Southern Bessarabia facing terrorism, propaganda and diplomacy. Redefining the soviet strategy towards romania during the early 1920’ s

The Bessarabian issue influenced the Romanian-Russian relation for over 200 years. In this article we follow the evolution of this dispute at the end of the First World War and the beginning of the Soviet Union. During the early 1920’s, Southern Bessarabia was captive in the face of terrorist attacks launched by the incipient Soviet special forces. This became a subject of intense international propaganda and the whole province was on the agenda of the Great Powers all around the globe, from Western Europe to Japan. The destiny of Bessarabia for the next century was defined in these years by the Soviet insistence to recapture the province and the creation of a new republic carrying the artificial Moldavian identity.