Reluctant traitors: the politics of survival in Romanian-occupied Odessa

Abstract

The following article examines various types of civil collaboration in Odessa, the capital of a short-lived province of Transnistria, granted to the Kingdom of Romania in 1941 for its continuous support of Germany's war against the Soviet Union. The term ‘collaboration’ is used here to denote co-operation with the enemy against the interests of one's country, i.e. complicity with the occupying power in economic exploitation of the area, as well as participation in a puppet government and its pro-occupation propaganda efforts. Drawing on the existing academic research, as well as primary material unavailable to the general reader, this study reconstructs the war-time experience in Odessa and analyses the nature of collaboration, its extent and motivations.

Keywords:

• World War II
• Ukraine
• Odessa
• Romanian occupation
• collaboration
• resistance

Notes

 1. Interview with Lidia Romanenko, Odessa, 23 May 2003 (Interview A); Savchenko, Iz nebuttia v bezsmertya, 175.

 2. Transnistria was formally created on 19 August 1941 and remained under Romanian occupation until 16 March 1944 when the Germans took over. As a result of the Soviet offensive, Odessa was liberated on 10 April and Transnistria ceased to exist six days later.

 3. Iuliu Maniu quoted in Giurescu, Romania in the Second World War (1939–1945), 143; Odesskaya Gazeta (hereafter OG), 9 July 1942.

 4. For good English-language overviews of the Battle of Odessa, see Erickson, The Road to Stalingrad, 205, 210–11; and Axworthy, Third Axis Fourth Ally, 49–58.

 5. Odesskii Vestnik (hereafter OV), 5 May 1991.

 6. Ancel, Transnistria, 184; Dallin, 74, 214.

 7. OV, 27 April 1991; Ancel, Transnistria, 472; Dallin, Odessa, 63, 167.

 8. Kovaliov, Natsistskaia okkupatsia i kollaboratsionism v Rossii, 1941 –44, 10.

 9. Alexander Dallin's long-overdue, if at times dated, 1957 RAND Report, finally committed to press in 1998, represents the best and, to the author's knowledge, the only English-language comprehensive study of Odessa under the occupation. Since then, Jean Ancel has published his monumental three-volume analysis of the fate of the Transnistrian Jews and Romanian deportees. Furthermore, several general works have recently appeared in Romania and Moldova, such as Rodica Solovei's and Olivian Verenca's separate investigations of the cultural and socioeconomic policies of the Transnistrian government. Both studies give a somewhat sanitised view of life in Transnistria, however. A more balanced view of Odessa under the Romanian rule was offered by a contemporary, Vladimir Gridin, in his memoirs published in Odessan newspapers at the beginning of the 1990s.

10. Whereas outside of Odessa, the Romanians relied heavily on local ethnic police, in the city the attempts to mobilise residents for police duties were met with fierce disapproval (See Ancel, Transnistria, 657n426; OV, 11 July). Moreover, for obvious reasons, locals were not recruited into the Romanian Army, even though by the end of the occupation the authorities tried with very limited success to encourage Odessan youth to join pro-Vlasovite military formations (OV, 23 July 1991; Dallin, Odessa, 190; for calls in the collaborationist press see Molva, 1 July 1943, 15 February 1944, 8 April 1944, 16 March 1944, 29 March 1944).

11. Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Odesskoi Oblasti (the State Archive of Odessa Region, hereafter GAOO), 2249/2/12/4.

12. GAOO, 2359/1c/1/52.

13. Quoted in Ancel, Transnistria, 24–5.

14. GAOO, 2242/1/4/68.

15. Deletant, “The Holocaust in Transnistria”, 151.

16. See Alexianu's deposition in Rudenko, ed., Niurmbergskii Protsess nad glavnymi nemetskimi voennymi prestupnikami, 513.

17. Dallin, Odessa, 80.

18. During the occupation, 8445 Romanian nationals were posted to Transnistria. See Arhiva Naţională a Republicii Moldova (the National Archive of the Republic of Moldova, hereafter ANRM), 706/1/518 (1)/7–9; GAOO, 2249/2/12/130–4, 194–6.

19. The majority of 33 town mayors (primari) and 1363 village elders were local or Bessarabian residents as well. See GAOO, Spisok uchrezhdenii, organizatsii, predpriiatii i ih rukovoditelei, sushchestvuiushchikh v period rumynsko–nemetskoi okkupatsii 1941–1944gg. goroda Odessy, inv.#291, ll.1–19; GAOO, 2264/1/23/233 and 2242/1/677/18–196; ANMR, 706/1/518(1)/2–5; Solovei, Activitatea Guvernământului Transnistriei în domeniul social-economic şi cultural (19 august 1941–29 januarie 1944), 38–9; Verenca, Administraţia Civilă Română în Transnistria, 42–3.

20. Werth, Russia's War 1941–1945, 817.

21. The Moldavians and Bessarabians, also known as Eastern Moldovans, share their common origin with the Romanians. Inhabiting the eastern part of the Romanian principality of Moldova, widely referred to as Bessarabia, they came to identify themselves as ‘Moldovan’ by the fourteenth century. Subsequently, a small migration into the neighbouring Ukraine took place, thereby forming a settlement belt along the eastern bank of the Dniestr River. Although they maintained close cultural links with Romania, the eastern Moldovans were also influenced by Slavic cultural traditions during the Russian and Soviet domination in the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. The Ukrainian Moldovans, therefore, came to be known as Moldavians and the Bessarabian Moldovans as Bessarabians.

22. GAOO, 2242/4c/29/12; Dallin, Odessa,197.

23. GAOO, 2249/3/200/4; ANRM, 706/1/518(1)/46; OG, 6 July 1942; Molva, 12 May 1943; GAOO, 2249/1/186/1–161 and 2249/2/12/144 and 2249/3/120/1–6; ANRM, 706/1/544(1–2)/16, 272 and 706/1/518 (1)/179; Verenca, Administraţia, 84; Dallin, Odessa, 198n57.

24. Ancel, Transnistria, 223n113.

25. GAOO, Spisok uchrezhdenii… inv.#291, ll.1–9; ANRM, 706/1/518 (1)/243–244; on dress codes, see GAOO, 2357/1c/25/505; on public advertisement regulations, see OG, 4 July 1942; on general cleanliness and restrictions on sunflower seed consumption, see OG, 12 July 1942.

26. On wages, see GAOO, 2249/1/615/1–12; ANRM 706/1/37/182 and 706/1/518(1)/46 and 706/1/41/77; OG, 10 July 1942; on special discount shops, see Giurescu, Romania, 173; OV, 9 July 1991; on extra rations offered to administrators and accomplished artists and intellectuals, see Dallin, Odessa, 136n85; on salary supplements, see ANRM, 706/1/518 (1)/46; Novoe Slovo, 30 May 1943.

27. ANRM, 706/1/518 (2)/244.

28. GAOO, Prikazy, Vozzvania, Instruktsii, Ob''iavlenia, inv.#48, l.20.

29. Verenca, Administraţia, 65; Giurescu, Romania, 175.

30. ANRM, 706/1/544(2)/289–90; Verenca, Administraţia, 62–3; Giurescu, Romania, 175; Only about 11% of Transnistrian industry concentrated on manufacturing of goods (See Solovei, Activitatea Guvernământului, 64–5.

31. A conversation with V, who wished to stay anonymous, Odessa, 23 December 2004 (Interview C).

32. GAOO, Prikazy…, inv.#48, l.11 and inv.#45, l.21; OG, 30 November 1942, 5 February 1942; Verenca, Administraţia, 74.

33. Savchenko, Iz nebuttia, 377; Interview C; OV, 18 May 1991, 9 July 1991; “Dnevnik Yuria Evgen'evicha Suhodol'skogo.” 22 October 1942.

34. Antonescu quoted in Ancel, Transnistria, 24–25.

35. GAOO, 2359/1/6/5; GAOO, Prikazy…, inv.47, l.11 and inv.45, l.18.

36. OG, 26 November 1941.

37. GAOO, 2242/1/677/154; ANRM, 706/1/41/51 and 706/1/1056/99.

38. ANRM, 706/1/518 (1)/7.

39. GAOO, 2242/1/2/1–10.

40. By August 1943, Romanian-imported goods amounted to approximately 322 million lei. See ANRM, 706/1/518 (1)/148; Interview with Jacov Savchenko, Odessa, 18 May 2003 (Interview B); Savchenko, Iz nebuttia, 378; Werth, Russia at war, 818; Verenca, Administraţia, 73–4.

41. Fieldberg, How Things were Done in Odessa , 4.

42. On strategies of operation and survival under the conditions of Soviet planned economy, see Fitzpatrick, Everyday Stalinism, 62–6, 109–14; Osokina, Our Daily Bread and Kotkin, Magnetic Mountain, esp. ch.6.

43. GAOO, Prikazy…, inv.#57, l.1.

44. GAOO, 2249/2/6/61; OV, 13 July 1991.

45. See an interview with Elena Okhlamova in Slovo, 10 April 1998.

46. OV, 5 May 1991; Dallin, Odessa, 92.

47. OV, 13 July 1991, 16 July 1991; Savchenko, Iz nebuttia, 312, 315, 318–19, 325–27, 340.

48. See for example, Smekh, 3 May 1942, 24 May 1942, 12 July 1942 and OG, 8 July 1942.

49. Werth, Russia at War, 816; ANRM, 706/1/518(2)/195–202.

50. GAOO, 2249/1/209/1–40; OG, 5 February 1942, 1 July 1942; OV, 18 June 1991; Vechernyaya Odessa, 4 July 1995.

51. GAOO, 2249/1/229/4.

52. See for example, Novoe Slovo, 25 November 1942, 17 March 1943, 5 December 1943; OG, 1 July 1942, 4 July 1942, 6 July 1942, 23 August 1942, 27 August 1942; Molva, 4 April 1943, 30 March 1944.

53. OV, 11 July 1991.

54. OV, 12 January 2000; Dallin, Odessa, 157.

55. GAOO, 2249/1/9/58–62; Novoe Slovo, 27 October 1943; the institutes of higher learning remained open until autumn 1943, when they were requisitioned by the military authorities and some were destroyed by the retreating enemy in April 1944 (See Vechernyaya Odessa, 4 July 1995).

56. ANRM, 706/1/482/145; GAOO, 2249/1/204/10–25 and 2249/1/165/29–46 and 2249/1/205/1–32 and 2274/1/93/3; Solovei, Activitatea Guvernământului,102; Verenca, Administraţia, 85.

57. Solovei, Activitatea Guvernământului, 103, 106; Verenca, Administraţia, 25, 82.

58. GAOO, Prikazy…, inv.#45, l.17; Teachers' licenses were approved after thorough checks by the Directorate of Culture. See Dallin, Odessa, 144.

59. GAOO, 2249/3/29/15 and 2249/1/236/2–3.

60. See personal files of several university professors in GAOO, 2249/2/12/194–5 and 2249/3/29/1–198.

61. GAOO, 2249/2/12/27–32, 41–3.

62. See for instance, OG, 2 July 1942, 4 July 1942, 7 July 1942; Molva, 13 February 1943, 1 April 1943, 7 May 1943, 4 April 1944.

63. OG, 3 December 1942.

64. Vestnik Regiona, 5 September 1998.

65. Dallin, Odessa, 122, 188.

66. Depending on expertise and the number of dependants, a base salary could be raised by 80%, while 30 years of academic experience could secure a 90% increase reaching up to 800–1000 RKKS a month. Moreover, some academics even applied for grants in order to continue their scientific research (see GAOO, 2249/2/12/109, 199; on labour exemptions, see GAOO, 2249/1/1/33; on pensions see Verenca, Administraţia, 79–80; on academic salaries see, GAOO, 2249/2/12/191–3, 198; on exchange programmes, see GAOO, 2249/1/408/1–128 and 2249/1/192/3–66; OG, 6 November 1942, 5 July 1942; Vestnik Regiona, 5 September 1998).

67. Savchenko, Iz nebuttia, 288.

68. Slava i Chest', 11 October 1997; Dallin, Odessa, 123, 150, 233, 241.

69. GAOO, 2249/2/12/10, 53; Dallin, Odessa, 123, 145.

70. On Romanian pedagogic cadres, see ANRM, 706/1/518(1–2)/178, 184 and 706/1/482/146; on mandatory anti-Communist lessons, see ANRM, 706/1/518(2)/245 and 706/1/544(2)/254, 272; on religion in schools, see GAOO, 2249/1/165/10–14; Dallin, Odessa, 165–6.

71. Interview A and B; mass meetings of any kind, except weddings, christenings and funerals, were prohibited and punished by fines and hard-labour sentences (see the decree on the state of emergency in OG, 3 January 1943).

72. Dallin, Odessa, 129; see a report on workers blasting a train in Rossiiskii Gosudartvennyi Archiv Politicheskoi Istorii (the Russian State Archive of Political History, hereafter RGASPI), 69/1/757/171.

73. See Savchenko, Iz nebuttia; just before his execution, the leader of the Odessan underground, Molodtsov (Badaev), was offered a pardon if he asked the Romanian queen for mercy. To this he retorted: ‘We are on our land and are not going to ask the enemy for forgiveness!’ This incident was confirmed to have taken place by Molodtsov's cellmate (See OV, 2 July 1991).

74. Savchenko, Iz nebuttia, 327; by 1943, attacks on Romanian soldiers became more frequent. In May 1943, Romanian intelligence services reported on the attempted murder of Governor Aleksianu. See RGASPI, 69/1/755/121 and 69/1/757/215.

75. ANRM, 706/1/544(1–2)/15, 251 and 706/1/518(1)/35–37 and 706/1/482/78; RGASPI, 69/1/757/214; see also summaries of reports in Ancel, Transnistria, 564n82, 642n371, 675n494, 679n512, 681n516, 686n534, 702–703n590, 728–729n677; See also, Krasnaya Zvezda, 18 October 2001.

76. Interview B and Interview with the curator of the Odessa Military-Historical Museum, Novomir Tsarikhin, Odessa, 10 August 2005 (Interview D); Savchenko, Iz nebuttia, 212, 216, 220, 284–6, 288–9.

77. ANRM, 706/1/518(1)/31; Interview D.

78. OV, 23 July 1991.

79. According to one source, in the course of the occupation, ‘Transnistrian’ partisans eliminated 189 ‘traitors’. See Slava i Chest', 11 October 1997; Matveev, “Nelegal'nyi rezident NKVD v Odesse soobshchaet…”.

80. Savchenko, Iz nebuttia, 309.

81. OV, 25 July 1991.

82. Slovo, 10 April 1998.

83. OV, 20 July 1991.

84. Those who had some position of status or wealth before the Revolution.

85. GAOO, Spisok uchrezhdenii…, inv.#291, l.23; Also see for example, GAOO, 2249/2/12/90; Dallin, Odessa, 123.

86. An Odessan historian notes the apolitical attitudes of city residents during the Civil War and insists that Odessites greeted both the February and October revolutions not with political battles, but with very tangible bets, involving large sums of money, as to which rulers would manage to stay in power longer. See Shkliaev, Odessa v Smutnoe vremya, 3.

87. Quoted in Dallin, Odessa, 91.

88. Describing the Axis military fiascos after Stalingrad as mere setbacks, the collaborationist press changed its tone only when the front moved dangerously close to Odessa, and the calls for support and sacrifice promptly replaced the laudations of the Germano-Romanian military might. See for instance, OG, 22 October 1942, Molva 1 April 1944, 8 April 1944.

89. Dallin, Odessa, 176.

90. As overheard by Gridin, OV, 27 April 1991; similar attitudes were observed by Savchenko, Iz nebuttia, 311.