The Soviets and the Request for a Plebiscite in Bessarabia: One Hundred Years Since the Soviet-Romanian Conference in Vienna from 27 March to 2 April 1924

Six years after the union of Bessarabia with Romania, the works of a Soviet-Romanian conference began in Vienna, on 27 March 1924, after lengthy preparatory negotiations. The delegates of the two countries presented two divergent offers: a plebiscite versus the recognition of Romania’s sovereignty over Bessarabia. Romania’s offer was natural and in full agreement with its national interests of good neighborliness with the Soviets, but also with the policy of the Great Powers, signatories of the Paris Treaty on Bessarabia. On the contrary, draped in the democratic garb of the plebiscite, the Soviet offer aimed to turn Romania into the proving ground for dangerous and toxic experiences for its stability and state integrity, and also to deceive the Western democracies, seeking to demolish everything that had been built in this part of Southeast Europe, based on the decisions of the Paris Peace Conference.