History of Bălţi

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Bălţi is a city in the north of Moldova.

Contents 1 Middle Age 2 Eighteenth century 3 Nineteenth Century 4 Twenteeth Century 4.1 World War I period 4.2 Inter-war period 4.3 World War II period 4.4 Post-World War II period 4.5 Fall of communism and independence of Moldova 5 Notes and references 6 External links

[edit] Middle Age

1421 The city is founded as a fair by Ringaila of Mazovia, the sister of the Polish king Władysław II Jagiełło, of the Lithuanian dynasty, who was the wife of the Moldavian Prince Alexandru I cel Bun [Alexander the Good].

At the time the territory belonged to the Dorohoi ţinut (land/county), later to Soroca county and, mostly, Iaşi county of the Principality of Moldova (Iaşi was the capital of the Principality from 1574 to 1859).

A crossroad, Bălţi soon became well-known as a horse fair.

1469 A Crimean Tatar invasion led by the khan Meñli I Giray burned the place to the ground, before being defeated in the Battle of Lipnic, about 100 km north.

Bălţi was rebuilt very slowly.

[edit] Eighteenth century

From 16th century, the Principality of Moldavia became vassal to the Ottoman Empire. Although it preserved the self-rule, Moldavia had to satisfy ever increasing annual dues. In 1711, the Moldavian prince Dimitrie Cantemir, also a well-known historiographer and scientist of the time, impressed by the defeat of the Swedish-Polish king Charles XII at the Battle of Poltava (600 km east in eastern 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 Moldova. During this failed military campaign the main headquarters of the Russian and parts of the Moldavian armies were established at Bălţi, due to its crossroads location.

1766 The prince Alexandru Ghica, one of a few local (and not Greek) princes of that time, has divided the Bălţi estate in two parts, awarding one to the Saint Spiridon monastery of Iaşi, and the other to the merchant brothers Alexandru, Constantin and Iordache Panaiti. The three boyar brother, over the next decades improve the locality small city.

The development of the town in the 18th century suffered also because the country had to support the burdens of three invading armies, Ottoman, Russian, and Austrian, which clashed in 4 wars of a total duration of 16 years, during which they performed extensive regular requisitions to supply their troops, and established separate administrations that imposed upon the Baltiers^{[citation needed]}serfdom-like obligations to support the movements and encampments of the armies, notwithstanding punishments for performing these obligations for the other armies.

[edit] Nineteenth Century

At the end of a fifth, a six-year war, in 1812, the Treaty of Bucharest saw the Ottoman Empire ceding (without having such a legal right) to the Russian Empire the Easter half of Moldavia which received the name Bessarabia^[1], including the town of Bălţi. During 1812-1828, the Russians allowed substantial economic and cultural freedom to Moldavians, wanting to secure the new province. The new border has cut most of the Iaşi county, to which Bălţi belonged, from the city of Iaşi itself. This, however, made Bălţi, population 8,000, the administrative center of the county.

Moreover, in 1818, the town received serendipitously formal city rights. 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.

1887 Iaşi county is renamed Bălţi county.

1889 The city becomes a railroad hub.

The ethnic composition of the city diversified with some colonists^{[citation needed]} arriving from Austrian Galicia, Ukraine and (fewer) from Russia proper (in particular, Old Believers), being offered land or seeking freedom of religion, as the western provinces of the Russian Empire, and especially Bessarabia, were more liberal religiously.

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. Russian officials were unhappy with the number of Jews arriving, but unlike in Chişinău, they have not organized pogroms in Bălţi.

[edit] Twenteeth Century

[edit] World War I period

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 Solders 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.^[2]

On 17/30 May 1917, general Sherbachov, the Supreme Commander of the Russian Armies on the Romanian Front, by order 156370, consented to the request of the Moldavian Central Solders Committee of All Bessarabia to form 16 cohorts exclusively of Moldavian solders, commanded by Moldavian officers, and distributed them to all the counties of Bessarabia.^[3][4] In September, their number was further rased in view of the sacking and violence provoked by the miltiplication of the add-hoc gangs of Russian army deserters. Although most of the 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 failed, which resulted in extensive pillaging in Bălţi, Soroca and Orhei counties, with many dead, including several Bessarabian public personalities, which substantiated the outcry of the population.^[5][6] The committees of the two regiments stationed in Bălţi county adopted resolutions which called for continuous sacking until the solders would be given discharge papers.^[7] 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]

[edit] 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).

1920s The Saint Constantine and Elena Cathedral^[10] 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 Judaic, 1,250 Romano-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.

[edit] World War II period

Part of the population was deported^{[citation needed]} to Siberia (the largest deportation on 12-13 June 1941, as well as the smaller ones, used the Bălţi Slobozia Railway Station as one of the major departing point for the cattle car trains with people deported from northern Moldova), the economy (numerous small factories and shops) was largely annihilated^{[citation needed]}, 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, the so-called Operation Munich. After developed bridgeheads, 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 front line included Bălţi. ^[11]

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 for the villages immediately south of the city: In the two preceding days, 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. Then, the Romanian 8th Dorobanţi Regiment and the 32nd Infantry Regiment Mircea, from the 5th Romanian Infantry Division, clashed with Soviet cavalry. Feeling easier on the ground than the German and Soviet units, they managed to overcome several Soviet strongholds near Zgârdeşti, Mândreşti, 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 their heavy weapons. Developing on this success, on July 8, the 22nd Regiment of the 13th Romanian Division 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 Elizaveta (then called Elisabeta), already on the north-eastern outskirt of the city, threatening to surround the Soviet troops in the city, which then withdrew during July 9th. ^[12]

Before the annexation by Romania, a 20-strong unit of the German SS Einsatzkommando D murdered cca. 200 Jews of the city over three days. The majority of the 15,000 Jewish population of the city chose exile, and managed to leave it in the previous two weeks. The Soviet authorities organized their movement 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 in exile and on the road was highly subhuman, due to quasi-absence of regular supplies, normal housing, or useful employment opportunities. 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, size cca. 3,500 each. In cca. 10 days, the ghettos were dissolved, and the Jews hastily moved, mostly during the night, to a concentration camp in Mărculeşi, size cca. 11,000. After two more weeks, this was also abolished, and the Jews were deported to Transnistria (WWII). 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. 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. ^[13][14]

On February 27 - March 2, 1944, the Soviet army freed the city from the Romanians. Subsequently, the front line stabilized cca. 60 km south of the city until August 1944, when as part of the Battle of Romania, the Soviets annihilated or encircled a big part of the opposing German and Romanian troops, while on August 23, 1944, after a royal coup, Romania switched sides and thought the rest of the war with the Allies. Despite that, the territory was re-annexed to the Soviet Union. In the summer of 1944, the Soviets have created^{[citation needed]} two camps in the city, a small POW camp within the present location of the military base, and a large concentration camp at the SE outskirts of the city, by fencing out several blocks of one-story houses, the Bălţi concentration camp. It contained up to 45,000^{[citation needed]} prisoners at a time, most of which were POWs, while others were arrested locals of military age, discharged, due to light injuries, from the Romanian Army after fighting from several weeks to several months against Nazi Germany. In total, cca. 55,000 people have passed through this camp, of them cca. 45,000 Romanians (up to half of which were locals), cca. 5,000 Germans, cca. 3,000 Italians, cca. 2,000 Hungarians, Poles and Czechs.^[15]

The concentration camp served as a selection of the most fit labor force, and the conditions inside were miserable^{[citation needed]}, 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 attacking regularly the nearby military airport, the Soviets put inside the concentration camp night lighting arrangements similar to the airport ones, deceiving the bombers to hit the camp. The holes produced by the bombs were then used to dump the bodies of the dead. After the war, the camp was leveled and the resulting field was left savage. The spreading of the information about the camp was severely persecuted^{[citation needed]} during the Soviet rule. During perstroika, 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. Only in 1990, after the first free elections, mentions of the concentration camp were allowed in the press. A cross was erected for the victims of the concentration camp, since research at the time led to a large number of locals found among the camps' victims,^[16] and an "Ossuary" Church is in the construction.

1944 Like the other localities of Moldova, the city has largely lost its pre-World War II intelligentsia to fleeing from persecution and persecution^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Post-World War II period

In 1944, with the return of the Soviet authorities and freedom from Romanian occupants, the policy of political and class persecution resumed^{[citation needed]}. Again, Bălţi Slobozia Railway Station served as one of the major departing points for the cattle car trains^{[citation needed]} with people deported from northern Moldova to Siberia, northern Urals, Russian Far East, Kazakhstan. The largest of post-war deportations occurred on 5-6 July 1949, and included also 185 families from the city of Bălţi, and 161 families from the then suburbs^{[citation needed]} (The population of the city at the time was cca. 30,000.) Numerous people, especially youth, were also enrolled in labor camps throughout the Soviet Union. In 1944, fearing the repeat of the 1941 deportation, thousands of people, including most of the intellectuals, fled to Romania in front of the advancing Soviet troops. Some of them were later hunted and forcibly returned to Moldova, only to be later deported to Siberia.

During the 1940s and early 1950s, the city has lost a significant part of its population to Soviet (Stalinist) repressions (political imprisonments and deportations), Romanian deportation of Jews (holocaust), World War II, the Moldavian famine (1946-1947) and emigration^{[citation needed]}.

After World War II, during the period when the city was part of the former Soviet Union, there was a significant immigration from all over the USSR in a move to rebuild the country, establish a local Soviet and party apparatus and to develop the industry.

By the end of 1980s, most of the Jews of Moldova had migrated en masse to Israel. The Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking group had by then reached more than 60% of the population of the city, with Moldavian/Romanian-speaking representing under 40%. Moldavian speaking Moldavians started to move en masse into city in the late 80's, after persecuted Russians left for Russia, persecuted Ukrainains left for Ukraine, and persecuted Jews left for Israel and other countries.

[edit] Fall of communism and independence of Moldova

During 1988-1989, the most effervescent period in Moldova's recent history, Bălţi was known as the "quiet city" of Moldova. Only a couple public demonstrations took place in the city during this period, none gathered more than 15,000. Most Baltiers, including Modlavian speaking, strongly opposed the marginal drive for establishing the Romanian language as official.

The former Soviet apparatus representatives, with modernized rhetoric, have maintained the political control over the city's administration, although some reforms have been done. The municipal activity is done in Russian and Moldavian. The city also actively supports Ukrainian language and culture.

1992-2007 Permanent or work-seeking emigration to Russia, Italy, Romania, Portugal, Spain, Greece, US, Germany, Israel, France, and a low natality rate lead to 23% decrease in population, including 45% decrease among ethnic Russians, 30% ethnic Ukrainian, 15% ethnic Moldavians.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links