Sovietizarea Basarabiei: politici economice, represive și sociale. Studiu de caz: orașul Bălți (1944-1949)
The Sovietisation of Bessarabia: Economic, Repressive and Social Policies. Case Study on the City of Bălți (1944-1949)

Summary/Abstract: The article focuses on the process of Sovietisation of the city of Bălți during Stalin’s rule of USSR. Being a territory occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940, Bessarabia was quite different from other regions of USSR. It had a poor industry, the most important branch of economy being agriculture. Also, it was different from an ideological and social point of view. The first aim of the Soviet cadres sent by Moscow to rule the newly established Moldavian SSR, which comprised two thirds of Bessarabia and several rayons of the former Moldavian Autonomous SSR, was to organize and strengthen the Soviet state control over the region. Analysing the case of the city of Bălți, the author identified the political, economic and social tools used to accomplish this purpose. From the Moscow’s point of view, all the Bessarabians, despite their social or national origins or their political views, could not be trusted because they where former Romanian citizens. The Soviet state appointed in all important functions only non-Bessarabian cadres. The industrial enterprises and the number of the population of the city of Bălți grew fast as a result of the economic and social policies applied by the Soviet state. The growth of the population was a result of the arrival of workers and of the staff of state institutions. From 1940 to 1948 the population grew from 30.000 of inhabitants to 60.000 of inhabitants mainly due to the arrival of non-Bessarabian people. From the point of view of All-Union C(b)P this was a measure aimed to increase the social support of the regime in the city and to accelerate the process of Sovietisation of the region. An important step was to create the conditions for a bigger population by investing in dwellings. The elimination of real or virtual enemies of the regime, by arrest or exile, was another policy applied in this period in the city of Bălți that was not only a constituent part but rather a central part of the Sovietization.

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