The Soviet Army on the Territory of the Moldovian SSR in the Years 1944-1950 – the Model of an Army of Occupation

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the problems related to the behavior of the Soviet Army (Red Army) on the territory of the Moldavian SSR in the years 1944-1950. From an existential point of view, the appearance in 1944 of the Red Army on the territory of Moldova represented the third occupation of Bessarabia, in the series of conquests from 1812, 1940 and 1944. Based on some original documentary material taken from the archives of the Republic of Moldova, the author, on concrete examples, demonstrates the character of occupation, and not liberation, of the Red Army (Soviet Army), during the researched period. The character of occupation was manifested by multiple thefts, robberies, murders and other acts of a criminal nature committed by soldiers and officers of the Red Army against the local population. All the military structures of the USSR were involved in these acts - the army, security units and units of the Ministry of the Interior. Significant are the official statistical data, incomplete and incomplete, presented by the author, which confirm the respective conclusions, from which it appears that that during the period of 1944-1950, the units and soldiers of the USSR armed forces annually committed around 600 crimes per year on the territory of the SSR, a fact that once again demonstrates its character of occupation.