Soviet deportations from Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina

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The Soviet deportations from Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina took place between late 1940 and 1951 and were part of Joseph Stalin's policy of political repression of the potential opposition to the Soviet power (see Population transfer in the Soviet Union). The deported were typically moved to so-called "special settlements" (спецпоселения) (see Involuntary settlements in the Soviet Union).

The deportations began after the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, which occurred in June 1940. According to a secret Soviet Ministry of Interior report dated December 1965, 46,000 people were deported from the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic for the period 1940−1953.^[1]

Moldovan historian Ion Varta referred to the events that occurred in Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina after their occupation, including the deportations but also the famine and murders, as a "genocide in all law".^[2]

^ Mawdsley 1998, p. 73.
^ "Astăzi se împlinesc 81 de ani de la ocuparea Basarabiei de către Uniunea Sovietică" (in Romanian). Radio Chișinău. 28 June 2021.