on the other hand, kotovski held that a new republic would spread communist ideas into neighboring bessarabia, with a chance that even romania and the entire balkan region would be revolutionized. for the soviets the republic was to be a way for winning over bessarabians of romania and the first step towards a revolution in romania. this purpose is explained in an article of the newspaper "odessa izvestia" in 1924, in which a russian politician, vadeev says that "all the oppressed moldavians from bessarabia look at the future republic like at a lighthouse, which spreads the light of freedom and human dignity," as well as in a book published in moscow, which claimed that "once the economic and cultural growth of moldavia has begun, aristocracy-led romania will not be able to maintain its hold on bessarabia." while the creation of ethnic-based autonomous republics was a general soviet policy at that time, with the creation of the moldavian assr, the soviet union also hoped to bolster its claim to bessarabia.