Forms of anti-Communist resistance in the Baltic States, Romania and Moldova under Stalin: a comparative analysis

ENAs a young charge d’affaires in Riga and Tallinn during the Soviet takeover of 1939-40, Grigore Niculescu-Buzejti was one of the few Romanians to witness the Soviet strategy of Sovietization along with all its drama. The mixture of real and phantasy, of fear and hope, of submission and resistance is clear from the diplomatic reports Buzejti dispatched to Bucharest over the months until the formal annexation of the Baltic states took place. The end of his Baltic diplomatic mission, due to the Soviet incorporation, coincided with the Soviet annexation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina as a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement. Some four years after his diplomatic mission in the Baltic states ended, Buzejti was appointed foreign minister of his country, which had just departed from the Nazi camp under Soviet pressure to join in the United Nations’ fight against the Axis. A few days later began the German bombardment. Although the aim of this government was to restore a democratic regime in Romania after six years of dictatorship, it soon became obvious that the presence of the Red Army in Romania would allow no progress on this path. When his government was forced to resign in order to allow the formation of a new, more pro-communist government, perhaps Buzejti understood then the irony that he would witness again Soviet methods of Sovietization in his own country. [Extract, p. 153]