And Quiet Flows the Dniester. Life and Death on the Romanian-Soviet border, 1918-1940
And Quiet Flows the Dniester. Life and Death on the Romanian-Soviet border, 1918-1940

Summary/Abstract: This a study on the day-to-day reality of the people living or having contact with the Romanian-Soviet border, which stood on the Dniester between 1918 and 1940. We divided those who came into contact with the border into two main categories: deserters – we have avoided terms that would have involved any kind of tourism - and locals. The first, in turn, were of several types - deserters, refugees and agents. While making a distinction between each of those mentioned, we have proved that deserters were those who fled from Romania to the Soviet Union for political reasons, out of idealism, to escape infringement consequences, sometimes for economic reasons, often to avoid military service in the Romanian army . Refugees came to Romania mainly for economic reasons, the largest wave of illegal border crossings occurring in the early '30s, when social and political conditions had suddenly deteriorated in the USSR when Stalin triggered the forced collectivization of agriculture. River crossings degenerated into violent incidents, resulting in hundreds of dead and wounded people, authorities on both sides making use of weapons, even if the Soviets had also used machine guns. Finally, we described how the locals viewed the tense border situation. Opinions converge in considering the Soviet bank as a kind of "beyond" world.

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