"Filled with Sense of Duty"?! On the Loyalty of the Bessarabian Public Servants in 1940

The article deals with the under-researched topic of loyalty manifested by local public servants of Bessarabia, the South-East European borderland region that during the World War Two changed its status as Romanian then Soviet territory several times. In focus is the year of 1940, when the Romanian army and administration was retreating from the region and the Soviets were entering it. The findings show that, whereas the Romanian as well as the Soviet regimes considered the lack of loyalty at the local level as their Achilles heel, they failed to overcome it. When confronted with the dilemma of "switching loyalty" toward one or another regime, the servants acted in order to ensure personal and family safety and preserve their property. Despite the risk of being charged with "betrayal", the majority of public servants stayed in Bessarabia and served both regimes.