In 1918, Royal Romania launched an intervention against Soviet Russia, seizing Bessarabia. The Romanian troops were defeated and the Royal Government agreed to evacuate Bessarabia. This agreement was thwarted by the Austro‐German offensive against Russia in 1918 and the outbreak of the Civil War. Soviet diplomacy never recognized the fact of occupation. In 1940, when the system of international agreements based on Franco‐British dominance in Europe collapsed, the revision of the Versailles order in the Balkans began. The first step of this process was the return of Bessarabia to the USSR.