Bessarabia 1940

[LascarGroup]

Pelin, Mihai. Saptamina patimilor (23-28 iunie 1940) Cedarea Basarabiei si a nordului Bucovinei. Compania: Bucuresti, 2008.

The book is pretty good, but it lacks footnotes or citations. Just mentions vague generalities of where his sources come from. It is a combination of political, memoir, and military records that he basically summarizes, quotes certain important parts, and places in a chronological order. I doubt that it has been translated into English yet.

[Jack Carter]

Thank you very much, LascarGroup, for all your trouble. Much appreciated!

[Victor]

However, at the same time, it is important to remember that the annexation of Bessarabia, unlike that of Transylvania, was never approved by the Western Allies after the First World War and, of course, not by the Soviet Union.

It may not have been approved by them, but the treaty recognizing the annexation was signed by France and the UK. If I remenber correctly even by Italy. Japan postponed the signing of the treaty and never did, in order to avoid problems with their big neighbour.

Regarding the Anglo-French security guarantees, it was made pretty clear by officials that they were only directed at Germany and not ergo omnes. See Rebecca Haynes' thesis on Romanian - German relations published several years ago.

[LascarGroup]

The Western Powers did recognize the new borders, but with Russia in absentia. They decided that once Russia was 'stabilized' then whatever new regime that took power could finalize the border treaty. So, yes, they approved, but didn't, thus giving them wiggle room later on, especially for France. France's, and Britain's, guarantees to Romania were definitely clearly only geared against Germany and conciliatory towards the Soviet Union. In traditional Great Power haughtiness they 'encouraged' the Romanians to cede territory to the Soviet Union to 'solve' the problem and get the Soviets to ally openly with them. If I remember correctly, the British also pushed for border revision with Bulgaria and Hungary pre-Fall of France to try to win over those states to the Allied cause, at least to participate more fully in the policy of Economic Warfare being carried out by the British M.E.W. before 1940.