From a ‘Liberation’ to Another. The Bessarabian Writers During the First Year of Soviet Power (1940-1941): Integration Strategies and Forms of Exclusion

by Petru Negură, “Ion Creangă” State Pedagogical University, Chișinău

Abstract The dual aim of this article is, on the one hand, to identify Bessarabian writers’ individual and group rationale to stay in the territory occupied by the Soviet authorities after 28 June 1940 and, on the other hand, to analyse the institutional mechanisms set up by the Soviet authorities (namely the Moldovan Writers Union (MWU) and AgitProp) to integrate these writers into the Soviet cultural system. The three groups of Bessarabian writers remaining in the annexed territory (the ‘regional- ists’ from Viaţa Basarabiei journal, the writers of Jewish origin and the formerly ‘underground’ (pro- Communist) activists) intersected and overlapped, since the writers’ interests were often multiple. At the same time, the strategies implemented by the Soviet authorities to enrol Bessarabian writers into the Soviet institutional structures followed a binary and apparently contradictory rationale, of inclusion (of candidates deemed suitable for the aspiring status) and exclusion (of those who did not correspond to the criteria of political probity). Moldovan writers coming from the Moldavian Au- tonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (MASSR) (the ‘Transnistrians’) had a crucial role in the integra- tion and enrolment of Bessarabian writers into the MWU as mediators with the Soviet authorities (having had a longer ‘length of service’ in Soviet political and cultural affairs), as well as in the role of cultural and ideological ‘tutors’. In response to these enrolment strategies operated by the MWU, Bessarabian writers adopted a zealous and emulative behaviour in order to ensure their successful integration. This behaviour laid the basis for duplicitous and somewhat dysfunctional interactions between writers, which would reach a paroxysm in the post-war ‘Zhdanovist’ campaign.

few days after the annexation of Bessara- was amazing. There was a striking contrast be- Abia by the and the creation tween the often melancholic and gloomy char- of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic acter of their literary works, written under the (MSSR) in June 1940, several Bessarabian1 writ- influence of post-symbolist fashion, yet very ers – some of them well known in their home influential in the late 30s, and the images of literary milieu – were rushing to put them- overflowing strength and optimism of the po- selves in the service of the new regime with etic productions penned by the same authors a surprising commitment for these formerly after 28 June 1940. This ‘conversion’ seems less inveterate autonomists2. Their transformation paradoxical, however, if one reinstates it to its 1 By „Bessarabian” writers I mean here original social and political context. At that the writers who, before the Soviet annexation, time, the question for Bessarabian writers was originated from and/or lived in the Romanian to stay (in Chişinău city, occupied by the Sovi- province of , which became, from June 1940 to June 1941, and after August 1944, the main Petru Negură, “The of Bessara- part of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic bia: between national integration and the search for (MSSR). a regional identity”, in Nici eroi, nici trădători. Scrii- 2 Many Bessarabian writers who collaborat- torii moldoveni şi puterea sovietică în epoca stalinistă, ed with the new Soviet power after the overthrow of Chişinău, Cartier, 2014 (this book is the translated the Romanian administration in June 1940 had em- and reedited version of the book Ni héros, ni traîtres. braced in the 1930s a regionalist discourse, claiming Les écrivains moldaves face au pouvoir soviétique sous an extended cultural autonomy. See in this respect Staline, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2009).

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et authorities) or to leave (as refugees, beyond three days after the outbreak of armed con- the Prut River). Most Bessarabian intellectuals flict between the USSR and Germany and its preferred to leave their home province dur- allies (including ). Wartime was also ing the four days reserved for that purpose by a period of testing for the Bessarabian writers, the Soviet authorities3. Those who decided to although not all of them were subjected to the stay, by virtue of a burdensome conjuncture, same treatment. Following mobilisation, some became, after the reinstatement of the Soviet were sent to the front as ordinary soldiers and regime in Bessarabia, subject to strong institu- most of them died there. Others fled to Cen- tional pressure and were forced to choose be- tral Asia and were later called to to tween cooperation and withdrawal from the work on the editorial staff of the Party’s news- public scene. paper socialistă and the Chişinău In addition to direct political coercion exert- radio station in evacuation, where they were ed by Soviet police and security forces, the entrusted with lifting the spirits of Moldovan Bessarabian writers who remained in Chişinău soldiers and workers with mobilising poems, were constrained to accept the symbolic au- short prose, and reportages. The war became thority of the Transnistrian writers, deemed to a training period for the new Soviet Moldo- be experts of socialist culture4. Yet, the mere van writers during which the foundation for expression of a desire to collaborate with the their future work was laid. Soviet Moldovan Soviets was not sufficient for Bessarabian writ- Literature remained deeply marked by a com- ers to be immediately and permanently inte- bative tone, mobilising imagery and a popu- grated into the system. They had to prove their list spirit, cultivated by those who had been unconditional loyalty to the new regime. The writing and broadcasting during the “Great first year after they expressed their adhesion Patriotic War”5. to the Soviets in July 1940 proved to be the first The most common approach to date employed stage in a long period of testing that the writ- by the majority of studies analysing the litera- ers would continue to undergo in the years to ture and literary environment of the MSSR is come. Some were eliminated after the first year either strictly literary, generally focusing on of service under the communist power. Three allegedly valuable literary works (and over- out of the fifteen Moldovan writers of Bessara- looking or treating expeditiously and/or ironi- bian origin were considered undesirable to the cally any works that are not ascribed such a new political order and were thus deported value)6, or preponderantly political, present- 3 Cf. infra. 4 By ‘Transnistrian writers’ I mean the wri- 5 See Petru Negură, Nici eroi, nici trădători…, ters coming from the Moldavian Autonomous So- especially the third chapter „Marele Război pentru viet Socialist Republic (MASSR), created in 1924 in Apărarea Patriei: armistiţiu şi încercare pentru sc- the Transnistrian region (see the map) exclusively riitori” [The Great Patriotic War: armistice and tes- for political, namely irredentist (against Bessara- ting for writers”], pp. 157-172. bia) reasons, with the capital city in Balta, then in 6 the masterful study of history of literature Tiraspol. Because of their lasting ‘length of service’ in Bessarabia by , O istorie deschisă a in the area of ‘national-cultural building’ and their literaturii române din Basarabia, Chişinău, Arc, 1997, confirmed loyalty to the Soviet power (they survi- is emblematic in this respect. Alexandru Burlacu’s ved the 1937/38 purges), the ‘Transnistrian’ writers studies (especially: Critica în labirint, Arc, Chişinău, were assigned an institutional and moral superiori- 1997) focuses a little more thoroughly on the litera- ty towards their Bessarabian fellows. See below in ture of the Stalinist era, but do not reinstate these this article and, for more information on the subject: works in the social and political context in which Petru Negură, Nici eroi, nici trădători…, pp. 71-133. they were created.

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ing Moldovan writers exclusively in terms of thoroughly studied, on the one hand, the writ- the state’s repressive rationale and writers’ ers’ (and intellectuals’) strategies10 of self-po- alleged resistance to the Soviets7. Similarly, in sitioning and integration into the institutions other former Soviet republics (especially the created and coordinated by the Soviet authori- ‘Western’ ones – and the Baltic coun- ties and, on the other hand, the mechanisms tries), local researchers have studied the rela- of inclusion/ exclusion, implemented by the tionship between writers (and intellectuals in D” in the Belarusian nation-building”, Nationalities general) and Soviet state power in 1940-41 and Papers: The Journal of and Ethnicity, 38 (6) (2010), pp. 829-846; Vladimir I. Kuz’menko, during the Soviet era as a whole mainly from “The Belarus’ intelligentsia during the German- the ‘repression versus resistance’ model8. Fascist occupation (1941–44),” The Journal of Slavic Military Studies, 15(1) (2002), pp. 123-144; Anu Mai the studies which employed this antago- Koll (ed.), The Baltic Countries Under Occupation. nistic and Manichean model did not generally Soviet and Nazi Rule 1939-1991, Acta Universitatis delve into the social dimension of the literary Stockhomiensis, Studia Baltica Stockholmiensia, Stockholm University, 2003, pp. 121-139; Olaf or intellectual environment. Moreover, very Mertelsmann (ed.), Central and Eastern European few of them have focused on the study of writ- Media Under Dictatorial Rule and in the Early Cold 9 War, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2011; Sirje ers (or creative intellectuals) . Even fewer have Olesk, “Writers’ Collaboration with the Soviet 7 See Alexandru Donos, Scriitorii martiri, Authorities, and the Dominant Literary Journal in Chişinău, Museum, 2000. Other works, although the Estonian SSR in the 1940s and 1950s”, pp. 171- sometimes minutely documented, highlight 172; Andrej Skolkay, “When Innocent Words were the strictly functional and institutional aspect Sharp Swords: The Intellectual and Literary Press of the culture and literature during the Stalinist in the Early Years of in Slovakia”, pp. era. See Vasile Tărîţă, “Viata literară din R.S.S. 183-196; Sirje Olesk, “On the Literary Life in the Moldovenească în anii stalinismului târziu, 1948- Soviet Estonia”, Colloquia 17(9) (2006), pp. 122- 1951”, in Arhivele Totalitarismului (Totalitarianism 134; Yoshie Mitsuyoshi, “Public Representations of Archives), issue 34, 2013, pages: 48-56; Valentina Women in Western Ukraine under Late Stalinism: Ursu, Politica culturală în RSS Moldovenească, 1944- Magazines, Literature, and Memoirs”, Jahrbücher 1956, Chişinău, Pontos, 2013. The interval from 1940 für Geschichte Osteuropas, Neue Folge, 54(1) (2006), to 1941 is, however, virtually overlooked in these pp. 20-36; Serhy Yekelchyk, “Diktat and Dialogue studies. in Stalinist Culture: Staging Patriotic Historical 8 Most research undertaken by local Opera in Soviet Ukraine,1936-1954”, Slavic Review, historians, on the subject of intellectuals in the 59(3) (Autumn, 2000), pp. 597-624; Tiiu Kreegipuu countries and regions annexed by the USSR in and Epp Lauk, “The 1940 Soviet Coup-d’État in the 1939/1940, is deeply marked by the ‘totalitarian’ Estonian Communist Press: Constructing History analysis model, according to which the intellectuals to Reshape Collective Memory”, Westminster would have been ‘subservient’ by the new Soviet Papers in Communication and Culture (University of power or cruelly repressed. See in this respect, on Westminster, London), 4(4) (2007), pp. 42-64; Vilius the situation of intellectuals in Western Ukraine in Ivanauskas, “‘Engineers of the Human Spirit’ 1939-1941: Semen Pidhainyi, Ukrains’ka intelihentsiia During Late Socialism: The Lithuanian Union of na Solovkakh: spohady 1933-1941 rr., Ternopil’, Writers Between Soviet Duties and Local Interests”, Dzhura, 1999, pp. 184-210; O.S. Rubl’ov, Iu.A. Europe-Asia Studies, 66(4) (2014), pp. 645-665. Cherchenko, Stalinshchyna i dolia zakhidnoukrains’koi 10 the use of the concept of strategy implies intelihentsii 20-50-ti roky XX st., , Naukova that the interaction between certain actors might dumka, 1994, 3rd vol., pp. 19-41; U.O. Kurnosov, be defined in terms of power relationship. I use S.I. Bilokin, eds., Narysy istorii ukrains’koi intelihentsii here this term with a necessary theoretical and (persha polovyna XX st. (3 vol.), Kyiv : Instytut istorii methodological caution, pointing to a – certainly Ukrainy AN Ukrainy, 1994. uneven, but nevertheless mutual – power 9 See: David R. Marples, Stalinism in relationship between writers and the Soviet (power Ukraine in the 1940s, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s or cultural) institutions. See a summary critique Press, 1992, pp. 24-26; Toivo U. Raun, Estonia of the term in David Knights and Glenn Morgan, and the Estonians, Stanford, California: Hoover “The Concept of Strategy in Sociology: A Note of Institution Press, Stanford University, 1991, p. 155; Dissent”, Sociology, 24 (3) (August 1990), pp. 475- Nelly Bekus, “Nationalism and socialism: “Phase 483.

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Soviets toward these people, in the context of other level, among the writers (intellectuals) how state-building was carried out by Soviet themselves, either as groups or individuals. power in the newly annexed territory. The year following the annexation of Bessara- this study privileges a socio-histori- bia by the USSR in June 1940, and preceding cal approach to the literary environment in the restoration of Romanian administration in Chişinău between June 1940 and June 1941. A this territory in June 1941, marked a turning number of works of sociology and social his- point for Bessarabian writers (and intellectu- tory of literature serve as a frame of analysis, als) in terms of and depending on their socio- adjusted to the sociopolitical context of this ar- biographical pathways, their social capital, ticle’s specific object11. and their previous relations with – or access One of the main hypotheses of this article is to – political authority. that, during the first year of Soviet adminis- This analysis was performed based on the tration (from June 1940 to June 1941), key pat- synthesis of a range of documentary sources: terns of interaction (collaboration, accommo- archival documents12, contemporary press (lit- dation, and negotiation) were set up between erary and general)13, autobiographical writ- Bessarabian writers (or ‘creative intellectuals’) ings, and biographic interviews with writers14. and the Soviet state institutions, and, at an- Historical background: border changes and exodus of civilian population 11 See especially: Pierre Bourdieu, „Le champ littéraire”, Actes de la recherche en sciences Between 1940 and 1944, Bessarabia was the sociales, nr. 89, September 1991; Pierre Bourdieu, Les site of three successive shifts of political re- Règles de l’art. Genèse et structure du champ littéraire, Paris, Seuil, 1998. Several studies of social history of gimes. On 28 June 1940, following the Molo- culture (and popular culture) provide a comparative basis and at the same time a frame of analysis for this 12 In this article, I mainly refer (explicitly research. See, among these, Alain Viala, La Naissance or implicitly) to the documents consulted in the de l’écrivain. Sociologie de la littérature à l’âge classique, Archive of Social and Political Organizations of the Paris, Minuit, 1985; Gisèle Sapiro, La Guerre des Republic of Moldova (AOSPRM), the Archive of écrivains, 1940-1953, Paris, Fayard, 1999; Regarding the Moldavian Writers Union (AUSM), the Russian the history of literature in Quebec (where literature State Archive of Literature and Arts (RGALI), and was longtime subordinated by the Catholic the Russian State Archive of Social and Political Church): Lise Gauvin şi Jean-Marie Klinkenberg, Research (RGASPI). Trajectoires. Littérature et institutions au Québec et 13 For this study, I mostly quoted from the en Belgique francophone, Montréal, 1993; Marie- Party newspaper Basarabia Sovietică (June 1940 – Andrée Beaudet, Langue et littérature au Québec. December 1940), Moldova socialistă (December 1940 1895-1914. L’impact de la situation linguistique sur la – June 1941), and Octombrie, the Moldavian Writers formation du champ littéraire, Québec, L’Hexagone, Union’s review (from July 1940 to June 1941). 1996; Daniel Mativat, Le métier d’écrivain au Québec 14 I interviewed the following writers and (1840-1900). Pionniers, nègres ou épiciers littéraires?, some of their relatives: Ihil Şraibman (1913-2005): Montréal, Triptyque, 1996; Jacques Pelletier, Le 2004-01-19; Igor Creţu (born in 1922): 2004-04-02; poids de l’histoire. Littérature, idéologies, société du Ariadna Şalari (born in 1923): 2003-08-25; 2003-09- Québec moderne, Québec, Ed. Nuit blanche, 1995; On 10; Baca Deleanu (1924-2005): 2003-12-08; 2003-12- the literary institution in Communist Romania, see 16; 2003-12-20; 2003-12-28; 2004-01-16; 2004-01-24; Lucia Dragomir, L’Union des écrivains: une institution 2004-02-01; 2004-02-21; 2004-03-20; 2004-04-17; littéraire transnationale à l’Est, Paris, Belin, 2007; 2004-05-29; 2004-08-07; Alexei Marinat (1924-2009): Ioana Macrea-Toma, Privilighenţia. Instituţii literare 2003-12-08; 2003-12-16; Aureliu Busuioc (1928- în comunismul românesc, Cluj-Napoca, Cartea Cărţii 2012): 23-12-2003; Vladimir Beşeleagă (born in 1931): de Ştiinţă, 2009; Dan Lungu, Construcţia identităţii 2005-09-28; Elena Curecheru-Vatamanu (born in într-o societate totalitară. O cercetare sociologică asupra 1940): 2002-07-25. I also consulted a number of scriitorilor (ediţia a doua), Iaşi, Editura Universităţii unpublished personal biographic sources (thanks „Al. I. Cuza”, 2012; See also Petru Negură, Nici eroi, especially to Liviu Deleanu’s home-museum and nici trădători and Petru Negură, Ni héros, ni traîtres. his wife Baca Deleanu, as well as to Ariadna Şalari).

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tov-Ribbentrop Pact signed between Nazi Ger- one of the witnesses16. Others barely hid their many and the Soviet Union on 23 August 1939, hostility towards the victors, but they were so the USSR annexed Bessarabia and Northern attached to their province (and to the non-ma- . On the 22 June 1941, the Romanian terial values that it implied) that they eventu- army, in alliance with German troops, recov- ally complied with the imposed order, despite ered the territory lost in 1940 and, in addition, being conscious of the fact that the position seized Transnistria up to the Bug River. Fi- they held under the former administration nally, on 23 August 1944, the Soviet army re- would be challenged. Finally, some represen- sumed its position in the capital of Bessarabia tatives of the Slavic and Jewish minorities did and pushed the Romanian and German allied not hide their joy at the retreat of Romanian forces beyond Prut. troops and officials17. After the multiplication Each time, the new authorities claimed to be of anti-Semitic discourses and policies in the ‘liberators’ of the Bessarabian population and late 1930s, tolerated or even encouraged by labeled the previous regime as ‘occupying’ the Romanian state, the Jewish population of and ‘oppressive’. The conflict with the ‘occu- Bessarabia perceived the arrival of the Red pation’ regime was presented as a ‘holy’ or Army as a promise of a return to the security ‘patriotic’ war15. In the meantime, both ‘libera- and legitimacy they lost under the Romanian tion’ by the Russians in 1940 and 1944, as well administration.18 One way or another, the as by the in 1941 was welcomed by power shifts always generated disappoint- different groups of Bessarabians. In 1940, as in ment, especially among those segments of 1941 and 1944, the ‘liberating’ army found on- population which were more active and better site supporters, bystanders, and opponents. If integrated under the former regime, as they the former were willing to collaborate, the lat- nourished new expectations, namely amongst ter fled in disorder. those categories of people who were the least Between these two attitudes, enthusiastic or favoured by the previous authorities. harshly negative, the largest – and least vis- Thus, as the advanced into the ter- ible – part of Bessarabian society took a cau- tious position in the face of the new authori- 16 This is particularly the case of Alexandru Usatiuc-Bulgăr that, trying to be a good citizen, ties. Some Bessarabians expected nothing first suffered persecution from the Romanian good from the new administration, but they “Siguranţa” (secret police), then the repression of the Soviet security forces. See Alexandru Usatiuc- did not regret loosing the old one either. With- Bulgăr, Cu gîndul la o lume între două lumi out necessarily being true opponents of the [Thinking about a world between two worlds], vol. Romanian regime, they hoped that the Soviet 1, Chişinău, Lyceum, 1999, p. 86. 17 See Ioan Scurtu, Gheorge I. Ioniţă, Government would establish new, “more cor- Ştefania Dinu, “Ocuparea Basarabiei de către rect, more human” institutions, as stated by Armata Roşie. Statutul Basarabiei în cadrul Uniunii Sovietice” [The Occupation of Bessarabia by the Red Army. The status of Bessarabia in the frame of the Soviet Union], in Ioan Scurtu, Istoria Basarabiei. 15 The name assigned by Soviet ideologues De la începuturi până în 1998 [History of Bessarabia. to the Second World War was “The Great Patriotic From origins to 1998], , Semne, 1998, p. War” (or in ‘Moldovan’ parlance: “The Great War 215. for the Defense of the Homeland”). At the same 18 See, for example, the interviews that I time, the war with the Soviet Union regularly conducted with two writers of Jewish origin: Ihil appeared in the Romanian official speeches and Şraibman (2004/01/19) and Baca Deleanu (Liviu propaganda as a “Holy War”. Deleanu’s spouse) 2003/12/28) in Chişinău.

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ritory of Bessarabia and the Romanian army well as those Bessarabians who did not leave withdrew in the interval of four days reserved the territories occupied by Soviets, were often for that purpose, a growing number of of- categorised by their Romanian colleagues and ficials, lawyers, teachers, doctors, etc. – who, superiors as traitors and deemed to be prone according to some estimates, amounted to to ‘Bolshevism’22. Many of them would later more than 10,00019 – were hastily evacuated to be charged on this account by the gendarmer- provinces of the mainland ‘kingdom’. The ex- ie and the secret police after the restoration of odus of the Bessarabian intelligentsia caused the Romanian Government in June 194123. a chronic shortage of Romanian-speaking in- At the same time, the Bessarabians who served tellectuals and cadres in the system set up by in Romanian public institutions and remained the Soviets after 1940 and, therefore, led to in the province or returned to Bessarabia after the Russification of the MSSR’s intelligentsia June 28, 1940 were treated with suspicion by and administration20. But the exodus was not the Soviet officials. Many Bessarabian intel- unilateral. A large group of Bessarabians – lectuals were marginalised, when they were composed especially of Jewish people and de- not outright condemned for their service un- mobilised soldiers of the Romanian army – re- der the previous authorities. Even members turned to their home province during the year of the , despite following its annexation21. These ‘refugees’, as campaigning actively during the 1930s to in- 19 anton Moraru, Istoria românilor. Basarabia stigate the ‘socialist revolution’ in Romania şi Transnistria (1812-1993) [History of Romanians. and supporting the unification of Bessarabia Bessarabia and Transnistria (1812-1993)], Chişinău, Universul, 1995, p. 319. The total number of with the Soviet Union, were not automatical- Romanians leaving Bessarabia after June 28, 1940 ly transferred to the Communist Party of the is estimated at 300,000, according to Ioan Scurtu et Soviet Union (CPSU) and therefore were not al., “Ocupaţia Basarabiei de Armata Roşie”, in Ioan 24 Scurtu, Istoria Basarabiei, p. 222. The evacuation of recognised as full-fledged communists . To intellectuals is considered all the more imperative supplement the need for administrative staff, that most of them were members of the National Renaissance Front or even reserve officers of the nearly 5,000 Russian and Ukrainian Com- Romanian army. The National Renaissance Front munists were invited, temporarily or perma- was created on the initiative of King Carol II on nently, to serve in the MSSR, in addition to March 30, 1938, after the establishment of the royal dictatorship on February 20, 1938. See Ion 4,300 members of the local Communist Party Pavelescu, “Acţiunea militară pentru eliberarea coming from the former MASSR25. This ‘new Basarabiei. Reinstaurarea administraţiei românesti” [Military action to liberate Bessarabia. Restoring generation’ of cadres, recruited after the 1937- the Romanian government], in Ioan Scurtu, Istoria Basarabiei, op. cit., p. 233 ; See also , ‘repatriated’ (returning in Bessarabia) Bessarabians Povestea vulturului. Memorii [The Vulture’s Fairy dates, according to sources, between 125,000 (Anton Tale. Memoirs], Chişinău, Arc, 1998, p. 34. Moraru, Istoria românilor, p. 319) and 165,000 20 Cf. Hélène Carrère D’Encausse, L’Empire (before October 9, 1940), according to Ioan Scurtu et éclaté. La révolte des nations en URSS, Paris, al., op. cit., in Ioan Scurtu (ed.), Istoria Basarabiei, p. Flammarion, 1978, pp. 75-76, Alain Blum, Naître, 221. vivre et mourir en URSS, Paris, Payot & Rivages, 22 Ludmila Vnorovschi, Amintirile unei 2004, p. 103 ; see also Iiurii V. Arutiunian (éd.), basarabence (Povestea vietii mele) [Memories of a Opyt etnosotsiologicheskogo isledovaniia obraza zhizni Bessarabian (The story of my life)], Chişinău, (po materialam Moldavskoi SSR) [Essai of Ethno- Cartdidact, 2003, pp. 92, 94. sociological Research of Life Styles (on the Material 23 Alexandru Usatiuc-Bulgăr, Cu gîndul la o of Moldavian SSR)], Moscow, Nauka, 1980, pp. 177- lume…, p. 168. 179; Anton Moraru, Istoria românilor, op. cit., p. 391. 24 Anton Moraru, Istoria românilor..., p. 320. 21 Between 1940 and 1941, the number of 25 anton Moraru, idem, p. 330.

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1938 purges, was assigned to accomplish the liefs, or because did not even write in the same Sovietisation of Bessarabia and other territo- language (some of them wrote their works in ries annexed in 194026. Hebrew or Yiddish). The reasons which led them to stay in (or Why did some Bessarabian writers choose come to) Bessarabia after the Soviet occupa- to stay, and others to leave? tion vary depending on group membership, Five days after 28 June 1940, when the Red or even from one case to another. Some writ- Army entered into the capital of Bessarabia, ers, namely the “Regionalists” from Viaţa the Bessarabian writers who chose to remain Basarabiei [Bessarabia’s Life] journal, chose in the occupied territory and had thus proved to remain by virtue of a special bond with their willingness to cooperate with the Sovi- their province, which they had been cultivat- ets attended a meeting with former MASSR ing for years28. Writers of ‘alien’ ethnic origin writers and a few Ukrainian men of letters. A (primarily Jews) were willing to cooperate local correspondent of the Party newspaper with the Bolshevik regime especially because remarked, in a slightly affected tone, that “for in Romania they were subjected to more and them [Bessarabian writers] it is probably the more chicanery and persecution from (or with first opportunity to meet each other beyond agreement of) the state. Finally, for another any nationality distinction”27. The assessment category of Bessarabian writers, the adhesion is not fully accurate, as several Bessarabian to the Soviet regime was the culmination of writers of different ethnic origin had previous- their whole previous political activity, con- ly been part of the same literary groups. It is ducted under the Romanian administration in true, however, that some Bessarabian writers the frame of an allegedly clandestine organ- did not know each other before that gather- isation, subordinated, in the final instance, to ing in Chişinău. They came from different lit- the Communist International. Certainly, these erary groups that communicated little, either categories of writers are not strictly defined. because they lived in different cities, such as For example, a Bessarabian writer of Jewish Chişinău and Bucharest, or because they did origin could cultivate a particular penchant not share the same aesthetic or ideological be- for avant-garde aesthetics and simultaneously 26 about the formation of the post-World share regionalist and/or socialist convictions. War II Soviet nomenklatura, see Moshe Lewin, Thus, the writers who decided not to flee to “Rebuilding the Soviet Nomenklatura, 1945-1948”, Cahiers du Monde russe, Vol. 44, No. 2/3, “Les Romania did not all follow the same rationale, pratiques administratives en Union soviétique, often having several reasons for their decision. 1920-1960” (Apr. - Sep., 2003), p. 225; This ‘new generation’ of party cadres proceeded to the Sovietization of the Baltic States. See Arvydas Anusauskas, « La composition et les méthodes The Regionalists secrètes des organes de sécurité soviétiques en Lituanie, 1940-1953 », Cahiers du Monde russe, Vol. The largest group of Bessarabian writers who 42/2-4, 2001, p. 323; See also Olaf Mertelsmann (ed.), responded to the Party’s call immediately The Sovietization of the Baltic States, 1940-1956, Tartu, after 28 June 1940 was comprised of former 2003. 27 (Signed: Corespondentul RATAU), contributors to the literary journal of the 30s „Întîlnirea dintre scriitorii sovietici şi scriitorii de la Chişinău” [The meeting between the Soviet writers 28 About the regionalism of the writers from and the writers from Chişinău], MS, July 9, 1940, p. Viaţa Basarabiei journal, see Petru Negură, Nici eroi, 1. nici trădători..., pp. 36-48.

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Viaţa Basarabiei, based in Chişinău. Enrol- of Soviet power seemed to be determined ment under the banner of the Communist by less obvious reasons, if one refers to their Party required a difficult compromise in their previous position. The compromise they did case. They remained in occupied Bessarabia was significant, given that they were the most not so much because of their affection towards moderate members of the regionalist group; in the Soviet regime, but rather due to their at- the late 1930s they even signed a series of arti- tachment (supported by ideological beliefs) cles in favour of the nationality policy promot- to their region and their contempt for the Ro- ed by the Romanian state at that time. Finally, manian government. The former leader of the their speeches before 1940 betrayed no sympa- regionalist writers, Nicolai Costenco, who in thy for leftist ideologies. Personal reasons are 1940 was the editor of Viaţa Basarabiei and most likely to explain the apparent inconsis- the general secretary of the Society of Bessara- tency of their decision to cooperate with the bian Writers, was the one who set the tone. It new government30. But once integrated into appears that, while Pan. Halippa29 was leav- the system, they successfully coped with the ing to refuge, he told him: “I cannot leave my new requirements. They were admitted to the Bessarabia.” Several writers from this group – Moldavian Writers Union, published their Vasile Luţcan, Teodor Nencev, Bogdan Istru, works in the Octombrie journal and worked in and George Meniuc – were all close friends of different cultural and educational institutions Nicolai Costenco and his former colleagues as of the MSSR. authors at Viaţa Basarabiei. He exerted a sig- In June 1941, the enrolment of most of the for- nificant influence over them by virtue ofhis mer editors of Viaţa Basarabiei was regarded leading position. Some shared socialist views, as suspicious by Agitprop and NKVD officers but these were not strong enough to be con- who assuming that the past of these writers sidered a significant factor for their alignment might conceal evidence of anti-Soviet activi- with the Soviet regime. ties. Three writers of this group – N. Costen- Thus, for Petre Ştefănucă and Mihail Curiche- ru, two other former authors of Viaţa Basara- biei, their willingness to enter into the service

29 (commonly called Pan. Halippa) was a very influential personality in culture but also in politics of Bessarabia during 1917-1944. He was co-chair of the National Peasant Party and minister in several governments between 1918 and 1934. He was also president of the People’s University in Chisinau and director of Viaţa Basarabiei journal. See about Halippa in Pantelimon Halippa, Publicistică [Journalistic writings], with an introduction and biographic presentation of Pan. Halippa by Iurie Colesnic, Chişinău, Museum, 2001; Pan. Halippa, „Povestea vieţii mele” [The Story of my Life], in Patrimoniu, history review, Chişinău, 1991, nr. 1, pp. 4-40; Iurie Colesnic, „Pantelimon 30 This fact was also evoked by Elena Halippa”, in Basarabia necunoscută [Bessarabia Vatamanu-Curecheru (Mihail Curicheru’s Unknown], vol. 1, Chişinău, Museum, 1993, p. 66. daughter), born two days before the arrival of See also Petru Negură, Nici eroi, nici trădători, op. cit., the Soviets on June 28, 1940. Interview with Elena pp. 53-60. Vatamanu-Curecheru, July 2002.

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co31, M. Curicheru32 and P. Ştefănucă33 – were in what had been the most important literary arrested and deported a few days before and journal of interwar Bessarabia, itself consid- after the commencement of the war between ered sufficient evidence of ‘nationalism’ and the Axis powers and the Soviet Union. Three ‘bourgeois decadence’. other former ‘regionalists’, (Rotmann), V. Luţcan and T. Nencev, were sent The Jews to the front. Of the latter, V. Luţcan, who fled Writers of Jewish origin who remained in to Romania after June 1941, was the only sur- Bessarabia after June 1940 or who returned vivor. Finally, only two writers of the group of immediately after that did not form a coherent Viaţa Basarabiei (B. Istru and G. Meniuc) man- group35, as was the case for the writers of Viaţa aged to elude the vigilance of the security forc- Basarabiei. Coming from different milieus – es (and their Transnistrian colleagues), prob- literary avant-garde, socialist circles or Yid- ably because they were the youngest and had dish language writers – some of them became had the least political involvement during the aware of their ‘Jewish’ identity only once it Romanian administration period. However, was assigned as a stigma as a result of anti- they would be charged later, in the so-called Semitic stereotypes or special ‘nationality pol- “Zhdanovist” period34, for their involvement icies’ promoted by the Romanian authorities in the late ’30s or, worse, during the pogroms 31 about the deportation and detention of Nicolai Costenco, see Alexander Donos, „ care triggered in Romania after the annexation of a fost închis pe toată viaţa” [The poet who was Bessarabia36. Each writer of ‘Jewish’ origin had jailed for life] in Alexandru Donos, Scriitori martiri [Writers martyrs], Chişinău, Ed. Museum, 2000, pp. Histoire de l’Union soviétique de Lénine à Staline, 1917- 17-23 (a chapter developed based on the writer’s 1953, Paris, PUF, 1995; About the Zhdanovism in NKVD / MVD / KGB file, consulted at the Informa- the Soviet literature: Michel Aucouturier, Le réalisme tion and Security Service Archive (ASIS), Chişinău). socialiste, Paris, P.U.F., 1998. About the Zhdanovist 32 about the deportation and detention campaign in MSSR, see Petru Negură, Nici eroi, nici of Mihail Curicheru, see Alexandru Donos, trădători, pp. 179-215. Here are two documents in „Un talent nimicit în floarea vârstei” [A talent which Meniuc (and, implicitly, Istru) were criticized destroyed in his prime], in Alexandru Donos, for ‘nationalism’, in “Statement to the attention Scriitori martiri, op. cit., pp. 24-35; See also, Igor of the Central Committee of the Communist Caşu, „Arhivele comunismului: Destinul tragic Party (Bolshevik) of Moldova, Agitation and al scriitorului basarabean Mihail Curicheru, mort Propaganda Department, the Secretary of the CC, în gulag” [Archives of communism: the tragic Comrade Taranov S.V. from the writer Meniuc, fate of Bessarabian writer Mihail Curicheru, dead G. N.”, AOSPRM, fund 51, inventory 3, file 248, p. in Gulag], in Adevărul newspaper (Moldova), 13; I. Canna, D. Tkaci, G. Zilberman, “Report on November 29, 2013 (these articles were performed the literary almanac Octombrie, issues 1-2, to the based on the writer’s NKVD/MVD/KGB file, attention of CC of the CPM, from September 4, consulted at ASIS, Chişinău). 1946, AOSPRM, fund 51, inventory 4, file 312, p. 33 about the deportation and detention of 169-172. Petre Ştefănucă, see Alexandru Donos, „Ultimele 35 It is about Ihil Şraibman, Moise Altman, pagini ale folcloristului Petre Ştefănucă” [Last pages Rahmil Portnoi, Iacob Iachir, Iacob Sternberg, of the folklorist Petre Ştefănucă], în Alexandru David Vetrov (Pihman), Liviu Deleanu (Lipa Donos, Scriitori martiri, op. cit., pp. 36-46 (a chapter Cligman), to whom we could add Alexandru Robot developed based on the writer’s NKVD / MVD / (Alter Rotmann), whom a placed in the group from KGB file, consulted at ASIS, Chişinău). Viaţa Basarabiei. 34 the “Zhdanovism” (from Andrei 36 See about the Iaşi pogrom from June 27- Zhdanov, Politburo member of the CPSU Central 29, 1941: Adrian Cioflâncă, „Pogromul de la Iaşi” Committee, responsible for culture) is a campaign [The Iaşi Pogrom]: http://www.pogromuldelaiasi. aiming at enrolling the creative intelligentsia, but ro/ce-s-a-intamplat-in-iunie-1941/ (accessed on also of taking control over the territories annexed June 2014). See also the website http://www. in 1940 and recovered in 1944. See Nicolas Werth, pogromuldelaiasi.ro/, containing substantial and

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his own pathway and specific position in the constituted half of the writers in the MSSR (of Romanian literary environment before June about 20 writers who became members of the 1940. Most of them were not in Bessarabia Moldovan Writers’ Union in 1941). The MSSR when the Soviet regime was established, and attracted them less as a result of its political some were not even born there and had not regime (of which most of those writers had a previously lived in the region, as was the case rather contradictory picture, given Romanian for Liviu Deleanu (Lipa Cligman)37 who was anti-Soviet propaganda of the time), but rather originally from Iaşi. because of the refuge they expected to find in Before 1940, most of these writers sympathised the USSR from the discriminatory treatment with some elements of leftist ideology. How- to which they had been subjected in Romania, ever, few of them were ardent followers of especially during the late 1930s. communism; at least, few of them would be In Romanian Bessarabia, the grievances of ready to leave their social environment and, ethnic minorities were also exploited by the often, their place of residence in exchange Komintern and Soviet intelligence services for uncertain conditions, for the sake of their to spread the seed of irredentism throughout ideological views. In fact, the writers of Jew- the province39. After 28 June 1940, the resent- ish origin that gathered in Chișinău after 28 ment of the Bessarabian intellectuals of Jewish June 1940 were far from being representative origin toward the Romanian administration of the majority of Jewish people of letters from continued to be used by Soviet ideologues Bessarabia and even less from Romania at that in order to build a Moldovan identity sepa- time38. However, in the years 1940-1941, they rate from the Romanian one. Intellectuals of revealing studies, documents and testimonies about Jewish origin enjoyed a somewhat privileged what was qualified as “The Iaşi Pogrom”. See also position under the Soviet regime, especially the forthcoming study by Adrian Cioflâncă. About this pogrom and the operation of deportation and liquidation of Jews (Holocaust) in Romania română [Jewish writers’ contribution to Romanian (Bessarabia, Bukovina, and Transnistria), see the literature], The “Viaţa Românească” Cahiers, International Commission on the Holocaust in Writers Union of Romania, nr. 2, 2001. About the Romania [President: Elie Wiesel; Editors: Tuvia writers of Jewish origin of the Romanian avant- Friling, Radu Ioanid, Mihail E. Ionescu], Raport garde movement in the late 30s and 40s, see Irina final,Iaşi, Ed. Polirom, 2004; About the Holocaust in Livezeanu, „’From to Gaga’: The Peripatetic Bessarabia and Transnistria, and the involvement Romanian Avant-Garde Confronts Communism”, of local population, see Diana Dumitru, Carter in Mihai Dinu Gheorghiu (coord.), Littératures et Johnson, „Constructing Interethnic Conflict and pouvoir symbolique, Bucharest, Ed. Paralela 45, 2005, Cooperation: Why Some People Harmed and Others pp. 239-253. Helped Jews during the Romanian Holocaust”, 39 See Charles King, Moldovenii, România, World Politics, Vol. 63, no. 1 (January 2011), p.1-42; Rusia şi politica culturală [original title: The . see also Diana Dumitru’s forthcoming book on the Russia, România, and the Politics of Culture, Hoover subject. Institution Press, Stanford, California, 2000], 37 Born in Iaşi in 1911, Liviu Deleanu was a Chişinău, Arc, 2002, p. 44. See also „July 8, 1924, well-known poet in certain milieus of leftist, literary [Moscow], Extract from the minutes of the meeting avant-garde, from Iaşi and Bucharest. For more of the thirty-fifth World Congress of the Communist biographical information, see Petru Negură, Nici International, devoted to the national question” eroi, nici trădători, pp. 223-229. (title translated); “8 July 1924, [Moscow] Excerpt 38 As confessed by Ihil Şraibman, a from the Fifth Congress resolution of the World Bessarabian writer of Jewish origin, derived from Communist International about national problems Yiddish literary environment in Bucharest. See the in the Central Europe and Balkans”, in Gheorghe interview with Ihil Şraibman (January 19, 2004). Cojocaru, Cominternul şi originile „moldovenismului” About the writers of Jewish origin in the Interwar [Komintern and the origins of Moldovanism ], Romania, see: Contribuţia scriitorilor evrei la literatura Chişinău, Ed. Civitas, 2009, pp. 122-136.

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during the years 1940-1945. The Presidium of would you say if I retouch a bit my literary the MWU - in August 1940 consisting solely name?” You had, of course, good reasons for of Bessarabian and Transnistrian writers of that, I mean patriotic reasons. So I answered: Jewish origin - even decided to create a Jewish “Once the great Ulyanov did not hesitate to do department and to edit a new literary journal it...”42 in Yiddish40, though the decision remained a dead letter. The Communist Party’s goodwill The ‘underground activists’ towards the Jews did not last long. After the To this category only two Bessarabian writ- war, the alliance between the Bessarabian Jew- ers may be assigned: Emilian Bucov and, after ish representatives and the Soviet authorities the war began, Andrei Lupan. Their ‘under- lost its strategic importance. Not only that, ground’ political activity under the Roma- but Jews started to be perceived as a grow- nian administration conferred them a certain ing threat to the integrity of the Soviet regime, amount of legitimacy and quickly propelled as they were suspected to be organised in a them upwards in the hierarchy of the Writ- more cohesive community and claimed a spe- ers’ Union and even towards the leadership of cific legitimacy as the victims par excellence the Republic. Unlike other factors of success of Nazism and the Antonescu regime41. In the at that moment which quickly lost their va- second half of the ’40s, Jewish origin became lidity, as, for example, regionalism or Jewish an identity element most likely to discredit identity, the allegedly ‘underground’ political a Bessarabian writer, diminishing his/her activity under the previous authorities turned chances of success, especially when associated into a growing capital. with a ‘Romanian’ origin. At a closer glance, genuine ‘underground’ ac- In order to disguise their Jewish origin, a num- tivity in the literary circles of the 1930s was ber of Bessarabian and Transnistrian writers rather rare. The writers to whom it was as- adopted literary pseudonyms that sounded cribed had studied in Romanian universities: more ‘native’, thus following a twofold – liter- E. Bucov at the Faculty of Letters, University ary and Bolshevik – tradition of mystery and of Bucharest, and A. Lupan at the Faculty of secrecy. In a letter to the Transnistrian writer Agriculture in the Chișinău branch of the Uni- Leonid Cornfeld, shortly before his death in versity of Iaşi. During that period, they pub- November 1957, the writer E. Bucov reminded lished poems under pseudonyms in some left- his correspondent about his decision to take ist newspapers, while Bucov even published an alias: a book of poetry on social topics. Both joined “Then, at Soroca [in 1944, after returning from Communist youth organisations and, in 1936, refuge in Moldova], you asked me: “What A. Lupan became a member of the Romanian Communist Party. Within these political or- 40 Mark Faverin, „Reuniunea scriitorilor din Basarabia” [The Bessarabian writers’ gathering], ganisations, the prospective writers exercised Basarabia sovietică, August 27, 1940, p. 1. the illegal activities which they would later 41 as well as it happened in the center of on come to emphasise; spreading leaflets with URSS, see Laurent Rucker, Staline, Israël et les Juifs, Paris, Presses universitaires de France, 2001; 42 Letter of E. Bucov to L. Corneanu see also Laurent Rucker, „La Jdanovschchina: (Cornfeld) of 14 November 1957, at the Moldovan une campagne antisemite?” and Laurent Rucker, Writers Union Archives – National Museum of „Pourquoi Staline liquida le Comité antifasciste Romanian Literature “Mihail Kogălniceanu” juif?”, Le Monde diplomatique, December 1995. (AUSM), “Manuscripts” fund, file 9436, p. 2.

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revolutionary content and organising student The newcomers learned the new ‘political associations advocating in favour of social jus- language’44 and acquired the first rules of be- tice and against . haviour within the institution which had tak- Despite the general trend of the Soviet regime en them in, along with its subsequent (formal to marginalise former Romanian Communist and informal) hierarchical relations. Finally, Party activists43, these ‘underground’ writers these meetings allowed Bessarabians to imple- rapidly gained the confidence of the MSSR ment the acquired knowledge and skills and Party leaders and managed to maintain it. the better ‘educated’ to distinguish themselves During the war, they showed perfect loyalty in front of their ‘tutors’ and new authorities. to the Soviet government. In 1945, they al- ready had a great deal of influence on party Re-education and self-education leaders, especially regarding issues concern- The first lesson that Bessarabians learned ing national and cultural policy. from their new ‘teachers’ was to assume their utter ignorance regarding socialist culture. Forms of enrolment of Bessarabian writ- Some newcomers tried to pose as ‘revolution- ers after 28 June 1940 ary’ writers. But their claim was immediately The Bessarabian writers demonstrated an crushed by the more experienced writers who exceptional ability to adjust to new circum- exhorted them to ‘ease [their] soul’ by under- stances. Already a few days after the estab- going self-criticism, to condemn the Romanian lishment of the Soviet regime (which, to re- ‘bourgeois regime’ while highlighting the neg- call, surprised the majority of the Bessarabian ative influence that it had exerted on writers in population), the local people of letters began general and on each of them in particular. The to work actively in the official newspaper of dialectic of criticism vs. self-criticism45 was put the Moldovan Republic and in the Writers’ into motion to such a degree that the tutors’ in- Union’s journal. Despite remarkable efforts tervention was no longer necessary to ensure and achievements, the work of these writers its smooth operation. In this regard, at one of in the new conditions was not without risks. the first meetings, Nicolai Costenco made the With a rich experience of socialist culture, mistake of stating that the writer’s vocation the ‘Transnistrian’ writers (from the former MASSR) had the task to teach the Bessarabi- 44 After Nicolas Werth, the ‘political language’ was a task to which the Party candidates ans the basics of communist doctrine, to ini- were subjected by the established Party members. tiate them in the principles of Socialist Real- See Nicolas Werth, Être communiste sous ism and to warn them against the dangers Staline, Paris, Gallimard / Juillard, 1981, p. 153. This expression is partly synonymous with of political negligence. Each week, meetings that of ‘speaking Bolshevik’ by Stephen Kotkin, of Bessarabian and Soviet writers were held designating „learning the mores and rituals of the Soviet workplace, the rules of meetings, and the in the presence of an audience of amateurs public language of newspapers”. Sheila Fitzpatrick, and with the mandatory participation of at Everyday Stalinism. Ordinary Life in Extraordinary least one state representative. These peculiar Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s, Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 81. See Stephen Kotkin, Magnetic ‘literary soirees’ became the framework of a Mountain. The Stalinism as a Civilization, Berkeley one-way exchange from ‘tutors’ to ‘novices’. & Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1995, pp. 198. 43 See, among other sources, Anton Moraru, 45 See John Arch Getty, „Samokritika Rituals Istoria românilor..., p. 320. in the Stalinist Central Committee”.

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was not to involve himself in politics, but per- vember 1940, Moldovan writers participated haps to participate in a certain cultural policy. in the election campaign along with 36,000 ag- It caused the immediate critical reaction of one itators50, urging the Moldovans to vote for the of the ‘underground’ writers, Andrei Lupan: “bloc of communists and independents”51. For “The writer cannot be apolitical”, he said. “He the Bessarabian writers, it was the first oppor- shall not close himself in his office, but must go tunity to attend a mass propaganda campaign. with an open heart among the people.”46 The Subsequently, the participation in cultural, former member of the Romanian Communist political or agricultural campaigns became a Party touched a key issue of Soviet writers’ common practice performed by Soviet Moldo- ethics. The subject was immediately picked up van writers. and developed by the Ukrainian writers who These ‘literary and cultural’ manifestations, were attending the meeting. The Bessarabian regularly organised for workers in Moldo- writers were invited to learn their civic mis- van towns and villages, were critical for the sion – to be “a transmission belt” between the formation of the Bessarabian writers. They party and the people, between the new gov- provided an opportunity to test their first at- ernment and the Bessarabian population. tempts at ‘socialist’ literature in front of their According to an article in the local Party news- target audience. At the same time, the literary paper, on 15 September 1940, after two and a soirees helped to educate the audience and to half months of training, the Bessarabian writ- familiarise it with a new type of culture. Final- ers, assisted by their Transnistrian ‘tutors’, ly, meetings with the mass audiences were a launched themselves into “literary-cultural further opportunity for writers to gather new work among the workers of Bessarabia”47. material about the everyday life of Moldovan Gathered in the meeting hall of Printing House workers – the main subject and target audi- Nr. 1 in Chișinău, they gave speeches about ence of their works. the ‘sad fate’ of Bessarabian writers under the bourgeois regime and on their mission in the Integration Soviet homeland. They read poems about the The integration of the Bessarabian writers Soviet youth, about the war heroes in Spain into the literary institutions of the Moldovan and about Stalin. According to the correspon- Republic developed in several stages. First, dent, “listeners rewarded the writers with they were invited to work as journalists at prolonged applause”48. By June 1941, Moldo- the official newspaper Moldova socialistă and van writers (from Bessarabia and Transnistria) its provisional branch, written in Latin char- organised literary evenings in over 40 enter- acters, Basarabia sovietică, as well as to col- prises and kolkhozes of the Republic49. In No- laborate with the Moldovan Writers Union’s journal Octombrie. Subsequently, Bessarabian 46 (Signed: F.), „Acasă la scriitorii basarabeni” [At home to the Bessarabian writers], Basarabia writers were employed as editors and transla- sovietică, July 5, 1940, p. 3. tors in various cultural institutions: theatres, 47 (Signed: S. Br.), „Scriitorii în întreprinderi” [The writers in factories], Basarabia sovietică, Philharmonics, or the State Committee for September 18, 1940, p. 3. 50 See Anton Moraru, Istoria românilor, op. 48 Idem. cit., p. 333. 49 Lev Barschi, „Literatura moldovenească 51 (Anonymous), „Reuniunea intelectualilor după un an” [The Moldovan literature after one din oraşul Chişinău” [The intellectuals’ meeting in year], MS, June 8, 1941, p. 3. Chişinău], MS, November 29, 1940, p. 1.

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Repertoires (Repertkom). They engaged with in Moscow), to which the MWU belonged. the Transnistrian writers in various activities The admission meetings, held in the presence of public interest. Beginning with the spring of professional and amateur writers, followed of 1941, most of them signed contracts with a predetermined plan. A reporter – usually a the MSSR State Publishing House, editing vol- writer or a critic who was not part of the can- umes of prose or poetry. But their recognition didates, nor the chair – presented a detailed as full-fledged Soviet writers occurred only af- analysis of the candidate’s literary work. Sev- ter a year of activity on the cultural and politi- eral writers who participated at the meeting cal ‘front’, with their formal admission to the expressed their (almost always favourable) Soviet Moldovan Writers Union. position on the subject. Then, the presidium, The Bessarabian writers were admitted to the made up exclusively of Transnistrian writers, MSU in small groups. The reception of the invited the candidate to present his autobiog- first group took place in late March of 1941, raphy. The questions from presidium, based after which other candidates were admitted on the exposition, were simple, even formal, gradually every two weeks until early June. and were not intended to embarrass the candi- It seems that the admission was made selec- date. Finally, the presidium voted on the writ- tively following a pre-defined list, according er’s application and, after unanimous agree- to the applicants’ merits (at least that was the ment, announced the decision that seemed impression of some candidates52). The first on predetermined: admission. the list was Emilian Bucov, the ‘underground The admission procedure proved to be easi- activist’ writer who would become president er than the candidates had hoped. They had of MWU three years later. Afterwards, the or- expected the procedure to involve rigorous der of admission seems arbitrary. Nicolai Cos- screening and selection, but in fact the ad- tenco, number two on the alleged list (Costen- mission itself seemed to be a mere formality. co boasted later that he was admitted second Having so quickly obtained the coveted sta- after Bucov53), was in reality one of the least tus, they tended to underestimate the ‘tests’ favoured candidates and was deported within to which they had been subjected during the two weeks. Despite the rivalry present at that previous year and above all those which they moment, the admission of Bessarabian writers would be facing later. to the MWU was seen as paramount recogni- tion by them. Membership in the MWU was all Emulation the more prestigious as it implied automatic The most difficult challenges that the new- acceptance in the Soviet Writers Union (based comers had to face between June 1940 and 52 This impression is deducted from the June 1941 did not come directly from the interview that I conducted with the writer Ihil agents of power, but from the Bessarabian Şraibman, who was received in the MWU in late May 1941, and Nicolai Costenco›s autobiographical writers themselves as a result of the pressure writings. See the interview with Ihil Şraibman from a context in which zeal and ideological (19/01/2004); Nicolai Costenco, Povestea vulturului, emulation were perceived as determinants for pp. 22, 218; Nicolai Costenco, Din bezna temniţei… 54 Scrisori din Gulag, Chişinău, Arc, 2004, pp. 9, 18. successful integration . Driven by the desire These sources gave me many precious details about the applicants’ admission in the MWU. 54 This ‘proactive’ – and the least anomic 53 Nicolai Costenco, Scrisori din Gulag, op. – behavior was noted by some social historians of cit., p. 18. Stalinism, especially during the purges. See, for

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to assert themselves vis-à-vis their Transnis- individually – to an external authority. trian ‘tutors’ and governors, they used various After the fall from grace of the ‘regionalists’, strategies and emphasised their alleged merits the Bessarabian writers’ main interest was to with a view to ingratiate themselves and, at highlight the ‘revolutionary’ character of their the same time, to reduce the chances of their activity under the previous authorities. The competitors, who were, in fact, their peers. ‘underground activists’ enjoyed a distinct ad- It should be recalled that the three groups of vantage over other aspirants to the position of Bessarabian writers who met in Chișinău in former ‘opponents’, but their legitimacy was late June 1940 – ‘regionalists’, ‘Jews’, and ‘un- limited by the Transnistrians’ undisputed derground activists’ – each had specific social prestige. capital. The group of writers from Viaţa Ba- sarabiei was the largest and most united, yet it Elimination was not the strongest. Its cohesion facilitated The stages of integration strategies imposed the pro-Soviet conversion of its members, but on Bessarabian writers by the MWU (rehabili- it did not at all represent an attractive ideol- tation, inclusion and emulation) sometimes ogy for the builders of socialist society. Thus, led to explicit failure: exclusion. This might N. Costenco, the leader of the younger gen- have been a ‘solution’ to ‘recalcitrant’ writ- eration of Bessarabian writers – and recog- ers when all forms of integration proved inef- nised as such at the institutional level by the fective. Such a case is represented by Nicolai Romanian authorities – tried to reassert his Costenco who repeatedly manifested a recal- former status after 28 June 1940 by imposing citrant character towards the ‘tutors’ and even his authority over his companions and even towards some government representatives. the writers of the MASSR. However, his at- The question one may pose is why to admit tempt to regain power (at least symbolically) a writer into this prestigious literary institu- dragged on. His ‘charisma’ proved obsolete in tion of the Soviet Union and to then get rid of the new circumstances. “Soon, I realised that him a few days later. This form of exclusion working with the Soviets was not so simple seems to contradict the objectives of the Writ- if you claim your superiority and bourgeois ers’ Union. aristocracy”55 – he explained later, ironically In the MWU of that period, two views on the explaining his own experience as a demoted management of literary affairs met and some- leader. Even his close friends ended up dis- times collided: the literary logic - which corre- tancing themselves from their former com- sponded to the main occupation of the institu- rade and leader. The advantage of the other tion - and the state’s reasoning. The Writers’ two groups of Bessarabian writers came pre- Union’s leadership generally sought to inte- cisely from the fact that they were not struc- grate writers, regardless of group member- tured around a ‘charismatic leader’ and there- ship, in order to foster fruitful literary creation fore could more easily adhere – as groups or according to the institution’s aesthetic and ideological orientation. At the same time, the example, John Arch Getty, „Party and Purge in Smolensk: 1933-1937”, Slavic Review, Vol. 42, No. Party and security forces had to ensure that 1 (Spring, 1983), pp. 60-79 and Sheila Fitzpatrick, citizens (in this case, the writers) respected the Everyday Stalinism, pp. 194-217. 55 Nicolai Costenco, Povestea vulturului, p. laws and the state’s interests, deviation from 22.

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which was subject to the threat of exclusion56. the role of ‘tutors’ for their new Bessarabian On 13 June 1941, one week before the start colleagues, by virtue of their ‘experience’ in of the war between the Axis powers and the Socialist Realism and their supposed loyalty USSR, the two concepts clashed again. When to the Soviet government and the Communist the MWU received instructions from the secret Party57. Like the Bessarabians, but without any police to unmask the ‘enemies of the people’ freedom of choice, the Transnistrians had un- hidden inside the institution, this triggered dergone a rigorous selection before coming to a whole mechanism of purges (developed in Chişinău. Those Transnistrian writers who ar- the USSR in the 1930s), comprising sessions rived in Chişinău in 1940 were the survivors of criticism and self-criticism, of denunciation and at the same time the beneficiaries of the and self-defense. The writers N. Costenco, ‘great purges’ of 1937-38. In 1940, the Trans- M. Curicheru and P. Ştefănucă were most ex- nistrians were as few as the Bessarabians – not posed to attack by their colleagues because of more than 15 people. Like the Bessarabian their recent behaviour and especially in view writers, they did not constitute a homogeneous of their past activity. group, being divided into two factions, broad- The outbreak of the war allowed the possibil- ly according to their ‘age group.’ Less numer- ity of applying an indirect form of exclusion. ous, the ‘older ones’ – Ion Canna and Leonid Writers who were deemed useless, or inconve- Cornfeld – were undeniably the most promi- nient to the MWU or the state’s interests were nent figures of Transnistrian literature. Their mobilised and sent to the front as ordinary sol- ‘age’ is, of course, relative. I. Canna was 38 diers, while others were generally exempted years old, whereas L. Cornfeld had just turned from military service, or went to the front as 31 in 1940. Instead, they had the reputation of officers. This was the case for several Transnis- founding the Moldavian Soviet Republic and, trian writers. in the case of I. Canna, participating in the Civil War. The ‘Great Purge’ not only spared The Transnistrian leaders the youngest (the so-called vydvizhentsy – the The Transnistrian writers who settled in ‘promoted’)58, but even favoured them, since Chişinău after 28 June 1940 were vested with they were the ones who took over the adminis- tration of the MWU and the Octombrie journal 56 This apparent contradiction in the after the “cadres’ bleeding”59 occurred in 1937- ‘personnel management’ would come, in the interpretation of the historian Terry Martin, from 38. Less gifted in terms of cultural capital than the tasks assigned to different Soviet institutions, on the one hand representing the ‘soft-line’ (culture, 57 In this respect, the situation is similar in education, medicine, social services, etc.), on the other republics recently incorporated into the Soviet other hand, the repressive institutions, responsible Union. Thus, in Estonia, local intellectuals (generally for the ‘hard-line’ of the Bolshevik policy. Cf. Terry local cadres), the so-called ‘revolutionaries’ were Martin, The Affirmative Action Empire, Nations and dominated and guided by so-called ‘immigrants.’ Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923-1939, Ithaca & See Elena Zubkova, “’L’Affaire estonienne’ dans Londra, Cornell University Press, 2001, especially: le contexte de la soviétisation des pays baltes. pp. 21-23; Terry Martin, „The Origins of Soviet 1949-1953”, Communisme, No 70/71, Paris, L’Âge Ethnic Cleansing”, The Journal of Modern History, d’homme, 2002, pp. 187. Vol. 70, No. 4 (December 1998), pp. 813-861; Terry 58 Most of them, as Petrea Cruceniuc, were Martin, “Interpreting the New Archival Signals: born on the eve of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Nationalities Policy and the Nature of the Soviet 59 An expression used for this purpose by Bureaucracy”, Cahiers du Monde russe, Vol. 40, No. Moshe Lewin in Le Siècle soviétique, Paris, Fayard, 1/2 (Jan. - Jun., 1999), pp. 113-124, p. 114. 2003, p. 145.

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the ‘older ones’ and their Bessarabian fellows, themselves for a higher appreciation by their the ‘younger’ writers asserted themselves by more favoured peers and in order to increase virtue of their enthusiasm and the confidence their chances of being recognised as fully- they had earned after the 1937 purges. How- fledged Soviet writers. They assimilated the ever, there is an element in the young genera- new ‘creative method’ without reservations, tion’s careers that brought them on a par with renouncing their claims to being the literary the ‘older ones’ and the Bessarabian ‘newcom- avant-garde which had distinguished them ers’: they were not communists, despite be- in the from the older genera- ing the Party’s favourites. After the collective tion. However, they could not give up two el- persecution experienced by the communists ements of the cultural capital inherited from in 1937, these Komsomol writers appeared as the previous authorities: Romanian classical a reserve team from which the Party would literature and Romanian as literary language recruit its prospective members. Indeed, the which they had learned from childhood on. hard work and courage they showed during The Bessarabian writers’ admission into the the ‘Great Patriotic War’ would reward them MWU, which signalled the confidence that after 1945 with the Communist Party member- they enjoyed from the Party, gave them for- ship card. mally equal status with the Transnistrian writ- ‘Young’ and ‘old’, the Transnistrian writers ers. The position they adopted on the issue of devoted their energy to implementing the the ‘Moldovan’ standard literary language Party’s exhortation to train and guide the enjoyed more credibility among the decision Bessarabian ‘newcomers’. Despite a certain makers. On June 8, 1941, a few days after the reluctance manifested by some ‘tutored ones’ last Bessarabian candidate was admitted into vis-à-vis their ‘tutors’, the collaboration be- the MWU, the Moldovan government adopt- tween Transnistrians and Bessarabians pro- ed a linguistic reform, which was the result gressed in the right direction. The purge that of a compromise, following negotiation be- started in June 1941 in the Writers’ Union and tween the Bessarabian writers’ position and throughout the country hindered the smooth the principles defended by the Transnistrian running of that collaboration and reminded writers, as well as the Moldovan leaders them- the Transnistrians of their recent experience: selves – a reform which recognised a ‘Mol- the 1937 purges, in which they had faced the dovan’ language that was very close to the Bessarabians60 as their potential enemies. Romanian literary language61. However, the The Bessarabian writers accepted a subor- reform was only a provisional victory won by dinate position vis-à-vis the Transnistrian the Bessarabian writers. The discussions were writers, as was required by the Soviet power. soon resumed during refuge in Moscow. By They posed as exemplary ‘disciples’ and de- the late 1950s, the linguistic issue, as well as veloped a contagious competition among the classic literary heritage, would be a per- 60 In the purges of 1937-38, the most manent point of contention in the balance of repressed cadres and intellectuals were of power between the two factions of the MWU, Bessarabian origin, arrived in the USSR in the 1920s and settled in the MASSR on the party line. the Bessarabians and the Transnistrians. See more on this issue in Petru Negură, Nici eroi, nici trădători, „De la ‘formarea cadrelor’ la ‘marile 61 (Anonymous), „Noua ortografie a limbii epurări’” [From ‘cadres formation’ to the ‘great moldoveneşti” [The new orthography of the purges’], pp. 120-132. ], MS, June 8, 1941, p. 1.

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On June 19, 1941, three days before the war, After 28 June 1940, the three groups that con- the Ministry of Education organised a literary stituted the ‘Bessarabian’ faction of the Mol- soiree dedicated to the great ‘Moldovan poet’ dovan Writers Union (i.e. ‘regionalists’, ‘Jews’ , with the participation of writ- and ‘underground activists’) did not represent ers, the prime minister, and other officials62. It fixed and definitive categories. The main fea- was supposed to be part of a series of cultural ture which defined them all was the kind of events aimed at popularising Moldovan liter- motivation that urged everyone to cooperate ary classics among Moldovans. But the war with the occupation regime (in this case, the interrupted the initiative, and also continued Soviets), depending on their own biographic to pose an obstacle for continuing such a se- background and cultural capital. The three ries of gatherings after the restoration of peace. categories intersected and overlapped, since Romania’s involvement in World War Two in the writers often had a number of competing alliance with would be used by interests. Beyond these writers’ biographic the opponents of the ‘Romanisation drive’ of particularities, certain common features de- the Moldovan language and literary heritage termined their predisposition to seek a com- as an argument to defend their localist and promise with the Soviets and a modus vi- pro-Russian position. vendi with the Moldovan Soviet writers (the ‘Transnistrians’). In 1940, they were all young Conclusion and belonged to diverse – and often uncertain In this article, I tried to analyse how the – ethnic origins, sharing sometimes a certain Bessarabian writers’ integration was conduct- type of regionalist position in relation to the ed into the literary and cultural institutions of Romanian administration, albeit for differ- Soviet Moldova, namely the Moldovan Writ- ent reasons. Finally, most of them had popu- ers Union, from June 1940 (the annexation of list and/or socialist beliefs. Yet, due to their Bessarabia by USSR) until June 1941, when the Bessarabian origin and Romanian education territory was retaken by the Romanian army they were distinct from the faction of Trans- in alliance with the German army. I exam- nistrian writers when they became part of the ined two perspectives and two different log- MWU. ics of this process. On the one hand, I outlined The strategies aimed at integrating the the Bessarabian writers’ position depending Bessarabian writers into Soviet institutional on their group affiliation, on their social and structures followed a binary – and apparently symbolic capital and on their motivations in contradictory – rationale, of inclusion (of can- relation to Soviet power and its cultural in- didates deemed suitable for the aspiring sta- stitutions. On the other hand, I tried to recon- tus) and exclusion (of those who would not struct the rationale of the Soviet authorities correspond to the criteria of political probity in their – sometimes contradictory – actions advanced by the Soviet authorities). One of in enrolling (or sometimes marginalising) the psychosocial effects of these two poles of these writers who were freshly torn from the the enrolment strategy implemented by the Bessarabian and Romanian literary milieu. MWU (and other state-sponsored institutions) was the zealous behaviour and ideological 62 (Anonymous), „O lecţie despre Mihai Eminescu” [A lecture about Mihai Eminescu], MS, emulation that writers adopted in order to June 28, 1941, p. 1. ensure their successful integration. This be-

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haviour laid the basis for duplicitous and and Transnistria to the benefit of the Roma- somewhat dysfunctional interactions between nian and German authorities. writers, which would reach a paroxysm in the post-war ‘Zhdanovist’ campaign63. About the Author Moldovan writers coming from the MASSR (the ‘Transnistrians’) had a crucial role in the Petru Negură is lecturer at “Ion Creangă” State integration and enrolment of the Bessarabian Pedagogical University in Chișinău. He holds writers into the MWU, as mediators vis-à-vis a Ph.D. in Sociology from the Ecole des Hautes the Soviet authorities (many were Party mem- Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris). Since 2011 bers, had administrative positions in various he has been the director of the PLURAL Fo- official cultural institutions and had ‘length of rum in Social Sciences, based in Chișinău. service’ in political and cultural affairs), as well He is also co-founder and co-editor of platz- as in their function as cultural and ideological forma.md, an independent outlet of critical ‘tutors’. However, they were less endowed in thinking and social analysis. He has authored terms of knowledge of the Romanian literary dozens of academic articles for regional and language (officially called ‘Moldovan’) and of international academic journals and a book the ‘Moldovan’ literary heritage (which was (Ni héros, ni traîtres. Les écrivains moldaves already claimed as Romanian in Romania), face au pouvoir soviétique sous Staline, Paris, which placed them in an inferior position in L’Harmattan, 2009, and, in Romanian transla- relation to their Bessarabian fellows. These tion, from Cartier, Chișinău, 2014). His cur- cultural differences would tilt the postwar rent research topics are the sociology / social balance of power between them, allowing the history of intellectuals in Eastern Europe and group of Bessarabian writers to the benefit of the former USSR, the sociology / social history their cultural capital in a symbolic and institu- of public education in Eastern Europe and the tional battle which the ‘Bessarabians’ were to former Soviet Union, the sociology / social his- eventually win. This decisive – yet, never final tory of the social welfare services in the USSR – victory was to tilt the linguistic and cultural and post-Soviet Moldova. policy during the 1950s in the Moldavian SSR towards a ‘latent Romanization’64 of literary E-mail: [email protected] language and literary heritage. In this way, the issue of language and cultural heritage actual- ly reverted to the fragile compromise reached in May-June 1941 in the cultural and literary sphere of the MSSR before the withdrawal of Soviet power from the territory of Bessarabia

63 See more about the Moldovan writers’ environment in the ‘Zhdanovist’ era, in Petru Negură, Nici eroi, nici trădători..., p. 179-214. 64 According to the expression of Charles King, in The Moldovans…; this thesis was verified and corroborated with a body of documents, in Petru Negură, Nici eroi, nici trădători..., chapter 4, especially: pp. 274-299.

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