The Gagauzes in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 and their ethnic identity
After the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War on June 22, 1941, the Gagauzes showed patriotism and readiness to fight against the Romanian and German aggressors. From July 1941 to January 1945, about 3,000 Gagauzes were mobilised into the Red Army. Some of them served in working battalions, others fought in combat units. The participation of the Gagauzes in the Great Patriotic War has never become the topic for scholarly research before. Due to the Romanian occupation of 1918-1940, the Bessarabia Gagauzes were separated from the USSR and were not taken into account in the ALL-Union Census in 1937. Therefore, most Gagauzes who participated in the Great Patriotic War were recorded as "Bulgarians", "MoLdovans", "Ukrainians", or "Russians." After the Liberation of the Moldavian SSR and Odessa region from the Romanian and German invaders in 1944, rural household registers and other official documents began to record them as Gagauzes. 20,000 Gagauzes were mobilised into the USSR Labour army and worked in mines and metaLLurgicaL pLants, restoring war-ravaged enterprises. Many of them were awarded miLitary orders and medaLs.