TRANSNISTRIA FROM THE FORMATION OF THE MOLDAVIAN AUTONOMOUS SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLIC TO ITS INTEGRATION INTO THE MOLDAVIAN SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLIC (1924-1940)

The creation of autonomous regions on the territory of the union republics of the newly created Soviet state was a practice often used by the communist regime to resubordinate the provinces lost at the end of the First World War. In order to theoretically preserve the chance to integrate the former province of Bessarabia into the new empire during 1924, the new Kremlin leader Joseph Stalin decided to form a republic and a new people, the Moldavian SSR and the Moldavian people distinct from the Romanian one. This decision proved to be catastrophic for the Romanians living in Bessarabia over the next 100 years, who in this way could be forced to link their fate to Russia.