User:Vecrumba/MSSR

Establishment of the MSSR and World War II
(for my reference, my initial edit in my space)

In the secret protocol attached to the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Nazi Germany declared it had no political interest in Bessarabia. On June 26, 1940 the Soviet government issued an ultimatum to the Romanian minister in Moscow, demanding Romania immediately cede Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. Italy and Germany, which needed a stable Romania and access to its oil fields urged King Carol II to do so. Under duress, with no prospect of aid from France or Britain, Carol complied. On June 28, Soviet troops crossed the Dniester and occupied Bessarabia.

The Romanian withdrawal was chaotic. Soviet promises of allowing an orderly troop removal were broken. Officials, former Sfatul Ţării members, ordinary citizens were arrested or shot on the spot. As many as 90,000 died directly following the annexation. The annexation impacted as many as 4 million inhabitants, half to three quarters of them Romanian. Soviet propaganda declared that the "peaceful policy of the USSR" had "liquidated the [Bessarabian] Soviet-Romanian conflict".

The Soviet republic created following annexation did not fully follow Bessarabia's traditional border. The Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic (Moldovan SSR), established August 2, 1940 consisted of six counties of Bessarabia joined with the western-most part of the prior MASSR (formerly Ukraine). Various changes were made to its borders. Norther Bukovina, the remainder of Transnistria, and parts of Hotin, Akkerman, and Izmail went to the Ukraine while a small strip of Transnistria east of the Dniester (where Moldovans were nearly a majority) was joined to the MSSR. The transfer of Bessarabia's Black Sea and Danube frontage to the Ukraine insured its control by a stable Soviet republic. This transfer, along with the division of Bessarabia, was designed to discourage future Romanian claims and irredentism.

Allied with Nazi Germany, Romania subsequently recaptured and reintegrated the annexed territory by July 1941. Ignoring the counsel of Iuliu Maniu and Constantin Brătianunu, Antonescu pushed beyond Romania's historical borders, becoming a de facto aggressor. This action was to have grave consequences for Romania after the war.

By April 1944, Transnistria was back in the hands of the Soviets. Although King Michael instituted a coup deposing Antonescu, it was too little too late to save the territories the Soviets had previously annexed. With Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina again under Soviet occupation, the peace treaty signed February 1947 fixed the Romanian-Soviet border along the Prut River.

Timeline of events leading to decision to rewrite
I only noticed the last few reverts of the section Establishment of the MSSR and World War II in History of Moldova, which were enough to prompt me to rewrite the section as neither occupation or non-occupation versions had any citation of references. Since then, I went back to reconstruct the timeline of edits to the section and uncovered what I consider disturbing editorial behavior on the part of User:Anonimu and User:Irpen, particularly after ArbCom's notification of its Requests for arbitration/Digwuren case, which promulgated a general enforcement on all Eastern European articles indicating editors engaging in bad faith edits, edit warring,... can be banned. (ArbCom notification by User:Cbrown1023)

Please note the timeline of edits (manly reverts), original ("occupied") and Anonimu's "not occupied" version:


 * original, indicated occupied - 00:47, 2007 July 8, DBaba, had edited something else, this is the base version using the term occupation, note this section remains unchanged for over three months until the next edit
 * not occupied - 08:34, 2007 October 18 Anonimu rewrites, replaces occupy/occupation with ceding, receiving and retaking, also has Nazis "giving" territory to Romania
 * occupied - 15:44, 2007 October 18 Biruitorul reverts to original, (rv Soviet occupation denialism) to occupation
 * not occupied - 16:01, 2007 October 18 Irpen reverts to Anonimu's, ("ceded" is exactly what it was, read the ultimatum article. stick to hard facts please, not opinionated terminology and avoid inflammatory edit summaries)
 * occupied - 16:01, 2007 October 18 Dpotop reverts to original
 * not occupied - 16:03, 2007 October 18 Anittas reverts to Anonimu's, (rv, it was ceded not occupied. there is a difference.)
 * occupied - 16:07, 2007 October 18 Dpotop reverts to original, (Undid revision 165428545 by Anittas (talk) See talk)
 * not occupied - 17:11, 2007 October 18 Anonimu reverts to his, (rv propaganda. let's stick to facts. (like romanian gov saying: ok, we accept your conditions, we'll leave))
 * occupied - 16:02, 2007 October 19 Dpotop reverts to original, (rv to last by Dpotop: Anonimu, cease this pro-Soviet propaganda.)
 * not occupied - 16:07, 2007 October 19 Anonimu reverts to his, (Undid revision 165651233 by Dpotop (talk) you'd better check NPA)
 * occupied - 21:19, 2007 October 19 Biruitorul reverts to original, (Rv Soviet occupation denialism. If this is "inflammatory", it's also the truth, which is more important (WP:NPA is being respected).)
 * not occupied - 22:20, 2007 October 19 Anonimu reverts to his, (no denial, just sticking to the facts. soviets can't be blamed for interwar romania being a coward thief)
 * occupied - 22:48, 2007 October 19 Dpotop reverts to original, (Undid revision 165724141 by Anonimu (talk) per Biruitorul.)
 * not occupied - 05:50, 2007 October 20 Irpen reverts to Anonimu's, (rv deliberate addition of POV language to substitute facts) - after Anonimu has done three reverts in a row
 * occupied - 08:18, 2007 October 20 Dpotop reverts to original, (rv deliberate addition of POV language to substitute facts)
 * citation request for term occupation 11:25, 2007 October 20 Alaexis inserts fact tags following "occupied" and "re-occupied", (→Establishment of the MSSR and World War II - references?), tags are then updated by Smackbot
 * not occupied - 16:20, 2007 October 20 Irpen reverts to Anonimu's, (rv Dpotop), also wiping out citation request tags
 * occupied, mentions use of terms "liberation" and "occupation" - 17:46, 2007 October 21 Dc76 edits Anonimu's to observe both terms are used, also restores occupation sense while retaining Anonimu's "reinstatement" of administsrative divisions, so a compromise version based on Anonimu's

With regard to an ArbCom decision regarding Requests for arbitration/Digwuren, Irpen receives notification on his talk page: "There has also been a general restriction to all editors working on topis related to Eastern Europe and a warning to all those who may, in the future, attempt to use Wikipedia as a battleground that they may be banned when the matter is reported to the Committee. On behalf of the Arbitration Committee, Cbrown1023 talk 18:28, 21 October 2007 (UTC) ]" (My preferences are set to 0:00 offset from UTC, so the chronological order here is correct.)

This appears to be a non-event with regards to the continuum of reverts here.


 * not occupied - 19:04, 2007 October 21 Anonimu reverts to his, (Undid revision 166088948 by Dc76 (talk) rv pov push & bad grammar)
 * occupied (compromise) - 21:06, 2007 October 21 Dc76 reverts to compromise version, m (Undid revision 166105395 by Anonimu (talk) please stop it)
 * not occupied - 00:18, 2007 October 22 Anonimu reverts to his, (please stick to facts and avoid the POV terminology)
 * occupied - 12:26, 2007 October 22 Dpotop reverts to original since compromise is not working, (rv to Dpotop - I presume you reverted it without even read it.)
 * not occupied - 16:16, 2007 October 22 Anonimu reverts to his, (correction)
 * occupied - 17:03, 2007 October 22 AdrianTM reverts to original, (undo Communits POV pushing)
 * not occupied - 17:17, 2007 October 22 Irpen reverts to Anonimu's, (restore from poor revert with abusive edit summary) - after Anonimu has done three reverts in a row
 * occupied - 18:09, 2007 October 22 Dpotop reverts to original, (Undid revision 166318933 by Irpen (talk) rv pro-Soviet POV pushing)
 * not occupied - 15:12, 2007 October 23 Anonimu reverts to his, (rv uncivil pov pusher)
 * occupied - 15:58, 2007 October 23 AdrianTM reverts to original, m  (Reverted 1 edit by Anonimu; Rv pro-Soviet POV pushing. using TW)
 * not occupied - 06:50, 2007 October 24 Anonimu reverts to his, note "NPOV", (restored pro-NPOV version)
 * occupied - 08:38, 2007 October 24 Dpotop reverts to original, (Undid revision 166697111 by Anonimu (talk) rv POV-pusher)
 * not occupied - 15:35, 2007 October 25 Anonimu reverts to his, (undid twisting of facts)
 * occupied - 16:29, 2007 October 25 AdrianTM reverts to original, (Undid revision 166999949 by Anonimu (talk) rv Soviet POV)
 * not occupied - 18:43, 2007 October 25 Irpen reverts to Anonimu's, (rv anti-Soviet POV) - after Anonimu has done three reverts in a row
 * occupied - 19:39, 2007 October 25, Dpotop reverts to original, (Undid revision 167037007 by Irpen (talk) rv pro-Soviet POV)
 * not occupied - 19:39, 2007 October 25, Irpen reverts to Anonimu's, (please stick to facts and avoid judgments)
 * occupied - 19:57, 2007 October 25 AdrianTM reverts to original, (Undid revision 167048523 by Irpen (talk) which facts do you dispute?)
 * not occupied - Anonimu reverts to his, (Undid revision 167052524 by AdrianTM (talk)restored factual version)
 * occupied, new version (mine) - 05:55, 2007 October 26 new version by Vecrumba, (both versions were problematic, completely rewritten based on the most respected source available) - in talk I requested no reverts please, if anyone has a problem with "occupy" get the source and show how I've misrepresented it (here), I should mention this edit is based on the best English-language source available and it employs the terms occupy, annex, etc. with regards to Soviet actions
 * a number of factual improvements and copyedit changes (Alaexis, Dpotop, mine) since then

My original motivation was, frankly, to save editors on "both" sides in the post-Digwuren ruling world. It was only after looking through the edit history that I realized how systematic the actions of User:Anonimu, with User:Irpen supporting, had been with regards to attempting to eliminate the portrayal of Soviet acts as occupation--more disturbingly, that there was no discernible impact on editorial behaviors by the ruling.