Romanian–Soviet treaty

On 9 March 1918 in Odessa representatives of the Soviet authorities signed a protocol “on the liquidation of the Russian–Romanian conflict”. On the Russian side the signatories included Christian Rakovsky, chairman of the board for Russian–Romanian affairs set up by the Council of People’s Commissars, representatives of Rumcherod and of the Odessa Council of People’s Commissars, and the commander of the Soviet forces in the south, Mikhail Muravyov. On the Romanian side the document was signed by the Prime Minister, General Alexandru Averescu. According to most accounts he did so in Iași as early as 5 March (20 February by the Julian calendar, which Romania used), the same day on which his government concluded a preliminary peace with the Central Powers at Buftea. The Soviet Izvestia, publishing the text at the end of March, regarded 9 March as the day on which the formalities were completed, and this date is also given by a British chronology of the war.

The agreement was meant to end the undeclared war that had been going on since January, when Romanian troops entered Bessarabia and Lenin’s government broke off relations with Romania. In February the fighting moved to the Dniester, where Soviet units from Odessa and Tiraspol tried in vain to retake Bendery. Both sides, however, had reasons to come to terms. From 18 February the Germans and Austrians were advancing deep into Ukraine and approaching Odessa, and Romania, hemmed in by the Central Powers, could not wage war on two fronts. The talks with Rakovsky were mediated by a Canadian businessman and adventurer, Colonel Joseph Boyle, supported by Entente representatives in Odessa and Iași. By car and aeroplane he travelled several times between the two cities with successive versions of the text.

Romania undertook to withdraw its troops from Bessarabia within two months. Only 10,000 soldiers were to remain to guard Romanian depots and railways, and the positions vacated were to be taken over by the Russians. The Romanian command renounced the right to make arrests and to interfere in the administration, which was to be run by locally elected authorities. Romania promised not to undertake any military or hostile action against Soviet Russia and not to support such action by other states. The parties were to exchange prisoners of war and detainees, among them the Romanian politicians held in Odessa. Russia undertook to hand over to Romania the surplus of Bessarabian grain and to transfer to it the food stocks previously accumulated by the Allies. Should Germany attack, the retreating Romanian troops were to find refuge on the Russian side, and disputes were to be settled by international commissions including Entente representatives.

The agreement was a dead letter from the start. Its only provision carried out proved to be a partial exchange: according to Russian historians, on 19–24 March at Sulina several dozen Romanian senators, deputies and officers were exchanged for several dozen Russian soldiers. Meanwhile the troops of the Central Powers entered Odessa, and Soviet power in southern Ukraine collapsed. The Romanians took advantage of this to occupy the last Bolshevik positions in southern Bessarabia, among them Akkerman. The Soviet side regarded this as a breach of the agreement. Averescu’s cabinet soon fell, and his successors had no intention of leaving Bessarabia.

At the beginning of April 1918 the Sfatul Țării in Kishinev voted for the union of Bessarabia with Romania. Soviet Russia, and later the Soviet Union, never recognised this, and in the interwar period cited, among other things, the agreement of March 1918. The Bessarabian question remained one of the most enduring disputes in relations between the two states.