Quelques manières de racoler des Bessarabiens dans le NKVD Soviétique (1940-1941)
Some ways of recruiting Bessarabians for the Soviet NKVD (1940-1941)

Summary/Abstract: From the first days of the occupation, the Soviet spying service sent a large number of informants to Romania charged with bringing back or checking the data regarding the infrastructure, the communications, the dislocation of troops and ammunition deposits. The supplied information were mainly military: the formation of units, the effectives, reorganisations, dislocations, weaponry, retrenchment works, motorised units, artillery, aviation, ammunition and food stores. Of no lesser importance were the data regarding commanders, officers, superior-subordinate relations, lifestyle, vices, social situation, friendships, etc. One of the points of interest of USSR seemed to be the economic life, production in the most important areas, cars and weaponry importation from Italy and Germany, the number and dislocation of foreign specialists in the national industry, etc. In the first trimester of 1941, the interest in gathering military information became more intense and more diversified, especially regarding the dislocation of the German troops in Romania, the names of the commanders, the circulation of trains and military convoys, the navigation of war vessels on the Black Sea and the Danube and the organisation of the air-raid defence. The new instructions covered memorising and taking photos of bridges, as well as using only carriages for transport so as to prevent drawing the sentinels’ attention.

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