (2,617 persons) deported on the night of March 31 to April 1, 1951, all members of neoprotestant sects, mostly Jehovah's Witnesses, and qualified as religious elements considered a potential danger for the Communist regime.

Legacy

 * Association of former deportees and political detainees