How Bessarabia was attached The invasion of Soviet troops on the territory of Bessarabia began on June 28, 1940. On July 3, in Chisinau, the Red Army Parade took place 70 years ago, in 1940, the Soviet Union as a result of the Molotov -Ribbentrop Pact and secret protocols annexed large territories in the center of Europe, among them - Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, the previous two decades that were part of Romania.