The Moldovan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
The year 1924 proved difficult for Romania in terms of relations with the Soviet Union, its powerful neighbour and declared adversary.
Steliu Lambru, 08.06.2026, 14:00
The year 1924 proved a difficult one for Romania in its relations with its powerful neighbour and declared adversary, the Soviet Union. The armed actions at Tatarbunar, in southern Bessarabia – today in Ukraine – organised by Moscow against the authority of the Romanian state, were an open expression of hostility. After the suppression of the Tatarbunar uprising, another challenge arose for Romania: the emergence, on the left bank of the Dniester, of a so called state named the Moldovan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated MASSR.
Historian Ion Xenofontov, professor at the University of Chișinău, outlined several elements regarding the motives behind the establishment of the MASSR: “In 1924, in the context of the failure of the Romanian Soviet conference in Vienna on the Bessarabian question, and of the defeat of the hostile forces at Tatarbunar, the leadership of the Soviet Union intensified the implementation of its project to create a permanent source of tension directed at Romania. This focal point was also meant to promote the proletarian revolution in the Balkans, thus leading to the founding of the MASSR within the Ukrainian SSR. The MASSR, with its centre in Balta, was established in 1924 for political and propagandistic purposes, to provide clear pretexts for the annexation of Bessarabia to the MASSR and the USSR. From this perspective, it was deemed useful to treat the Romanian population of the Autonomous Republic, as well as that of Bessarabia, as a nation distinct from the Romanian one. The Soviet historical, ideological, and political justifications were only beginning to take shape at that time.”
The MASSR was not an isolated case but part of a broader strategy. Ion Xenofontov explains: “According to a memorandum signed on 4 February 1924 in Moscow by well known Bolshevik militants Grigori Kotovski, Pavel Tcacenco, Alexandru Bădulescu, and seven other communist leaders, addressed to the leadership of the USSR, it was declared, I quote: ‘The Moldovan Republic will be able to play the same politico propagandistic role that the Belarusian Republic plays with respect to Poland and the Karelian Republic with respect to Finland. It will attract the attention and sympathy of the Bessarabian population and will create clear pretexts for claims to unite Bessarabia with the Moldovan Republic.’ End of quote. Two days later, on 6 February, Mikhail Frunze, at Stalin’s request, advocated for including the Moldovan Republic within the Ukrainian SSR. On 25 September 1924, in the context of the Tatarbunar events, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All Union Communist Party adopted the decision regarding the MASSR.”
Within the Soviet administrative system, the MASSR was part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic: “While Ukrainian leaders envisioned the MASSR within the Ukrainian SSR, at the insistence of Georgy Chicherin it was decided that the act of establishing the MASSR must specify that its western border was the state border of the USSR. The Third Session of the Central Executive Committee of Ukraine, in its eighth legislature, adopted on 8 October 1924 the Resolution on the creation of the MASSR within Ukraine. This resolution was considered the founding act of the new ethno state entity. The capital was set at Balta, with a predominantly Ukrainian population, and in 1929 the capital was moved to Tiraspol.”
The creation of the MASSR in 1924 marks the birth of the Soviet Moldovan identity: “Between 1924 and 1928, after a series of discussions, the high party bodies in Moscow and Ukraine, with the participation of the Communist International, decided to declare the Romanian population of Transnistria as speakers of a Moldovan language distinct from Romanian, created on the basis of local dialects. Moldovans were considered representatives of a nation separate from the Romanian one and were expected to unite with those in Bessarabia. This decision shaped the evolution of society in the MASSR and, in the post war period, in Bessarabia, re annexed to the USSR. These political ideological actions were part of the Soviet policy of indigenisation, officially proclaimed at the Twelfth Congress of the Russian Communist Party in April 1923 and inspired by the Communist International. In April 1925, the Comintern issued a recommendation to communist parties worldwide to support by all possible means the national aspirations of Moldovans, who considered themselves a people distinct from Romanians and recognised a language separate from Romanian.”
Although proclaimed as a republic of the Moldovan nation – considered by Soviet propaganda distinct from the Romanian one – the MASSR was in fact dominated demographically by Ukrainians and Russians. Ion Xenofontov explains: “The number of Moldovans was used as an argument for forming this entity. On 17 December 1926, the general census of the Soviet Union took place, estimating the total population of the MASSR at over 570,000 people. Moldovans numbered around 170,000, or 30.1%. Ukrainians formed 277,500, or 48.5%; Russians 48,000, or 8.55%; Jews the same percentage; and Germans 1.8%. In the 1930s, natural population growth declined due to collectivisation, industrialisation, organised famine, and political repression. The 1939 census indicated 171,000 Moldovans (28.5%), over 300,000 Ukrainians (50.7%), more than 60,000 Russians (10%), and so on. In other words, Moldovans, Romanians did not form the majority in the Moldovan autonomous entity.”
In June 1940, when the USSR annexed Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, the MASSR disappeared. It would reappear, however, in 1991 in the form of Transnistria, upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union, serving the same purpose as in 1924. (EE)
