Turning the pages back... September 16, 1924 (09/13/98)

Turning the pages back...

September 16, 1924

Tatarbunary, a town located about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Odesa, not far from the Black Sea coast, was founded in the 16th century while the area was under Turkish rule. Early in the 19th century the Russian empire annexed the region, and subsequently it became a haven for Bulgarian colonists and Ukrainian (even some Russian) peasants fleeing serfdom.

In 1918 the town, along with all of Bessarabia, was claimed by Romania. In 1921 the Romanian government imposed an onerous program of agrarian reforms that caused widespread dissatisfaction. Soon after, a famine raged through the area and in 1924 a drought hit. The resulting hardships amplified the anger the Romanian regime aroused with its policy of social and ethnic discrimination against the Bessarabian population. It was only a matter of time before this powder keg exploded.

On September 16, 1924, a pro-Soviet revolutionary committee formally launched an uprising of about 4,000 to 6,000 peasants, issuing slogans calling for the region's unification with the Ukrainian SSR and an end to Romanian occupation. The revolt spread to the districts of Akkerman, Bendery, Cahul and Izmail, but after three days of fighting with Romania's army, artillery and navy, the uprising was suppressed.

Many perished and about 500 were arrested by Romanian authorities. After a three-and-a-half month trial in Kishinev, 86 of the insurrectionists were sentenced to terms ranging from one to 15 years in jail. The trial attracted international attention, and intellectuals such as Louis Aragon, Theodore Dreiser, Albert Einstein and Paul Éluard spoke out on the plight of the defendants.

Tatarbunary was annexed to the Ukrainian SSR in 1940 by Stalin, who took advantage of Hitler's embroilment in western Europe to march the Red Army into Bessarabia.

Sources: "Tatarbunary," "Tatarbunary uprising of 1924," Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Vol. 5, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993); Paul R. Magocsi, "A History of Ukraine" (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996).

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