History of Bălţi

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Bălţi is the second largest city in Moldova. It is located in the northern part of the country, within the historical region of Bessarabia, with which the city's own history is closely intertwined.

Contents 1 Middle Ages 2 Eighteenth century 3 Nineteenth century 4 Twentieth century up to 1989 4.1 World War I period 4.2 Inter-war period 4.3 World War II period 4.4 Post-World War II period 5 1989 to present day 6 Notes and references 7 External links

Middle Ages

In 1421, the site of the modern city was a fair founded by Ringaila of Mazovia, the sister of the Polish king Władysław II Jagiełło, of the Lithuanian dynasty, and the third wife of the Moldavian Prince Alexander the Good.

During the Middle Ages, the fair belonged to Soroca, then after 1785 to Iaşi ţinut (county) of the Principality of Moldova. Bălţi was a crossroad, with post-roads from Iaşi, Hotin, Soroca, and Orhei intersecting. It soon became a renouned horse fair, and also a cattle fair.

In 1469, a Crimean Tatar invasion led by the khan Meñli I Giray burned the place to the ground, before the invaders were defeated in the Battle of Lipnic, about 100 km to the north. However, Bălţi was rebuilt very slowly.

Over ages, Bălţi, became also a center of handicraft, with smiths, wheelwrights, leather dressers, saddlers, cartwrights.

Eighteenth century

In 1711, the Moldavian prince Dimitrie Cantemir, who was also a well-known European historiographer and scientist of the time, impressed by the defeat of the Swedish-Polish king Charles XII at the Battle of Poltava (600 km to the east in Ukraine) by the young Russian tsar Peter the Great, invited the latter to Moldavia in a bold move to try to end Ottoman suzerainty and reclaim the independence of Moldavia. (The country became formally a vassal to the Ottoman Empire in 1538, but it preserved almost entirely its self-rule, having to satisfy an ever increasing annual tribute). During this failed military campaign, Bălţi, due to its crossroads location, served as a major headquarters of the Russian and parts of the Moldavian armies. The town was again burned to the ground. According to one version this was done in retaliation by Nohai Tatars, according to anouther this was done by the retreating Russians.

The development of the town, as well as that of the entire country in the 18th century suffered because the population had to support the burdens of regular invasions of three foreign armies: Ottoman, Russian, and Habsburg, which clashed in 4 major wars, pillaged, performed extensive requisitions to supply their troops, sometimes established separate administrations, and generelly imposed serfdom-like obligations to provide labor for the movements and encampments of the armies, and punishment for performing these obligations for the other armies. (The last vestiges of serfdom were formally abolished in Moldavia in 1749.)

In 1766, the Moldavian prince Alexandru Ghica divided the Bălţi estate into two parts, awarding one to the Saint Spiridon monastery of Iaşi, and the other to the merchant brothers Alxandru, Constantin, and Iordache Panaiti. Over the next decades, the three boyar brothers improved and developed the locality, settled farmers, handicrafts and traders.

Moldavian voevods built a basilica in the town in 1785. The same year, the land around the city was transferred from Soroca to the Iaşi county, and Bălţi was the second largest locality in the county. (The city of Iaşi was the capital of the Principality from 1574 to 1859.)

Nineteenth century

At the end of a six-year war, in 1812, the Treaty of Bucharest saw the Ottoman Empire, Moldavia's then suzerain, ceding the eastern half of the country under the name of Bessarabia to the Russian Empire,^[1] including the town of Bălţi. Bălţi benefited from the division of the Principality of Moldavia along the River Prut in 1812, because although the city of Iaşi remained on the right bank, the largest part of the Iaşi County was on the left bank, and Bălţi, then with a population of 8,000, gradually became its natural center.

In 1818, the town had serendipitously received formal city rights. According to a popular legend, the Russian tsar Alexander I visited his newly acquired province, and during his passing through Bălţi he received news that he had a nephew, the future tsar Alexander II of Russia, was born. Overjoyed, he granted Bălţi official city status, turning it into the administrative center of the county. In 1828, the number of counties of Bessarabia is reduced from 12 to 8, but Iaşi county is preserved, and in 1887 it was renamed Bălţi county.

During the Russian rule, the ethnic composition of the city diversified, with people arriving from Austrian Galicia and Russian Podolia, and (fewer) from Russia proper (in particular Old Believers) in the context of the economic development of the town. Some of them were offered land, others were seeking freedom of religion, as the western provinces of the Russian Empire, and especially Bessarabia, were more liberal religiously and socially (no serfdom). A significant number of Jews (from Galicia, then in the Habsburg Empire) settled in Bălţi, and by the end of the century became a plurality and then a majority. At its peak (before WWI), the Jewish community accounted for over 10,000 people, or up to 70% population of Balti. Over time 72 synagogues were built in the city.^[2]

By 1894, the city became a railroad hub connecting with Czernowitz, Hotin, Chişinău, Bender, Akkerman, Izmail. The city was a regional center for collection of wheat, etc, which were then transported by railroad to Odessa. It also gradually developed into a center of commerce in Bessarabia, primarily dealing with cattle. At the beginning of the 20th century, Bălţi has become an industrial city with a well-established commerce and many (small) factories.

Twentieth century up to 1989

World War I period

The city hosted a County Congress of Farmers, the largest of the kind in Bessarabia, on December 1 [O.S. November 19] 1917, which sent representatives to Sfatul Ţării.^{[3][unreliable source?]}

With the start of World War I, most of male population of the region ages 18-45 was enrolled in the Russian army, and subsequently self-organized in Moldavian Soldiers Committees, became a political force that drove many of the changes that came. In 1917, at the dissolution of the Russian Empire, Bessarabia elected (October-November 1917) a National Diet, Sfatul Ţării, which opened on 21 November / 3 December 1917, proclaimed the Moldavian Democratic Republic (2/15 December 1917), formed its government (8/21 December 1917), proclaimed independence from Russia (24 January/6 February 1918), and then union with Romania (27 March/9 April 1918). The city hosted a County Congress of Farmers, the largest of the kind in Bessarabia, on 19 November / 1 December 1917, which sent representatives to Sfatul Ţării. One of them, Mr. Trofim, gave one of the speeches at the opening of the diet.^[3]

The city has not been affected by World War I other than the recruitment and movement of troops.

On 17/30 May 1917, general Shcherbachov, Supreme Commander of the Russian Armies on the Romanian Front, by order 156370, consented to the request of the Moldavian Central Soldiers Committee of All Bessarabia to form 16 cohorts exclusively of Moldavian soldiers, commanded by Moldavian officers, and distributed them to all the counties of Bessarabia.^[4][5] In September, their number was further increased due to the pillaging and violence caused by deserters of the Russian army passing through the province. Although most of the deserter gangs were small in size, there were also several large ones: two Cossack regiments dislocated in Bălţi county, and a 3,000-strong infantry detachment in Orhei, whose leadership faltered, resulting in extensive pillaging of Bălţi, Soroca and Orhei counties, with many dead, including several Bessarabian public personalities, which substantiated the outcry of the population.^[6][7] The committees of the two regiments stationed in Bălţi county adopted resolutions which called for continuous sacking until the soldiers would be given discharge papers.^[3] In December 1917, when the Directorate General for Armed Forces of the Moldavian Democratic Republic was formed, one of its first units was in Bălţi, where the Druzhina (popular militia unit) no. 478 of the Russian Empire, composed almost entirely of Moldavians, and led by captain Anatolie Popa, was nationalized.^[8] In March 1918, the Bălţi County Council, along with the ones of Soroca and Orhei, submitted resolutions to the Sfatul Ţării, asking it to consider union with Romania.^[9]

With the dissolution of the Russian Empire, Bălţi becomes part of the Moldavian Democratic Republic and then joins Romania along with the rest of Bessarabia.

Inter-war period

In the first part of the 20th century the economy expanded, and the city started to diversify. Many buildings in the town/city date from the inter-war period.

• 1920s - The seat of the Bishopric is moved from Hotin to Bălţi, and the Bishopric Palace is built (finished in 1933), with the effort of Visarion Puiu. The Saint Constantine and Elena Cathedral is built throughout (finished in 1932, officially inaugurated 1933, in the presence of the royal family)

According to the Romanian official census for 1930, Bălţi had a population of 30,570, of which 14,200 were Jews, 8,900 Romanians, 5,400 Russians and Ukrainians, 1,000 Poles. Also 14,400 were Christian Orthodox, 14,250 Jewish, 1,250 Roman Catholic. In that year, the city represented only 7.9% of the population of the surrounding Bălţi County (it would be 30% of the same territory today).

1940 The city reaches close to 40,000 inhabitants. Cca. 45-46% were Jews, 29-30% Romanians, and the rest were Ukrainians, Russians, Poles, Armenians.

World War II period

After the 1940 Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, thousands of former teachers, doctors, office workers, and even better-to-do peasants from northern Bessarabia, thought to be hostile and dangerous to the Soviet regime, were gathered and deported in cattle cars to Siberia. Bălţi, as the most important railroad link in the north, serves as a gathering point. The largest deportation occurred on 12-13 June 1941 from the Slobozia Railway Station.^[10] The local economy (numerous small factories and shops) was largely dismantled during the evacuation, several factories and buildings were blown up.

In June 22 - July 26, 1941, the Romanian Army participated in the Axis offensive against the Red Army dislocated in Bessarabia, in the so-called Operation München. After developed bridgeheads acruss Prut, the main advance was started on July 2. According to the will of its new ally, Nazi Germany, Romania, now led by a pro-fascist dictatorship, allotted an 80 km long segment between its two armies to the 11th German Army, which comprised both German and Romanian units under German command. This portion of the frontline included Bălţi.^[11]

The city was intended to be conquered by the 14th Romanian Division from the 30th German Corps, supported by the 170th German Division from the 54th German Corps. Soviet units managed to temporarily stop them on July 4 on the eastern outskirts of the town. 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 13th Romanian Dorobanţi regiment Ştefan cel Mare of the 14th Division maneuvered to the south and took the village of Biliceni and surrounding areas, at which time 14th Division, was transferred from the 30th to the 54th German Corps.

The German motorized columns and the 1st Romanian Armored Division started to move from bridgeheads on the river Prut, and by July 5 separated the Soviet Army in northern Moldavia (Bessarabia) into pockets of resistance, the largest of which, composed of Soviet 74th Infantry Division, 2nd Mecanized Corps (211th Motorized Division, 11th and 16th Tank Divisions), and Cavalry units, was centered at Bălţi. Opposing them were Romanian 5th and 14th Infantry Divisions, and German 170th Infantry Division, from German 30the Army Corps. At first the Soviets managed, on June 4, to stop the Romanians and Germans before the village of Răuţel, Bălţi's SW suburb.

The main military actions took part on July 7 - July 9 near the villages south of the city: 8th Dorobanţi Regiment and the 32nd Infantry Regiment Mircea, both from the 5th Romanian Infantry Division, clashed with Soviet cavalry. Feeling much easier on the ground than the German and Soviet units, they managed to overcome several Soviet strongholds near Zgîrdeşti, Mîndreşti, and the Gliceni Forest. Then, supported by four artillery battalions, the 32nd Regiment attacked Mîndreşti frontally with one battalion and with the second maneuvered to the south, threatening the rear of the Soviet forces, which retreated leaving behind a lot of their heavy weapons.

On July 8, the 22nd Regiment of the 13th Romanian Division also joined the battle for Bălţi, fighting at Singureni and Ţărinei Hill. The latter, together with the 39th Romanian Infantry Regiment from the 14th Romanian Division, reached the river Răut at 10:00 on July 9, and managed to establish a bridgehead north of Răut near Elisabeta, already on the north-eastern outskirt of the city. This threatened to encircle the Red Army units in the city, which then hastily withdrew during July 9.^[11]

Reinhard Heydrich, the chief of the German Reich Security Main Office (German: Reichssicherheitshauptamt), flew several fighter missions in his private modified Me109 from the Bălţi-City Airport in July 1941. Heydrich was shot down by Soviet anti-air fire over Ukraine, and barely escaped capture after having to swim for his life.

Upon the Axis capture of the city, a 20-strong unit of the German SS Einsatzkommando D proceeded to murder ca. 200 Jews of the city over three days. The majority of the 15,000 Jewish population of the city managed to escape in the previous two weeks. The Soviet authorities organized their evacuation by railway, in cattle cars, to Central Asia, mostly to Uzbekistan. Although the majority have survived and returned to the city after the war, their life as refugees and on the road was harsh, due to quasi-absence of regular supplies or normal housing. In August 1941, there were 1,300 Jews left in the city, and the pro-fascist government of Ion Antonescu has decided to deport them. In September 1941, they, together with other Jews from the county, were gathered in two created ghettos, in Răuţel and Alexăndreni, with ca. 3,500 people in each. In about 10 days, the ghettos were dissolved, and the Jews hastily moved, mostly during the night, to a concentration camp in Mărculeşi, size ca. 11,000. After two more weeks, this was also abolished, and the Jews were deported to occupied Transnistria.

This process allowed their persecutors to strip the Jews of most of their belongings, as well as to prevent the public opinion to know about the true fate of the Jews before everything was accomplished.^{[citation needed]} Less then one third of the deported Jews survived the Holocaust, which affected cca. 75,000 Bessarabian Jews, as well as many Bukovinian and Transnistrian Jews. ^[12][13]

On February 27 - March 2, 1944, Soviet troops, driving Romanian and German forces westwards, enter the city. West of Bălţi they first reach and cross the border of the USSR of 22 June 1941.

In the summer of 1944, the Soviets have created two POW camps in the city^{[citation needed]}: a small one within the present location of the military base, and a large one at the SE outskirts of the city, by fencing out several blocks of one-story houses. It contained up to 45,000 prisoners^{[citation needed]} at a time, most of which were Romanian POWs. Some prisoners ended up in the camp as late as September-October 1944, after fighting in the Romanian army on the Allies' side, but being injured, were sent to hospitals close to their homes, and were arrested by Soviet authorities.^{[citation needed]} In total, ca. 55,000 people have passed through this camp, of them ca. 45,000 Romanians (up to half of which were locals), ca. 5,000 Germans, ca. 3,000 Italians, ca. 2,000 Hungarians, Poles and Czechs.^{[14][citation needed]}

The concentration camp served as a selection of the most fit labor force, and the conditions inside were very harsh, with most of the prisoners living for months under the open sky, without hygiene, and with very little food; it was disbanded in 1945, after the survivors of the winter were gradually moved to camps in the interior of the USSR for work. In August 1944, when German aviation was regularly attacking the nearby military airport, the Soviets arranged the night illumination of the camp to resemble that of the airport, deceiving the bombers to hit the camp. The holes produced by the bombs were then used to dump the bodies of the dead.^{[citation needed]}

After the war, the camp was leveled and the resulting field was left to grow over. The spreading of the information about the camp was severely persecuted^{[citation needed]} during the Soviet rule. During perestroika, the city authorities, unaware about the past destination of the land, planned to develop the area, but the construction of a new road ran upon one of the mass graves, at which point the workers refused to continue. In 1990, mentions of the POW camp were allowed in the press. A cross was erected for the victims of the camp, since research at the time led to a large number of locals found among the camps' victims,^[15] and an "Ossuary" Church is currently under construction.

The Soviet archives have preserved considerable information about the POW camps in Bălţi, although they were kept a secret before 1989. Apparently, a study in 1992 on a sample of 800 POWs came up with only 13 survivors by 1953.^{[citation needed]}

In the wake of the 1944 Soviet offensive, thousands of people, including many intellectuals, have fled to Romania. Like the other localities of Moldova, the city has largely lost its pre-World War II intelligentsia as refugees.

During spring and summer of 1944, the frontline stabilizes along a west-east curve passing 40 km south of the city. After gathering enough forces for a breakthrough (ca 1.3 million) and artillery (approx. 370 units per km of frontline) the Red Army penetrates the German-Romanian defenses (approx. 600,000 troops) in the Jassy-Kishinev Offensive, encircling and annihilating a large part of the opposing force. On August 23, 1944, after a royal coup, Romania switched sides and joined the Allies for the rest of the war.

Following the successful offensive, active age Moldavians in the recaptured territories are drafted en masse into the Soviet army, and are not disbanded until 1946.

Post-World War II period

In 1944, with the return of the Soviet authorities, the policy of political and class persecution resumed with people deported from northern Moldova to Siberia, northern Urals, Russian Far East, Kazakhstan. The largest of postwar deportations, "Operation South" occurred on 5-6 July 1949, and included 185 families from the city of Bălţi, and 161 families from the then suburbs. A total of ca 12000 Bessarabian families were rounded up and deported as part of this operation.^{[16][unreliable source?]} (The population of the city at the time was ca. 30,000.) Many young people were also enrolled in labor camps throughout the Soviet Union.

An anti-Soviet armed resistance group was active in the city during the Stalinist era. "Sabia Dreptăţii" ["The Sword of Justice"] was discovered by the NKVD in 1947, based at the Pedagogical Lycée (former Ion Creangă Lycée) in Bălţi.^[17]

The war and the events that followed have left a deep impact on the city. Many buildings were leveled or damaged by bombardments and military action. A part of the population was killed, deported, sent to labor camps, ghettos, starved to death, or fled and did not return. The losses affected all the ethnic groups, while from social groups the interwar intelligentsia has all by disappeared.

During the 1940s and early 1950s, the city has lost a significant part of its population to Stalinist repressions (political imprisonment and deportations), Romanian deportation of Jews (Holocaust), war, and the Soviet famine of 1946-1947 and emigration.^[10][18]

After World War II, significant immigration occurred from all over the USSR in a move to rebuild the country, develop the industry and establish a local Soviet and party apparatus.

In the 1980s many Moldovans from the northern countryside of moved to Bălţi. By the end of 1980s, most of the Jews of Moldova had migrated to Israel. The Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking group had by then reached 50% of the population of the city, with Moldavian-speaking representing the other 50%^{[citation needed]}.

During that time, the regional delegate to the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union was the Soviet marshal Sergei Akhromeyev, one of the most pre-eminent hard-liners in the Soviet power system. He was one of the close allies of the 1991 putchists that attempted to overthrow Gorbachev.

In Soviet times, the city claimed several dozen nationalities with Russian being the dominant public language. From 1940 to 1989 the population of the city increases 4-fold, with the addition of the newcomers from all over USSR, and of the local Moldovans moving from countryside to the city. The city is further developed into a major industrial center, with the status of a city of republican subordination.

1989 to present day

During 1988-1989, the most effervescent period in Moldova's recent history, Bălţi was known as the "quiet city"^{[citation needed]} of Moldova. Only a couple public demonstrations took place in the city during this period, none gathered more than 15,000^{[citation needed]}. Most citizens, including Moldovans opposed the drive for establishing the Romanian language as the only official language of the country.^{[citation needed]}

All local elections are won by the old Soviet apparatus candidates.^{[citation needed]} The municipal activity is done in both Russian and Moldovan. The city also actively supports Ukrainian language and culture, with ca 25,000 citizens being Ukrainians.

Following the declaration of independence in 1991, the rise of nationalist sentiments throughout the country, the economical crisis and unemployment caused by the collapse of the USSR, resulted in massive emigration, which, coupled with a low birth rate has lead to a 23% decrease in population of the city. Russians and Ukrainians were the most affected ethnic groups, losing 45% and 30% of their 1989 number, with Moldovan population also decreasing by 15%. Many inhabitants of the city travel for seasonal work, and less often emigrate, to Europe, Russia, USA and Israel.

In 1994, Bălţi gained the status of a municipality.

Notes and references

External links