Activities of Romanian Intelligence in Southern Ukraine in documents of the National Archive of the Republic of Moldova

Abstract

The article analyzes documents of the National Archives of the Republic of Moldova, which highlight the activities of Romanian special services, and in particular, Romanian military intelligence in Southern Ukraine during World War II. It has been discovered that the National Archives of the Republic of Moldova store documents of the Special Intelligence Service, as well as 2^nd (intelligence) departments of units of the Romanian army, in particular, intelligence reports prepared on the basis of interviews with Soviet prisoners of war, reports of agents, etc. These intelligence documents contain information on composition, condition and armament of Soviet units and divisions, technical characteristics of weapons and military equipment, the moral and psychological state of servicemen of the Red Army and the local population, organization of everyday life.

Intelligence reports allow us to assess the effectiveness of Romanian intelligence and the accuracy of the intelligence data on the basis of which the Romanian command developed plans for military operations. In this context, it is important to compare this data with data from Soviet sources.

Of interest are the materials of interrogations of Soviet saboteurs and spies, which provide an opportunity to obtain information about their level of preparation, ethnic and social origin, tasks, equipment. The documents contain interesting information about the location and activities of Soviet intelligence schools.

A significant part of studied documents is devoted to the Battle of Odesa (August 8 – October 16, 1941). The documents also contain valuable information about the Soviet underground, as well as the activities of Ukrainian nationalist organizations. These documents make it possible to assess the potential of Romanian intelligence and its contribution to the conduct of military operations. It was determined that mentioned documents allow to investigate the hitherto unknown pages of the Second World War in the South of Ukraine.