Political Struggle in Bessarabia and at the Romanian Front. The Beginning of Romanian Occupation of Bessarabia (November 1917 – February 1918)

Abstract

The emergence of the Soviet-Romanian conflict in Bessarabia was largely caused by the October revolution in Russia that had left Romania one-on-one fight against the unit of the Central Powers in the Balkans and turned the former Romanian ally in the factor threatening the political stability of the Romanian kingdom. Faced with the threat of surrender, Romania sought to compensate unrealized territorial ambitions in Transylvania by joining at least the Russian province of Bessarabia, which the Romanian political elite considered as the historical and ethnic Romanian territory.