Transnistria Governorate

Transnistria Governorate Guvernământul Transnistriei
Governorate of Romania
1941–1944
Flag Coat of arms
Administrative map of the Transnistria Governorate
Capital	Odesa
Area
• 1941[1][2]	39,733 km2 (15,341 sq mi)
Population
• 1941[1][2]	2,326,226
Government
• Type	Military–civilian administration
Governor
• 1941–1944	Gheorghe Alexianu
• 1944	Gheorghe Potopeanu
Historical era	World War II
• Established	19 August 1941
• Disestablished	1 April 1944
Preceded by Succeeded by Ukrainian SSR Moldavian SSR Ukrainian SSR Moldavian SSR Army Group Rear Area Command
Today part of	Moldova (Transnistria) Ukraine

The Transnistria Governorate (Romanian: Guvernământul Transnistriei) was a Romanian-administered territory between the Dniester and Southern Bug, conquered by the Axis Powers from the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa. A Romanian civilian administration governed the territory from 19 August 1941 to 29 January 1944. A brief military administration followed, during which the Romanians withdrew from the region by late March 1944. German control became official on 1 April 1944.

Limited in the west by the Dniester river (separating it from Bessarabia), in the east by the Southern Bug river (separating it from the German Reichskommissariat Ukraine), and in the south by the Black Sea, it comprised the present-day region of Transnistria (which compared to the World War II whole is only a small strip along the bank of the Dniester) and territories further east (modern Odesa Oblast eastward of the Dniester, southern Vinnytsia Oblast and a small part of Mykolaiv Oblast), including the Black Sea port of Odesa, which became the administrative capital of Transnistria during World War II.

In World War II, the Kingdom of Romania, persuaded and aided by Nazi Germany, took control of Transnistria for the first time in history. In August 1941, Adolf Hitler persuaded Ion Antonescu to take control of the territory as a substitute for Northern Transylvania, occupied by Miklós Horthy's Hungary following the Second Vienna Award. Despite the Romanian administration, the Kingdom of Romania did not formally incorporate Transnistria into its administrative framework; the Nazi-friendly Antonescu government hoped to annex the territory eventually, but developments on the Eastern Front precluded it.^[3]